Saturday Rockpile: Baseball is Here! (Kind Of)

The day in which the Rockies finally play a real live baseball game is finally upon us! The Rockies will take on the Arizona Diamondbacks (who lost 7-6 to the Giants yesterday) at the brand new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick. I think we'll throw up a game thread a little while before first pitch, so come talk some baseball (and experience all of the other zaniness that occurs during game threads). I know that I don't have anything better to do personally, as there's about a foot of fresh snow on the ground here. Anyway, on to the news...

Baseball Prospectus | Baseball ProGUESTus: Home Runs and Humidors: Is There a Connection?
Alan Nathan wrote a piece for BP about the effect that the humidor at Coors Field has on the longball. Just by looking at the basic home run stats, one could assume that the chamber has had a negative influence on homers (268 in 2001, the year before the humidor was installed, which was tops in MLB to 187 in 2010, 6th in the league). However, the using the argument of the supposed reduction in PED usage throughout the game and its contribution to the home run's demise could also be seen as valid. So, the author of the article examines things such as the trajectory of flyballs before and after the installation of the humidor. There's really good stuff in there; I urge you to check it out.

Rockies' CarGo has set position: left - The Denver Post
As was mentioned in the comments of yesterday's Rockpile, Jim Tracy has come to the conclusion that Carlos Gonzalez will play left field and only left field in 2011. As Troy Renck hilariously said via Twitter, this will help the Rockies' outfield defense immensely (assuming Dexter Fowler is the everyday centerfielder), as there is a ton of ground to cover.

Twitter / @Colorado Rockies: #Rockies lineup 2/26 at ARI
The Rockies' lineup for this afternoon has been posted. No Todd Helton (as he'll be sitting in favor of Ty Wigginton), but other than that it looks very much like what we can expect to see on Opening Day. I like Seth Smith batting second if he's able to cut down on the strikeouts and returns to pre-2010 ASB form.

Go Rockies!