Former Rockies pitcher and current media wonk Mark Knudson doesn't seem to really understand what "off the record" means, but I'm not sure if whoever in the front office let him in on the Rockies financial laundry had many smats either in divulging. At any rate, we know from this article that deferred money to Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, which was supposed to be coming out from a fund that still had $30 million in it last November when ColoradoBiz came out with their article discussed in this FanPost from January, is once again coming direct from the Rockies primary revenue streams.
Knudson doesn't mention the impact this would have on signing our first round draft pick, Tyler Matzek, but if we were hoping for extra revenue to be pushed into that pot, well it doesn't sound likely. Meanwhile, I'm sure a sales glitch that leaves three sections of Coors Field's more expensive seats empty for one of the easiest sellouts of the season on Friday night probably doesn't help the bottom line either. I think bigger than the Cubs series which would come close to selling out regardless of whether the Rockies were competitive or not, we'll have a big litmus test of how many Rockies fans are back on the bandwagon starting tomorrow night with the Pirates.
Denver Post:
De La Rosa's objective: rebounding on mound - The Denver Post
Hammel isn't flat-out sharp - The Denver Post
Renck: Games vs. Giants will seal deal - The Denver Post
In the first two links, one from Patrick Saunders on where tonight's starter Jorge De La Rosa is mentally, and one note on where yesterday's starter Jason Hammel is mechanically, you have a picture of two bottom of the rotation starters that could be going either way for the Rockies for the rest of the season. The last link from Troy Renck on the importance of Jason Marquis and Aaron Cook to the Rockies chances, shows that two middle of the rotation starters are sort of in the same boat. So for those that weren't doing the math at home, we have four out of five starters who are gigantic question marks for the last fifty games of the season.
It's not necessarily a bad thing, because all four have some really nice answers among the possibilities, but it does feel a little like Monty Hall's just waiting for the donkey to come out of door number three.