It’s tough to see. 
Losing to the most hated team in the division (at least right now) is a
horrible thing to witness.  And to
top it off, they took it to our ace as well.

It seem that the boys in purple are heading down a path that
I never want to see.  Up till now,
the Rockies haven’t faced a team that had a winning record or has really shown
that they are a team worth fearing. 
But now that the Giants are in town, we throw in the towel.  It’s nice to see the Rox win, but if we
can’t pull it out against the top teams in the bigs, they are in some serious
trouble.

Our much heralded offensive capabilities were nowhere to be
seen in the last two games. 
Giants’ pitchers held the 3-4 hitters of Cargo and Tulo to 1-14.  I fear that these two are trying to hard
to live up to their unbelievable seasons last year and are pushing to
hard.  Let the ball come to you
boys.

Ubaldo was on the mound last night and innings two through
five looked great.  However, inning
one is what did us in.  I chalk
this up to him being on the disabled list and not facing live hitting.  No concern coming from your humble
blogger on this front. 

Look for a great pitchers duel tonight as Matt Cain and the
DLR toe the rubber for the Giants and the Rockies.  Look for DLR to continue his strong start (2-0, 3.18 ERA)
and keep the team in this one. 
Cain is going to be a tough nut to crack, but if the boys are patient, I
think they can pull it off.

On a roster note, Ian Stewart is being sent down to the
minors to get “back in sync” as manager Jim Tracy says.  I’m not sure what to make of Stew.  The man has some tremendous talent, but
can’t seem to put it together on the diamond at the big league level.  This will bear some watching.

Sorry for the newspaper like feel of this one.  Just wanted to get something out there
for you folks.  Feel free to
comment and add your voice to the discussion.

Peace,

Bleeding Purple

How hot are the boys in purple right now?  I have never seen a Rockies team that
is off to as hot a start as these guys right now!  Tulo has really found his swing and Cargo is doing great
things.  Even John Herrera is
hitting bombs! (Congrats on the second career jack yesterday!)

Tulo went 10 for 16 over the Mets series with a homer in
each of the four, include one each in the double header on Thursday.  Looks like he is continuing his super
hot September here in April.  Kevin
Keegan, a friend on Facebook, calculated that he is on pace to put 94 baseballs
over the fence.  Doubt he can keep
that up, but he’s going send out a lot. 
Barry Larkin on Baseball tonight has started calling him “Bad Dude”.  Lots of talk about him being the MVP.

Carlos Gonzalez hit his first homer on Thursday, which is
shocking only in the fact that it’s so late for his first.  I don’t think that it’s going to affect
his overall totals.  He is just
going to need a few 4 home run games! 

On a somewhat baseball related note, good to see Scott and
Ted from the old Rockiescast back on the air.  Go check them out on dasbrodeo.com.  Loving the stuff so far guys!

That’s it for now everyone.

Peace,

Bleeding Purple

So we are just over 24 hours away from first pitch of the
season and 48 hours away from the Rox taking the field.  And for the first time that I can
remember, the Rockies are starting here in Denver!  Unfortunately, I’m unable to go.  Boo to work and lack of ticket/beer fundage!

Now to the meat of this article: Here are a few storylines
that I’m going to be following this year. 
They’re significantly important that I think you should be too.

·          Can Troy Tulowitzki stay healthy for a full
season? 

o   Tulo
was unreal down the stretch last year. 
With a September that had stats that would have made average players
year, Tulo needs to start off strong. 
Where he goes, the Rockies follow.

·          Can Carlos Gonzales improve his road splits?

o   Huge
homers, fleet footed steals and amazing catches were the norm for the young
superstar.  Cargo shocked not only
us in Denver but also the national media. 
The road splits for him were disturbing: almost a hundred point lower in
average and over one hundred points lower for on base percentage.  Needs big improvement here.

·          Will Chris Iannetta prove that he is an everyday
starter?

o   Iannetta
has shown flashes of brilliance both in the bigs and down in Colorado
Springs.  More often, he loses his
starting job to someone that the Rockies have picked up in the offseason.  His defense is never in question.  What is, is if he can stay consistent
at the dish.  What I would like to
see from him is this: .265 avg, 15 home runs, and at least 60 RBIs.  This may be unrealistic, but here’s to
hoping.

These are three of the biggest things that I see affecting
the Rockies this year.  Anyone who
follows any team could go on forever about small things that could bring down a
club. 

Please feel free to add what you think are the major issues for
the Rox this year.

Peace out,

Bleeding Purple

Well, it’s getting close to the time that we’ve been looking
forward to all winter long!  Spring
training has arrived and games start in just a few days. 

The Kid Rox seem poised for another great year.  Dan O’Dowd and the front office crew
have done a great job in the offseason. 
Signing Tulo to the HUGE ten-year extension and getting Cargo to sign a
seven-year deal was exactly what the team needed to get them started off right.  The DLR was re-signed as well, with a
few more deals done.  The small
deal I like the most is John Maine. 
He is a legitimate Major League starter and will contend for the fifth
spot in the rotation.  I’m going to
get it out there and say he will be the fifth starter!

The new spring training home of the Rox and D-Backs, Salt
River Fields at Talking Stick, looks absolutely amazing!!!  Watched Rockies all access last night
and let me tell you, I wish that it were my spring training home!!!  This place is going to help the boys a
great deal and maybe break the habit of slow starts in April!

On a sad note, the boys from Rockiescast were force to
chance the name of their blog.  Now
I have no one to listen to while playing playstation baseball!  If any one knows where they have gone,
please let me know!

Well, that’s all I got for today.  Hopefully I will be writing far more often then last season!

Still Bleeding Purple,

Mynok,

I’ll get it out of the way.  Yes, it was a blown call.  Yes, Armando Galarraga should have had a perfect game.  But before you try and crucify Jim
Joyce, give the man a chance.  He
hurriedly admitted that he had blown the call.  That took some serious balls.  Also give some credit to Galarraga and the Tigers.  They way they handle the situation was
impeccable.  Galarraga turned in
the lineup to Joyce who, with tears in his eyes, shook his hand, slapped him on
the back and called a great game behind the plate.  Let us bury this forever.

Now to the real reason I’m trying to stretch my journalistic
chops.  One of my all time favorite
players just announced his retirement. 
Ken Griffey Jr. will go down in history as the greatest player to not
play in a world series.  With a
career spanning over 21 years, he has stats that should place him in the hall
of fame on his first ballot in five years.

I just can’t say enough of how much I enjoyed watching Jr.
Griffey play.  When I was a kid, I
would try and mimic his way upright stance so that I could jack tape measure
bombs too.  He is one of the
players that I never got to see play and the only one that I would make a
pointed effort to go see. 

Thanks for all the great times Junior.  You will be sorely missed.  Next stop, Cooperstown.

Much Love,

Bleeding Purple

I’ve got to give it up to Troy Tulowitzki.  The man sure knows how to make a statement.  And he’s doing it in two ways.  The first is a fashion statement.  Now, I never thought of Tulo as drop
dead gorgeous, but lately I’ve fallen in love with his hair.  His mullet is starting to reach some
epic proportions!  I’m starting to
feel like it’s the decade of my birth again!  All he needs now is some of those crazy old school Oakley’s
and maybe a Chester the molester mustache.  That would totally complete the look.

Now to the second statement that Tulo’s making.  The reason that he is growing this homage
to the 1980′s is because he is supporting the Rockies “Wins for Kids” program.  As long as the Rockies fans continue to
donate, Tulo’s hair will continue to grow.

The third way that he’s making a statement (yeah, I know I said
two at the beginning) is on the diamond. 
You know, the reason we actually watch the game?! Tulo has an 11 game
hitting streak, sending balls over the fence with much more regularity, and of
course his defense is still ridiculously amazing!!!

Well, that’s all for now kids.

Much love,

Bleeding Purple

I just found out that one of my favorite Rox from the 2007
World Series run will be back in the Rockies organization once he passes a
physical.  Kazuo Matsui signed a Minor
League deal to play with the Colorado Springs Sky Sox after he was released
from the Houston Astros.  Hopefully
his back that has given him trouble will heal up and he’ll be able to give the
Rox a solid back up infielder.

In more new from the Minors, the Rockies first pick in the
2009 draft, Tyler Matzek, made is first professional pitching appearance for the Ashville
Tourist going five innings allowing only one hit.  He also struck out five and walk four hitters.

It was really good to see the Rockies just tear apart the
Royals after a few rough series.  Going
crazy on Zac Grienke was sweet too. 
But the greatest moment for me over the weekend (and that of Rockiescast
guys Scott and Ted) was Jeff Francis getting his first win in what seemed like
forever. 

Next up is the Diamondbacks.  Here is to the Rox putting a spanking on ‘em.

Much Love,

Bleeding Purple

I’m sooooo frustrated with the Rockies right now.  Why is it that we can put up a great
showing against the good teams, but when we go up against someone who is
struggling, aka the Cubs, we can never show up?  We give up a lead early on, Cookie monster pitches a great
game and our vaunted line up can produce runs in a pretty hitter friendly park.

Todd Helton has been doing well of late.  But what I want to see is everyone in
the line up hitting on all cylinders. 
Carlos Gonzalez is having a great year, but it seem like he can’t be
consistently great.  It’s
understandable because he is still a young player.  Dexter Fowler is slowly starting to live to his potential.   I don’t expect much from the bat
of Clint Barmes, just some ridiculous defensive and he has be delivering on
that.

The guy that I think needs to really step it up is Ian
Stewart.  Such rockstar
potential.  Now, I will say that
his defense has really taken a step up. 
I just want to see him really be more consistent at the dish.  His power numbers are awesome, just his
ability to produce the key knock.

Some thoughts for the day.

Much love,

Bleeding Purple

As I listen to Ted and Scott from Rockiescast, I’ve come to
realize that I haven’t been updating the blog at all.

The Rockies have been ok the first month and a half of the
season.  As I write, they are 19-18
for the year and are finally starting to hit their stride.  Miguel Olivo has come to the Rox from
the Kansas City Royals and has just been on a tear.  I’ve never seen a Rockies catcher hit the ball so well and play
so amazing on defense.  We’ve had
our fair share of good defenseive catchers, but never one who has been such a
rockstar at the dish.  That is a
very nice addition to the line up.

Not much else, just trying to get back into things
here.  More to come later in the
week.

Much love, Peace out

Bleeding Purple.