Posts tagged ‘Colorado Rockies’

With the start of a new year, this seems like an appropriate time to take a look at what the future holds for the Rockies.

Starting with the immediate future, the Rockies will begin the 2010 season with a new voice in the radio broadcast booth. Jeff Kingery’s departure generated quite a bit of buzz and speculation last fall as to who would be given the task of filling his big original-broadcaster shoes. This week, the new guy was revealed to be longtime Nuggets broadcaster Jerry Schemmel. Needless to say, Rockiescast is very curious as to how this new broadcast team of Schemmel and Jack Corrigan will sound. I’m hopeful that Schemmel will be a solid replacement for Kingery. Kingery’s firsthand knowledge of every moment in Rockies history is gone, but Schemmel will bring his own skill set. A huge part of baseball radio broadcast is finding interesting topics to discuss during lulls in the action on the field, and it appears that Jerry Schemmel has plenty of interesting things to talk about.

The new year is also a good excuse to look at what the Rockies have cooking in the organization for the long term.  I freely admit that I’m terrible at getting good, in-depth info on prospects. Luckily, we recently got a hot tip via e-mail about a blog committed to the art of scouting baseball prospects: Diamond Futures. This week, they did their analysis of the prospects in the Rockies’ system.  Take a look: it’s some pretty interesting stuff. My only complaint is that Diamond Futures failed to rank organizations by the most important criteria: awesome prospect names. Al Alburquerque, Jhoulys Chacin, Rex Brothers, Delta Cleary…how can another organization possibly compete with names like that?!

Rockiescast wishes a very happy Boxing Day to our neighbors in the Great White North!

If you haven’t been following, the news has been encouraging for the Rockies’ resident Canadian this holiday season.  We are eagerly anticipating Jeff Francis‘ glorious return to the States, dominance.

The Rockies have offered arbitration to Jason Marquis. Presumably, this was just so they can receive a compensatory draft pick when he signs with another team, but it still seems a bit risky to me. What if he accepts? Nobody expects him to, but the option is on the table. Not that I’d be opposed to having him back, but Marquis doesn’t seem to fit into the 2010 plans. Neither does the salary he would receive through the arbitration process.

If you’ve been listening to recent episodes or reading Scott’s angry blogging, you know that Rockiescast was not thrilled with the World Series match-up or with the conduct of these teams’ average fan.  It’s reassuring to see that we are not alone.  Earlier this week, the Daily Show aired a piece on the confluence of trashy fans that took place in South Philly on Sunday, when the Eagles stomped the Giants at Lincoln Financial Field hours before the Yankees took Game 4 from the Phillies at Citizens Bank Park.  It brought back fuzzy memories of the two times over the last three Octobers that Scott and I have made the trek to that very asphalt hellscape to take verbal abuse from the trashiest fans in sports.  Both times, it was a small price to pay to watch the Rockies beat the Phillies in a playoff game. Take a look, and I’m sure you’ll understand how these people made the Rockies’ victories that much sweeter.

It’s encouraging to see that, with each passing year, the tradition of the playoff beard seems to be catching on in sports besides hockey. As Kylie pointed out in the blog comments recently, even the Denver Post has noticed the trend in the Rockies’ clubhouse.  I was also pleased to see that the Wikipedia entry for Playoff Beard mentions Rockies fans.  And we all know everything on Wikipedia has to be based in objective fact.^{[citation needed]}

The obvious downside of the playoff beard is that previous facial hair growth, no matter how handsome, must be shorn when the playoffs begin in order to start a proper playoff beard from scratch. So, it was with heavy heart that I purged my face of my recent tribute to Ryan Spilborghs‘ award winning Time-Travelling Conquistador beard. Hard as it was to take the razor to my face, I have no regrets.  Playoff glory isn’t free (Rocktober costs a buck-o-five).  And I can always console myself knowing that while my Spilly tribute is gone from my face, it will always live on in photographic record. So, as promised, here is how awesome my face looked for one fleeting moment in time:

Just a few days ago, I would have leaned towards the Cardinals’ Brendan Ryan for the September BotM. That would have been the second Cardinal this season to take home the much coveted title. Unfortunately for the young shortstop, there was some stiff competition for the September Beard of the Month.  Brendan “Old Timey” Ryan was just one of a trio of Cardinals, also including Jason LaRue Manchu and Ryan “June BotM” Franklin, that could have taken home the title.  There was a very solid, late effort put in by Joe Beimel.  When it comes to having awesome facial hair, as long as you are in the discussion you should consider yourself a winner, but alas, there can only be one Beard of the Month.

Not surprisingly, as he has been doing since joining the Rockies, Jason Giambi comes through with the game, or in this case the award, on the line. The Giambi Stache has proven to be a great compliment to Giambi Smash, a game that he likes to play when in the batter’s box. After time in the Yankees organization, where he was limited to a traditional (but still awesome) mustache, he has since passed through Oakland to ultimately make his way to a better place, where man and facial hair can live together in harmony. We certainly hope Jason will keep up the awesome work, both on his face and at the plate, as he helps pave the way to the best Rocktober yet.

Aaron Cook is on the mound lookin’ like the Cook of old
And Tulo’s got a bat you’d think was made of solid gold
Todd Helton’s got the goat again and he’s swingin’ like he means it
And EY’s running first to home so fast you barely see it
Yorvit has become Mr. Clutch, CarGonza’s bat goes “THUD!”
DLR is downright nasty and Ubaldo is a stud
It’s been a long, long season and the Rockies have fought hard
And now for all their effort they have clinched (at least) the Wild Card

Barmes with a crazy catch he maybe never made
Iannetta’s walk-off homer brought us a cheap taco day
Ian Stewart avoiding double plays, looking like an acrobat
Huston Street back to close games, how freakin’ sweet is that?
Now that we’ve clinched the Wild Card the journey doesn’t end
The Rockies still have one more important message left to send
The Wild Card is fine and good, but you know what would be best?
To bust out the brooms, sweep the boys in blue, and watch the Rockies take the west!

Just as a depressing week of Rockies baseball has fans’ spirits sinking, Jackie from Denver has pieced together a music video to remind us of the good times.  And it turns out there have been a lot of good times since June.  The first time I watched the video, I immediately felt a surge of pride and confidence in our precious ball club.  I’m sure a good deal of my reaction has to do with the way Jackie more-or-less bookended the video with showcases of why we love Ryan Spilborghs.  (Hint: it has to do with beards and walk-off grand slams.)

With last night’s awesome win, the Rox are 20 game above .500 for the first time in franchise history.  This will not be surprising to you if you already knew that coming into this game the Rox were at 19 games above .500 for the first time in franchise history.

Is it just me, or was Mr. Late Night doing his Todd Helton impression in that last at bat?  High-pressure situation, fouling off a lot of pitches with 2 strikes, finally putting the ball in play in just the right spot to win the game.  Six inches to the right and Brandon Phillips makes the play and the Rockies lose.

Joe Beimel should buy Matt Daley dinner, or maybe carry around his pink backpack for a week, for bailing him out last night.  A veteran pitcher should not come into the game, walk a guy on four pitches, and then rely on a rookie to get out of the jam.  Fortunately, Matt Daley is awesome.  I see a direct correlation between Beimel’s poor performance and his unfortunate lack of beard.

During the post-game interview with Smith, Spilly got him with a shaving cream pie to the face.  Sure it was funny, but Spilly should not be allowed anywhere near shaving cream until he grows his beard back.

Right after that happened, Alanna Rizzo totally ratted Spilly out.  Not cool Alanna.

I knew all along that the winning run in this game would be scored by Jason Marquis.  I swear.

If people can be awarded honorary degrees from universities, I see no reason why we can’t award Jason Hammel an honorary win for last night’s game.  I think I like him more and more every time he pitches.

Too bad Yorvit’s streak ahd to end, but at least it didn’t end ten days ago like I would have expected.

Thank you Ramon Troncoso.  The Dodger’s reliever started the 9th inning with a throwing error, allowing the lead-off man to get two second.  One sac bunt and two intentional walks later, the bases were loaded for Mark Reynolds.  Troncos proceeded to walk Reynolds to lose the game, bringing the Rox to within 2 1/2 games of the Dodgers.

It is with much relief that we present actual visual evidence that Ryan Spilborghs‘ Time-Travelling Conquistador beard of early August actually existed.  This oughta silence all of those Time-Travelling Conquistador deniers out there (mostly Giants and Dodgers fans).

Special thanks go out to Meredith for digging this up for the world to see.  So um…thanks, Meredith!  Her contributions to Rockies society don’t stop there though.  In 2007, Meredith won the Stitch n’ Pitch National Knitting Contest with a Rockies-themed sock pattern.  Word on the street is that everyone counted out Meredith’s pattern until it won 21 of 22, steamrolling the rest of the National League of Sock Patterns.  Her work was subsequently featured in the April 2008 issue of Rockies Magazine.  Some of you might actually have that issue kicking around, as it was the 2007 National League Champions issue.  Take a look for her feature…we’ll wait.

See…pretty impressive, huh?  Out of the kindness of her purple heart, Meredith offers that Rockies sock pattern and assorted other goodies free on her website: www.meredithknitting.com.