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Welcome to the morning Rockpile, where the content is pulled from other sources and the bullpen doesn’t matter!
Rockies pay visit to Scully's booth, gift in hand | MLB.com
The Rockies are in the midst of a weekend series against the Dodgers and it will be the last time Vin Scully calls a Rockies game. I know that there’s a small minority of non-Giants fans who don’t appreciate Scully’s style, but there is a reason teams like the Rockies are going out of their way to honor him like this.
Vin Scully has called Rockies/Dodger games for 24 seasons. The Rockies came into existence in his 44th season of broadcasting.
— Ted Chalfen (@TheGhostofMarv) September 23, 2016
If you have MLB.tv or MLB Extra Innings and you aren’t listening to Vin Scully this weekend. You’re doing it wrong.
Starting at bottom, Gray rises to top of rotation | MLB.com
Despite making ill advised hip-hop references in the title, Tracy Ringolsby has a great interview piece with Jon Gray after his career-best start last weekend. There’s a lot of goodness in there but one quote in particular stands out. Talking about a rough first inning in his third start of the season, Gray had this to say:
"As I was backing up home plate following the double, I was like, 'Oh, I'm gonna be on a plane to [Triple-A] Albuquerque in the morning, so I might as well have fun while I'm out here tonight.'" Gray recalled. "Then I just started punching everybody out. It was great. I started to believe. I thought, 'Why don't I take this attitude out there every time?'''
We can talk all day long about the results on the field and how players execute pitches (and we will, later today) but this shows that we can’t underestimate the impact the so-called soft factors have on a player’s performance.