Location: Denver, Colo. | Ballpark: Coors Field (50,445) | Spring Training: Tucson, Ariz.
Owner: Charlie and Dick Monfort | GM: Dan O'Dowd | Manager: Jim Tracy (interim) | World Championships: 0
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POWER RANKINGS
Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
07/07/2009
8
5
They've settled in as an above-average team. Rockies fans are likely thrilled about that, given how the season started ... Jason Marquis has long found himself on the receiving end of baseball's biggest backhand compliment: "He's an inning-eater." This would be lovely if those innings were decent ones; Marquis' rarely were. Yet suddenly he's an All-Star who's blinding hitters with ... well, whatever it is he throws. I do not have the slightest idea what to make of this.
06/30/2009
5
4
I say this with great and furious certainty: If they add a middle reliever or two, they are going to be playing in October. Garrett Atkins might be too pricey to work into a deal for a guy like LaTroy Hawkins or John Grabow, but Ryan Spilborghs sure isn't ... The Rockies' success under Jim Tracy confirms everything I've always said about managers. Basically, a skipper need only define his players' roles (which Tracy did by installing Clint Barmes and Ian Stewart into the everyday lineup) and get the hell out of the way. Baseball isn't hard.
06/23/2009
4
12
Yes, I'm aware they beat the team ranked immediately ahead of them two out of three games last week. But the Rays play in the tougher league and have a far better run differential (plus-76, to the Rockies' plus-34). You can only read so much into the results of a three-game series, much less one in which two of the three games were of the late-and-close variety ... You never know if he'll pull another supposedly unpullable muscle or re-impale himself on a bat shard, but Troy Tulowitzki is looking like his rookie-year self again ... There's not much to add here. They're playing smart, joyous baseball. Enjoy it while it lasts, because streaks like this are rare indeed.
06/16/2009
12
26
Am I overreacting to the recent streak, in which the Rockies have morphed into error-resistant, sunflower-seed-chomping robots sent from the future to instruct us in their superior ways? Maybe. But regardless of the slight disparity in record, the Rockies (+22) have done better in the run-differential department this year than the Cards (+10) and the Metsies (+4) ... The starters aren't allowing more than four runs, the fielders are catching the ball, the hitters are doing whatever it is that hitters do, etc. It's been a thing of beauty to watch.
06/09/2009
26
29
Is that a pulse? I think it is! ... Any mess of invalids can string together a five-game winning streak over the course of a 162-game season, but what's impressive about the Rockies' recent run is that they outscored the competition by 31 runs and that they needed a mere 8 2/3 innings from their relievers during it. ... Ubaldo Jimenez is looking quite acey nowadays, but that still doesn't excuse him from the short-short sleeves he donned on Sunday. You want to flash your guns, go to Bally's Total Fitness ... That Jason "Tasty Innings Muncher" Marquis leads the NL in wins tells you everything you need to know about the usefulness of that particular stat.
06/02/2009
29
29
Farewell, Clint Hurdle. You were just too beautiful for this world. ... What the Rockies need is a fire-and-brimstone skipper -- think Dallas Green, minus the arm-shredding tendencies. His first address should be something along the lines of "Do Jäger bombs or talk scripture until 5 a.m. for all I care, but anyone who's got a non-baseball agenda once the game starts will get his ass introduced to my boot."
05/26/2009
29
29
Clint Hurdle, who rarely sees his name in print without the word "embroiled" next to it, has a three-step improvement plan for the Rockies -- something like "play hard, have fun and trust each other." Unfortunately, most of the players have interpreted his directive as "attempt to lose by seven runs or more," as the Rockies did four times in the last nine games ... Huston Street looks like a pro pitcher for the first time in a while. Sell high! Sell high!
05/19/2009
29
27
There ought to be a tribunal somewhere where we can hold accountable the pitchers who allowed a 10-run inning -- to a Pirates lineup that didn't include Ryan Doumit or Nyjer "Speed Bump" Morgan, no less -- for the baseball equivalent of crimes against humanity. ... Jason Marquis and the since-waived Glendon Rusch combined to surrender 22 hits in 6 1/3 innings last Wednesday. After viewing this, I needed to take a bath. ... Dexter Fowler is known to the casualists as the stolen-base guy, but he's been several levels below horrific at the plate since then. I don't know how to say this nicely, so I won't even try: Sit his zippy ass down against righty pitchers. OK?
05/12/2009
27
29
The most depressing team in baseball? They flip the batting order around willy-nilly and go days at a time without holding a lead. Then there's Ian Stewart, possibly suffering from a form of psychosomatic paralysis that prevents him from lifting the bat off his shoulder when there are two strikes. Really, season ticket holders should receive a complimentary scrip for Wellbutrin.
05/05/2009
29
29
They switch closers the way a teenage girl switches Jonas Brother identification. Sexy! ... Is Jason Marquis up for a new contract after the year or something? I'm otherwise at a loss to explain how he's suddenly pitching like an actual, bona fide pitcher ... Chris Iannetta is starting to slug the way we expected him to. By "we," I mean "me."
Preseason Power Rankings
Date
Ranking
Previous
02/16/2009
26
-
Clint Hurdle is in the last year of his contract, making him the easy sacrificial lamb for the Holliday-free Rockies. ... Jeff Francis is already way less than OK physically, and his absence downgrades the staff outlook from mediocre to uncompetitive. ... It would hurt my soul and set western civilization back several decades if dirty-uniformed scamp Scott Podsednik receives a single at-bat that would otherwise go to elite prospect Dexter Fowler.
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