Posts tagged ‘Colorado Rockies’

Another week, another re-post of an awesome video. This installment will be hard to top.

Brett over at Tedquarters.net has done a great service to humanity: he has brought Carlos Gonzalez’s Taco Bell ad to the web!  I assume that Brett has already been named an Honorary Ted for his work.

You can watch the video below if your browser is cool enough to handle that. If it doesn’t display, check it out here.

Oh, and Carlos: thanks for providing today’s cheap tacos.  Has anyone ever told you that you’re ridiculously good at baseball?

I promise that the Rockiescast blog isn’t turning into a really ineffective marketing tool for The Baseball Show.  Friend of the ‘Cast Ted Berg passed this episode along to us recently, and I figured it was worth showing to fellow Rockies fans.  It’s Ted’s interview with Melvin Mora during the Rockies’ recent trip to Citi Field.  In it, Melvin recounts his time with the Mets a decade ago with vivid clarity.  Granted, most Major Leaguers probably can probably recollect all kinds of things about their early days in the Bigs.  But I think Mora’s words here paint him as a very down-to-earth guy and a loyal teammate, even after all these years of life in the Majors.

And of course, it’s worth noting that while this interview was being conducted in the Rockies’ dugout, Jason Giambi was blasting Madonna in the clubhouse.

If the video below doesn’t display in your browser, you can check it out here.

Scott and I appeared on today’s edition of SNY.tv’s The Baseball Show to help give Mets fans an idea of what they can expect to see out of the Rockies.  Basically, it amounts to an episode of Rockiescast in a much, MUCH more concise format, plus you get to look at Ted Berg! See for yourself:

Carlos tiene sus tacos aquí.

CarGo’s NL ranks as of Sunday morning:

Avg - 1st (.320)
Triples - T-6th (6)
HR - T-6th (24)
RBI - 6th (74)
SB - 13th (17)

He may have been snubbed by all-star voters and managers, but it is going to be tough for CarGo’s season to go unnoticed when it comes time for MVP voting. Do I think he’ll win? Not likely, but I expect to see his name among those receiving votes. The stats speak for themselves, but they don’t tell the whole story of how good CarGo has been this season.

CarGo has 193 at-bats this season while batting first in the order. That’s 47% of his total at-bats coming from a spot in the order that is guaranteed to come up to the plate at least once per game with nobody on base. The rest of the at-bats in that spot are not incredibly likely to have runners on base, with the bottom of the order and pitcher’s spot hitting in front of him. I suppose this next statement is open for debate, but I believe if CarGo had been hitting in the three-spot all year, he would be leading the league in RBI in addition to his league-leading batting average.

He hits, he runs, but can he field? Carlos has one error in 198 opportunities this season while playing all 3 outfield positions (not at the same time, thought he might just be that good). He’s also had a few opportunities to show off his arm, proving it to be both strong and accurate.

Carlos Gonzalez has proven to be such a great all-around player that it is incredibly easy to forget that this is the 24-year-old’s first full season in the majors. If he continues to get better, which he should, he’s going to have to buy a new house just to store all of his future hardware - the Silver Slugger awards, Gold Gloves, batting titles, homerun crowns, all-star jerseys, an MVP award or two, and hopefully a few shiny rings. He’s got as good a chance as anyone to win the first Triple Crown since Carl Yastrzemski won it in the AL in 1967.

It wouldn’t be fair to praise CarGo this much without pointing out some areas that could use some improvement (we love constructive criticism here at Rockiescast, just as long as it’s not directed at us). As we’ve seen all too often with great Rockies hitters, the home/road splits leave a lot to be desired, though you’d never know it by watching this series at Pittsburgh. I wouldn’t mind seeing him walk a little more either, but it’s hard to take more pitches when it seems like you crush the ball every time you swing the bat.

Way back in April, we put out a call for examples of creative fan support.  We know Rockies fans are awesome, so it follows that we should have some awesome ideas.  And oh, fellow Rockies fans have not disappointed.  It’s worth reminding everyone that this happened.  I still can’t help but laugh out loud every time I see those pictures.

Our latest submission comes from Rockiescast’s resident Hall of Famer, Meredith.  Take a look at the graphic she designed for a T-shirt for herself and a couple of friends.  It’s suggestive, it’s got a handsome face on it, and it reminds us of the awesome things Seth Smith can do with a bat late in a ballgame.  What more could you ask for?  Perhaps one of your own?  Use the comments section to let us know what you think of the design.  If the people really like it, perhaps Meredith would even consider a special printing for some lucky Rockiescast listeners.  (Congrats, Meredith: I just put you on-the-hook!)

The fine people at SeatGeek recently released some stats on ticket sales across the NL West for the first half of the 2010 season.  The results are interesting, though there aren’t too many surprises.  Take a look for yourself.

My reactions:

-It’s nice to see the Rockies keeping tickets affordable for fans.  The Rockies maintained the lowest average ticket price in the division, despite arguably having the most talented roster.  The average Rockies ticket is selling for more than face value thanks to the secondary market, so they could get away with charging more at the box office.

-I guess it takes a while for success to have an effect in San Diego.  Despite leading the division all season, Padres tickets are about the same price as Rockies tickets on average.  On top of that, Padres tickets average less than face value on the secondary market.  I guess I shouldn’t look a dealie horse in the dealie here: I do enjoy hearing scattered applause from Rockies fans whenever the team visits Petco Park.  Keep those seats available, Padres fans!

-What is up with Arizona’s ticket prices?  The only out-of-contention team in the division is charging a lot for tickets, and getting away with it.  Granted, their ticket prices are comparable to San Francisco and LA, but those are much larger markets with much more successful baseball teams.  My best theory is that people in Phoenix are willing to pay a lot just to hang out in the air conditioning for a few hours.  Either that or the D-Backs are holding wildly popular xenophobia rallies before each home game.

The Denver Post published some thoughtful and some misleading baseball opinions on Sunday coming from the usual sources.

On the thoughtful side, I really liked Troy Renck’s observations on the Jon Miller/humidor conspiracy theory. If you missed Miller’s comments, which have generated some angry responses around Colorado, here’s a quick summary: The Giants’ radio man claimed that there’s a conspiracy brewing around baseball regarding the Rockies’ recent habit of staging dramatic late inning comebacks at Coors Field.  The theory, which earns the title “hair-brained” because it’s so full of holes, is that the Rockies are somehow secretly switching non-humidor balls into the game to boost their offense when they’re trailing in late innings.

Lots of valid points have been made about why such a conspiracy theory is absurd, but Renck lands a counter-punch to the Giants that I hadn’t seen before.  When voices associated with the San Francisco Giants start raising questions of cheating among their opponents, Renck invokes the name of Barry Bonds.  On the surface it might seem like a low blow to bring up Bonds’ alleged steroid use, but it is a fair point in this situation.  The Giants and their fans maintained their support for Bonds despite a mountain of evidence that he had spent the last half of his career using banned substances to enable his record-shattering offensive production.  By the time Bonds broke Hank Aaron’s hallowed all-time home run record, the baseball world turned away in disgust while the Giants showered Bonds with praise.  It was an ugly moment to witness.  Given that recent chapter in baseball history, it seems hypocritical for an employee of the Giants organization to echo baseless and illogical conspiracies regarding the power numbers put up by a rival team.  Jon Miller is quite possibly my favorite baseball broadcaster anywhere, but I find the loud criticism of his comments to be spot-on, especially the points made by Troy Renck.

On the other hand, Mark Kiszla continues his treasonous cheer-leading for Todd Helton’s quick demise.  This time, Kiz takes a filthy page from cable news, talk radio, and partisan talking heads to hammer away at Helton.  If you’ve ever seen Stephen Colbert interview an elected official, you’ve seen this trick exposed.  The idea is that you phrase a question in a way that your controversial opinion is slipped in as assumed fact.  During the Bush Administration, Colbert would famously ask Democrat interview subjects the loaded question, “George W. Bush: great president or the greatest president?” Kiz pulls this same trick a bit more subtly in his mailbag column by cherry-picking questions that fit into his delusional view that Todd Helton is necessarily washed-up.  The most negative view of Helton offered in the questions sites his declining numbers over the past three seasons.  However, Helton’s numbers support exactly the counter-point that Rockiescast has been arguing forever: when healthy, Todd Helton’s ability to get on base hasn’t declined at all.  Helton’s critics love to look back to 2008 as the point of reference for aging Todd because that’s when his numbers took a dive due to his back problems.  2008 and 2010 don’t look good precisely because Todd was trying to play hurt.  2009, on the other hand, was a healthy year for Todd, and his numbers are consistent with other years in the post-power Todd era.  In fact, Todd was impressive enough in 2009 to finish 13th in MVP voting, his best showing in that vote since 2003.

Then there’s the question that Kiz throws in to represent the opposing view.  Rather than using a question asking about the rationale behind Kiz’s arguments, he picks a question that only lobs personal insults at Kiz and acknowledges Todd’s struggles this season.  This too is an old political trick: include an irrational representation of the opposing view.  This technique gives the impression of fairness to one’s opponents while painting those opponents as angry, irrational lunatics.  And while it is certainly true that Scott and I are angry, irrational lunatics, in this case we are representing the logical point of view.  We don’t know why Mark Kiszla is so anxious to see Todd Helton’s career come to an abrupt end, but we will continue to call him out on his flawed arguments.  Kiz: you remain On Notice.

I am Jack’s complete lack of surprise.

If you retain any skepticism that media East Coast bias has a stranglehold on baseball, take a look at how undeserving Atlanta Braves nudged worthy Colorado Rockies off the National League All-Star roster.

Regular all-star Brian McCann was selected over Rockies catcher/hero Miguel Olivo, despite Olivo producing better numbers in just about every category.  While you were reading that sentence, someone else just stole a base on McCann.  To borrow a phrase from John McEnroe: you McCannot be serious!

In the outfield, the fans embarrassed themselves by electing Jason Heyward as a starter for the NL squad.  Meanwhile, Carlos Gonzalez has thus far been passed over as a starter or reserve in the outfield.  Ridiculous.

Fortunately, baseball fans everywhere have a chance to partially redeem themselves by voting Carlos into the final spot on the roster.  It may surprise you that we at Rockiescast encourage everyone to vote early and often for CarGo.  So please Mohawk the vote here, and help baseball fans make the 2010 All-Star vote a little less humiliating.

Oh, and congratulations to Ubaldo Jimenez and Troy Tulowitzki for their well-earned All-Star selections.

With the Rockies 10-6 victory in San Diego on Monday night, Ubaldo Jimenez recorded his Major League-leading 14th win this season.

This makes only the 12th time in franchise history that a Rockies pitcher has reached the 14-win mark in an entire season. Kevin Ritz became the first Rockies pitcher to reach the mark with a 7-inning, 2-earned run performance in Pittsburgh’s scenic Three Rivers Stadium on September 2, 1996.

Ubaldo joins Jeff Francis as the only pitchers to reach the 14-win mark twice with the Rockies.  Ubaldo, however, is the only pitcher to have back-to-back 14-win seasons with the Rockies.  He finished 15-12 in 2009.  Francis went 14-12 in 2005 and a very satisfying 17-9 in 2007.

Carlos Gonzalez has your tacos right here…again.

With the Rockies putting up seven or more runs on Wednesday and Thursday nights this week, the fine people of Colorado are treated to two consecutive days of taco specials at a certain Mexican-themed fast food chain.

It’s been much discussed this season that the Rockies have been struggling to produce runs while the pitching has been dominant.  With the bats waking up (hopefully for good this time), this seems like a good opportunity to take a look at taco stats so far in 2010 to see evidence of these trends.

-The Rockies have invoked the cheap taco deal by scoring seven or more runs in a game 16 times.

-There have been 14 happy taco days, where the Rockies trigger the taco deal in a winning effort.

-If you’re too lazy to do the math, that means Thursday night’s extra-inning loss accounts for only the second sad taco day all year.  That stat can speak to both the pitching dominance and offensive struggles the Rockies have shown this season.  In order for a sad taco day to be possible, the Rockies offense must score at least seven runs and the pitchers must give up at least eight.

-Based on those minimum requirements, the lack of sad tacos in our lives has more to do with good pitching than bad run production.  While the Rockies have scored seven or more in 16 games this year, the pitching staff has surrendered eight or more runs only seven times.  By June 25 last season, the Rockies had scored seven or more on 21 occasions, while allowing eight or more on 14 occasions.