When the Giants Come to Town, It's Bye-Bye Baby

05.20.2008
On the Rox, Straight Up

Dan Boniface of the Rockies-themed blog On the Rox asked me some questions about the Giants before the current series. (Our little Q&A is here.) In turn he answered my three burning itching questions about the Mile Highlers, forsooth:

How do you explain the miserable start? This team looked great coming off the NL pennant. It can't just be injuries - for example, Tulowitzki is out but Barmes is putting up excellent numbers in his stead.

I’m scratching my head too. I thought this team would win 100 games this season. But they have lacked quality starting pitching (Aaron Cook excluded) and they’ve had trouble getting the clutch hit. And how do you correct poor clutch hitting? That’s hard to put a Band-aid on.

From a starting pitching standpoint, I think this team misses Josh Fogg. They loved playing behind him and he was a guy who could give you consistency out of the No. 5 spot in the rotation. The Rockies have only 16 quality starts on the season, which is the third-fewest in the National League. Only twice this season have they strung together three straight quality starts. It’s hard to win ballgames if you’re playing from behind every time.

As far as the absence of Tulo goes, it’s been beneficial if you look at Barmes’ .350-plus average, and the .152 Tulo was hitting when he got hurt. But, what you don’t see in the numbers is the lift Tulo gave this team emotionally. He’s a leader on the field and in the clubhouse, but without him in the lineup, they’re missing the spark he gives them.

Putting his huge contract aside, would the team ever trade Todd Helton? He's clearly not the player he once was. Would the fans revolt?

The time to trade Todd Helton has come and gone. Before the 2007 season, if they had wanted to deal Helton, the Red Sox were ready to deal. Helton waived his no-trade clause, but the deal fell through.

Even though a deal would make sense on the surface: It would dump salary, the Rockies could move Atkins to first base (his original position) and call up Ian Stewart to play third base. Stewart is a MLB-ready guy who just won the PCL player of the week award two weeks in a row. He’s tearing up the minors and is ready to be a big leaguer.

But, Helton is a future Hall of Famer. He looks like he’s going to be in purple pinstripes for the remainder of his current contract, if not for the remainder of his career. He’s a veteran presence in the clubhouse, a steadying factor. A guy who’s battle tested. The fans would go ape if they dealt him.

After trying so many different strategies — Blake St. Bombers, high-priced pitchers — has the front office figured out how to put together a team at altitude?

I definitely think they have and a NL pennant is proof of that. The humidor has changed Coors Field. To win in Coors, the Rockies need pitchers who can keep the ball on the ground and pitch to the defense – which was the best in baseball history a year ago.

On the offensive side, they got a little speed at the top of the lineup, albeit less than a year ago with Kaz gone. And they’ve got guys who can hit the gaps in the middle of the order. Coors Field has a spacious outfield, so it’s all about finding that gap on offense and keeping the ball in the infield on defense.
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[May 20, 2008 3:50 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Aaron B. said

100 wins? based on what? 100 wins is pretty rare and getting from 90 to 100 is pretty freaking hard unless you make a major upgrade somewhere. I guess I could see the optimism with Morales, Jimenez (though he walked a load of batters last season), a healthy Cook for the whole season and Jeff Francis continuing to be the ace, but 100 wins?

[May 20, 2008 8:13 PM]  |  link  |  reply
Zo said

The Rox are always about pitching. They have some great hitting, and that will ultimately make them competitive if their pitching doesn't puke it up. Last year they were blessed with very strong pitching performances during their run - Francis, Cook, and Fogg. They had Umbaldo Jimenez, whom no one had seen (remember Bonds taking him deep?), and Fuentes, Speier and Corpas were superb in that stretch in relief. It is unrealistic to think that, because they basically did not make any changes, that they would be much better, and more realistically, they could probably be a little worse, due to their pitching coming down to earth. But the fact that they just squeaked past the Giants on May 18 is surprising. They are underperforming now as they were overperforming last September/October.

[May 22, 2008 9:59 AM]  |  link  |  reply
obsessivegiantscompulsive said

I can't believe he actually wrote that: they miss Josh Fogg. I never thought anyone would say that about him!

Wow, 100 games, confident much? After all, they only made the playoffs by one of the most incredible winning period at the end of the season, what, winning 15 of 16 games to squeak in. You can't look at that and not think - lucky streak - no matter how good their pythagoras looked.

Same with the D-backs right now, all those hitters are spiking with career bests right now, and they are getting great pitching so far.