4/29/09 - COL 7, SD 5 - "Redemption For a Day"

First, a thank you to my new audience and especially those of you who have left a comment. I sure appreciate you all coming by.

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Today we spelled redemption A-A-R-O-N. And T-R-O-Y and C-H-R-I-S and H-U-S-T-O-N, for that matter. (And, hell, M-E-L-O too, as the Nuggets escaped the first round of the NBA playoffs for the first time since Mike Harkey was a Rockie.)

When your team is 7-12 sometimes all you’ve got to hang your hat on is the hope that some of your important players are severely underperforming. Of course, it helps if that’s actually true. And Aaron Cook, Troy Tulowitzki, Chris Iannetta and Huston Street, four important cogs in Denver’s hopes for contention, have ranged from frustrating to disappointing to awful in April. Cook and Street had scuffled, and Iannetta and Tulo were below the Mendoza Line.

Not all of these things changed in one fell swoop today, but it began to look like they actually could. Sometimes a track record isn’t enough – you’ve gotta have tangible evidence that guys are going to start playing good baseball. Well, at the dish, Tulo’s got three hits the last two nights, Iannetta had two hits today, including a homer that just about took down the Tornadough stand on the concourse. And on the hill, Cook’s sinker worked to the tune of seven strong innings, and Street fanned the side in by far his best outing in black and silver.

Sometimes you just have to have faith in guys. Give them the chance to reward it. It makes a win like today’s all the more satisfying when you add the feeling of knowing the worm would turn all along.

8-12 is the record for April, and it’s not good. Earlier this month I said that any win total below 9 would be distressing. But considering the way this month closed – with a homestand that easily could have been 6-0, with the lower half of the order starting to find itself, with the ace of the staff finally looking like it – there’s more reason for optimism with an 8-12 mark than I thought there would be. More importantly, as today’s game began I knew we were going to win it, an odd feeling of confidence considering the way this April unfolded, but a feeling of calm nonetheless, one that not even Matt Belisle could shake.

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If the Denver Nuggets were a baseball team, here’s the lineup I imagine they’d feature:

1. Dahntay Jones, CF – a pest, and as such the perfect leadoff man
2. Anthony Carter, 2B – the Clint Barmes of the Nuggets
3. Carmelo Anthony, SS – smooth footwork, killer instinct
4. Kenyon Martin, 1B – the Nuggets version of Todd Helton, crafty veteran leader
5. Chris Andersen, LF – because you gotta have the Birdman
6. JR Smith, RF – the streaky home-run threat, Brad Hawpe in a tanktop and shorts
7. Nene, 3B – plenty of power, but he’d kinda be a disaster defensively, huh?
8. Linas Kleiza, C – solid talent but frustrating to watch
9. Chauncey Billups, P – he’s the guy you want with the ball in his hand, a true ace

4/6/09 - COL 8, @ ARI 9 - "First Impressions"

It felt like an old-school Rockies game today, one of those where unless the Rox took a 10-run lead you felt absolutely certain it wasn’t going to last. And, sure enough, it didn’t, as for every punch the Rockies threw today, the Arizona Diamondbacks had a counterpunch. The only bizarre thing about it was that it took place in Phoenix and not in Denver.

Aside from the stinkbomb from Aaron Cook and one bad pitch thrown by Jason Grilli, though, today was pretty much everything a Rockies fan could ask for. Can Troy Tulowitzki get out to a hot start? He crushed a first-pitch bomb off Brandon Webb in the fourth. Is Chris Iannetta worthy of all the hype we’re giving him? His 440-foot shot off Webb immediately following Tulo’s jack could serve to answer that question. Can Seth Smith hit in the bigs? He tied the game with a homer – off a lefty, no less – in the seventh.

There were plenty of thrills at the plate, and as many cringe-worthy moments on the mound. These are the Rockies I remember.

We’ve all got pretty high expectations for our Rox this year, mostly as a response to everyone else expecting so little. The consensus seems to be a fourth place finish and something in the neighborhood of 72 wins. This sounds preposterous to all but the most pessimistic Rockies fans. The 74 wins last season were a result of injury and underperformance, not a representation of that team’s talent level. And yes, losing Matt Holliday hurts, but if you look at all the other spots on the roster where the Rockies figured to make gains on last year’s performance, it really doesn’t seem unreasonable to figure that the team can get better.

This Rockies roster, as presently constructed, doesn’t necessarily feel like a playoff team to me. The Dodgers are probably better, and the Diamondbacks and Giants almost certainly have better starting pitching. But with a few breaks – and I’m not asking for anything more outlandish than passable performance from the rotation’s back end, a comeback season for Todd Helton, and improved outfield defense – this could be a really fun summer.

There was a lot to like today. There was also a lot not to like – first and foremost, apparently I’m blacked out of watching the Rockies in HD here in Wyoming (if any Dish Network people can explain this to me, please leave me a comment, because when I called customer support, ‘Summer’ and ‘James’ from Mumbai sure couldn’t). Also, Jeff Huson couldn’t stop gushing about how awesome it was to be broadcasting the game from down at dugout level – dude, you played in the bigs, act like you’ve been in a dugout before! (This is not the last time I’ll gripe about the Rockies TV broadcast team, believe me.) Also, I hate losing to the damn Diamondbacks and will probably wake up in a cold sweat tonight imagining Chad Tracy waiting on a hanging slider from a faceless hurler wearing purple pinstripes.

But I remember last year, winning the opener in St. Louis but looking like crap in the process, and then promptly losing the next five. So I’m not overreacting tonight, not gnashing my teeth over Tracy’s deciding homer off Grilli. Nope, I’m ready to see what Ubaldo Jimenez takes to the bump tomorrow and hoping to see more of Ian Stewart at second base.

Thanks for reading. I’ll find a groove with this thing as we go along.