Perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself. Perhaps I'm thinking that the team might channel their inner June of 2009 Rockies and be practically effective against the sub-.500 Detroit Tigers, Offseason Big Spenders (TM). Prince Fielder earned hisself a nice large $214M contract for the next 9 years, and he's rewarding the Tigers thus far with a .884 OPS and 10 whole home runs! I kid, I'd love to have that production out of a non-Carlos-Gonzalez player. Well, Dexter Fowler and Michael Cuddyer count, too. Actually, the Offense is still OK, so I guess this is a bad example.
Pitching though. Pitching will be a blast. The Rockies have a good shot to beat up on Casey Crosby in the first game of the series. Casey's rocking a healthy 9.35 ERA, striking out 5 batters to 9 walks over 9 innings in 2 starts. That game is totally winnable. We'll find a way to lose it. It'll be really exciting, nailing him for 6 runs in the first 2 innings and then losing 11-8.
Game 2 is also technically winnable. I mean, for age 23, Rick Porcello is hardly as bad as his career 4.62 ERA and season 5.28 ERA would suggest. He does have "Aaron Cook at his Peak" strikeout-to-walk numbers along with his career 52% groundball percentage. We'll totally find a way to beat him - especially since Rick Porcello is actually Doug Fister (I barely know 'er). I just know it. And then we won't and the sweep will seem inevitable and we'll say things like "screw your sweep!" on Sunday and then...
Game 3 is Justin Verlander against Jeremy Guthrie, so we're totally going to lose like 18-0. Well, we tried, right? Max Scherzer is actually starting this game and not Verlander, but the Rockies' Sunday squad will totally make him look like Verlander (well that and I heard that Scherzer will be growing a goatee for that start).
I laugh, I kid, we give the Rockies a hard time but this should be an entertaining series. I remember last time we went to Detroit. George Frazier wouldn't shut up about sneaking into old Tigers' Stadium and looking for ghosts, and Drew Goodman was all like "Yeah, that's great George. 2-1 count to Hawpe and -" "Yeah, we could go ghost hunting! Let's come back tonight!"
Ghost hunting.
Possible Starters:
Friday, June 15, 2012 @ 5:05PM MT
Jeff Francis vs Casey Crosby
Saturday, June 16, 2012 @ 2:05PM MT
Christian Friedrich vs Doug Fister
Sunday, June 17, 2012 @ 11:05AM MT
Jeremy Guthrie vs Max Scherzer