Sunday, May 22, 2011

Rock Solid Recrap: Some thoughts on a bad baseball weekend

Brewers 3, Rockies 1 (boxscore)

Brutal weekend for the Rockies. It looked like they may have turned a corner taking three of four from the Giants and Phillies leading into the Milwaukee series, but undid it all very quickly.

-- If I had a dollar for every time Bob Uecker said, "Wow, that inning was quick." when the Rockies were hitting this weekend, I'd have about $20 more than I did on Friday afternoon. The offense showed very little fight on Saturday or Sunday. Granted Shawn Marcum and Randy Wolf pitched well, but this team as constructed now is very limited in ways they can create offense.

No stolen bases threats. No real weapons off the bench. Yeah, I know Jason Giambi had four homers in two days, but his pinch-hitting has been unproductive. Ty Wigginton had a couple big hits before the injury and a nice game on Friday. I don't mind having him around, but Jose Lopez has been awful and Jose Morales really tailed off after a decent start.

We're two months in so I think we can safely say it's looking like Dan O'Dowd had a poor offseason. Things could still turn around, but between some of those names mentioned above and the Felipe Paulino disaster, he didn't add much. Matt Lindstrom being the obvious and overwhelming exception to the rule.

And forget the Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez contracts. We won't know how those look for awhile yet.

-- It's pretty simple with Ubaldo Jimenez: He's in a better place overall, but he's living on the edge too much. His inconsistent command is putting him one big swing away from having a bad inning/bad outing. Today he walked five and hit one. Unfortunately two of those came directly in front of one of only two hits he allowed -- a two-run triple to Ryan Braun.

Inability to consistently throw strikes also leads to sloppy defense behind him. That was also the case on Braun's triple. Dexter Fowler made an ill-advised dive on the play which allowed extra bases. He then missed the cut-off man on his throw in and Braun trotted home with a Little League home run.

To recap that: One walk. One HBP. One swing. A bad dive and a bad throw. Three quick runs for the Brewers.

-- As noted earlier, the Rockies can't buy a steal. That's one problem. Another problem is opposing baserunners stealing bases against them. Often times without even a throw. The Rockies have ten one-run losses. A lot of those have come down to 90 feet both ways. The importance of this can't be overlooked.

-- Ubaldo swinging with the bases loaded and one out. Yeah, that outcome wasn't predictable.

-- How about Troy Renck's article with quotes from Troy Tulowitzki on his ejection? Apparently Tulowitzki was ejected not because he was quick-pitched or anything like that, but because he felt the umpire wasn't positioned properly to make the call.

Oh boy. He would have been better off not saying anything. This only makes the situation sound more petty and silly. But that's the last I'll speak of it. Hopefully he'll learn from it, but the quotes don't leave me optimistic he will.

-- The Rockies have a day off to collect themselves before a doubleheader on Tuesday against Arizona. You hate to even think about it, but after that amazing start, they could end Tuesday under .500. Let's hope it goes the other way and they make a strong push towards June. They still have a better record than usual for late May, so a good recovery isn't too far away.

Lineup Card: 5-22-11 Rockies @ Brewers



Yesterday's Recrap: One-run losses piling up


Colorado Rockies (23-21)
  1. 2B Alfredo Amezaga
  2. CF Dexter Fowler
  3. LF Carlos Gonzalez
  4. SS Troy Tulowitzki
  5. 1B Todd Helton
  6. 3B Jose Lopez
  7. RF Ryan Spilborghs
  8. C   Chris Iannetta
  9. P    Ubaldo Jimenez
Lineup shakeup alert! Dexter Fowler drops to #2 against a left-handed pitcher. Alfredo Amezaga leading off. Let's see how this works out for Mr. Tracy.

Milwaukee Brewers (23-23)
  1. 2B Rickie Weeks
  2. RF Mark Kotsay
  3. LF Ryan Braun
  4. 1B Prince Fielder
  5. 3B Casey McGehee
  6. SS Yuniesky Betancourt
  7. C   Wil Nieves
  8. CF Carlos Gomez
  9. P   Randy Wolf