In the middle of the Rockies 20 games in 20 days tour, Dexter Fowler is taking a scheduled rest. Even though he seemed to be overworked yesterday as the only player with multiple hits, going 2-4 with a triple, there is nothing wrong with him. Sure, he’s hitting .404 with a .723 slugging percentage over the last 12 games, but streaks be damned, the kid needs a nap.
Tonight is the first of a four game series against the Cardinals before the team heads to Washington to play the Nats and then, presumably, sit in front of their TV’s to watch pretty much the only bright spot of a busted season so far: Carlos Gonzalez in the All-Star HR Derby and Game.
The Cardinals, tonight’s potential sweeping opponent, reining World Series Champions and the first time the teams have met this season. The teams are pretty much even in their all-time meeting statistics (81-82), but haven’t fared as well at Busch Stadium, where the Rockies are 37-44.
Last night’s loss to the Padres was the fifth time the team has been shutout this season, the third time at Coors.
The Rockies will have Josh Outman on the mound, his 15th appearance and 7th start for the team. It will be the first time he has faced the Cardinals.
St. Louis will give Kyle Lohse the ball, making his 10th start against the Rockies. He is 3-3 with a 3.51 ERA against the Rox over those 10 starts.
ROCKIES LINEUP
Young [CF]
Scutaro [SS]
Gonzalez [LF]
Cuddyer [1B]
Colvin [RF]
Pacheco [3B]
Nelson [2B]
Rosario [C]
Outman [P]
GAME TIME: 6:15 pm
WEATHER: 102°
CHANCE OF RAIN: 50% (T-Storms)
I have absolutely no idea what Jim Tracy thinks about when making out his lineup. Dex is hot, sit him down. Cargo makes the All-Star team, sit him down in front of the hometown fans and deny both him and the fans a chance to show their “love”. Like Cisco said on another thread the organization has failed the fans. The Monferts have basically said, it’s our team and we’ll do what we want. So they keep DoD and Jim Tracy. Forever?
yeah, feel the same way as you my friend…that is what I was thinking with my tongue-in-cheek, “streaks be damned, the kid needs a nap”…he is one of the hottest bats on the team right now, so it only makes sense to sit him…i’m sure he will go 0-4 tomorrow after coming back because resting can really mess up timing, i’m told, but then again i’m no manager…
navid there are no performance enhancing drugs in major league baseball managers have to really be careful and overworking guys so being a manager today I bet is probably a lot tougher than it was years ago but I do agree jim tracy does not do it right
Go get em EYJ!
Glad that Lou Gehrig or Cal Ripken, Jr. didn’t play for Tracy. They never would have had their long streaks. Listening to a few minutes of Tracy interview on KOA it certainly seemed that he was more interested in giving players their rest than winning games. I guess you can do that when you are manager for life
#1 draft pick watch: Cubs won today. Padres leading. If that holds, we’re in a virtual tie with the Padres for the worst record in MLB!
I can see this scenario: the team loses 101 games and the Monforts make exactly 0 changes to the management of this team. DOD returns JT returns, and so on. Then we fans sit and hope all winter that this move or that move will help us contend. But in truth, this team is fundamentally flawed until they clean it from the top on down.
Spot on Thistle!
One addition to your scenario. Rockies fans will turn out in droves yet again next year, reaffirming our lovable losers status.
There’s something to be said for the Padres way of doing things. They had a lot of pitchers flame out this year, but instead of rushing their minor leaguers they just brought in freely available old guys like Marquis and Kip Wells. Chatwood was rushed by the Angels last year; O’Dowd said as much in the offseason when he traded for him. So why rush him again this year? Same with Alex White, and obviously Outman too, who should be spending the year in the bullpen. Friedrich’s done o.k., but he was rushed too since the plan was to keep him at AAA.
I’ve seen all of Outman[ironic name eh!] that I care to this year.He hasn’t made any progress,and if anything has regressed markedly.If Pomerenz needed to go to AAA to “work on things”,then Outman’s ticket to the Springs should be taped to his locker when he gets out of the shower!And send Chatwood too.We all know Todd is fading and Colvin is the one bright spot,but this mornings Post said the only Rockie with success against Lohse was Todd.BA .425 with a couple oh HR’s–so of course he sits,even though he has had success and has the left vs.rightie advantage.Ag,I think the number one pick is practically guaranteed!
Yeah, Gary, we’re now tied with the Cubs for worst winning percentage in all of baseball (.380) since the Padres are about to beat the Dbacks (putting them at .383) and put us squarely in last place. If we get the 1st pick in the draft expect all stud amateur pitchers to suddenly decide to go to college or remain in college an extra year just to avoid becoming a Rockie.
It is just too painful to watch at times – most times.
“Touche” comment by Renck re Holliday in Post today.
???? Guess I should read it. I will take Gonzalez any day over Holiday.
Ag, you are almost correct. The Rox are now tied with the Cubs for the worst teams in baseball. The Padres are actually a few PCT points ahead of the Rox.
Sorry Ag … I didn’t see your second post. I think Outman and Chatwood pretty much sealed their fate last night.
On another note, rumor control seems to be heating up. Two names from the Rockies seem to be Cuddyer and O’Dowd but Mr. O’Dowd apparently is stating Cuddyer is not on the market.
Not trading Cuddyer? Kind of what Kizsla is getting at in his Helton article today. The Rockies wallow in sentimentality. Jim Tracy led us on a nice playoff run 3 years ago, why not dub him Manager for Life? That way we can show our everlasting gratitude to him. Helton is the greatest Rockie ever? Who has the nerve to tell him we’re rebuilding, accept the Giambi role or we’ll try to find you a competitive team to trade you to so you have a shot at a title. Cuddyer performing at a slightly below average rightfielder level with 27 million bucks left on his contract while we trot out Josh Outman to get killed every 4th (not 5th) day? But he’s a great guy and he always plays hard. How could we trade a guy like that even if we have 3 better outfielders on the roster right now? Even though he’d be in the bottom 10 hitters in MLB among first basemen if we stick him there? Is it sentimentality, or is it O’Dowd’s refusal to admit his signing of Cuddyer was a mistake?
I think it’s going to get worse before it gets better. You would hope that DoD doesn’t wait until the last minute to trade Giambi holding out hope that he’s going to get 2 or 3 top-notch prospects for him. Ditto for Scutaro, Guthrie etc. Guthrie had three pretty good relief outings in a row which should have raised his trade value but he had a poor one the last time out and he’s going to start tomorrow night (without the 75 pitch count). He’ll probably bomb and lessen his value.
And even if we get the #1 pick if the same crowd is still running the teams they will make the wrong pick. How many All-Stars did they pass on to take Greg Reynolds? Even if Slim Tim never wins another game and may be a jerk, he’s 10 times the pitcher Reynolds was. If I’m not mistaken (and somebody will correct me if I’m wrong) they passed on Evan Longoria because we had Ian Stewart. It’s amazing that they once in a while make a good pick
You are correct. Even though Tulo played with Longoria in college and urged the Rockies to select him, the DOD brain trust chose Ian Stewart instead.