Friday Rockpile: Big Trouble in Little Texas

While the Rockies sit at home this postseason, organization gearing up for the upcoming free agency departure wave to kick off the offseason, credit must be given to the Giants' Juan Uribe, Javier Lopez, Ramon Ramirez and Jeremy Affeldt and to the Rangers' Darren Oliver and hitting coach Clint Hurdle (plus any qualifying World Series participants I may have forgotten). These lucky former Rockies have a chance to go all the way. Ramirez, Affeldt and Hurdle of course were all a part of the 2007 team that made it to the World Series themselves. As my pillar of hope, the Rangers, have taken a beating through the first two games, I have been spending my time spending more thoughtful energy on these guys than on the games themselves.

There are a lot of different ways to consider thinking about World Series winner preferences. While Purple Row seems to have a majority backing the Rangers, there are some folks here placing their allegiance at the feet of our rival Giants for a variety of reasons.

I tend to consider three different factors when choosing between teams to root for in the post-season when the Rockies are unavailable.
- How much do I like the team?
- What is their World Series history?

The first category is obvious. Not only do I prefer the Rangers franchise to the Giants franchise, I like their current players a lot more too.

When it comes to the second, there are a couple angles to take. The Giants franchise has averaged a World Series win every 21.4 years through 2009, while the Rangers' world series appearance this year is the first in their 50 year existence. That said, the Giants have never won a world series while in San Francisco, and the Rangers and Giants are both members of the longest droughts in terms of World Series wins.

At the very least, I can say I'm satisfied that if you look at the time frame in which both these teams existed, a Giants win would still be a fresh spot of parity considering how close we were to a Phillies/Yankees rematch. Even though I really, really don't like the Giants, they're a more interesting winner than the other two. Now that the Rangers are in serious trouble, that may be all the consolation I can muster for myself.

Not a lot of Rockies related info out there from yesterday sans more discussion about Carlos Gonzalez' NL Outstanding Player award. However, a Rockpile without any links is similarly cheap to sausage or Zelda games without links, so here's a couple to get everyone started. Tracy Ringolsby of FOXSports considers why Clint Hurdle makes a good managerial candidate for the Pittsburgh Pirates, while Michael S. Schmidt of the New York Times offers news on Jose Guillen's association with human growth hormone.

Off-topic discussion - click me!