steve267268

The shortstop almost looked embarrassed to get that call.

Oh my, Carlos V! Manuel Corpas coming into the game it appears. He has been horrid this year.

V in the ballgame. Gets the first batter two hit a lazy fly to Hart. 1 Out.

MLB.TV here and i got a perfect picture, thank you. Looks like me and 'bif will have to give you the play by play.

Wow, yeah, that is pretty annoying. One thing about baseball is that it encompasses a large spectrum of fans. However, if i'm their parent, that stops after about the second time.

I didn't realize we were so far down in the order. You know what? Bullpen is fresh, pull him now even if no one gets on in front of him.

100 pitches even for Sheets. Tough decision here. Do you let him pitch one more or until he gives up a baserunner? What he has done tonight has been pretty impressive. Absolutely no stuff tonight and still shutting down the Rockies in Coors Field. Can't complain with whatever Yost decides to do here.

Maybe some humidor time would do him some good.

I can't believe Ben just got through that inning with essentially one pitch. Actually, i do have a theory for why the velocity is down. He has absolutely no curve tonight. Maybe he saw this coming and told Kendall that if he couldn't throw the curve he would go with lots of two-seamers. That's why you see him at 88, 89, 90 and then all of a sudden 96 when he throws a four seamer. Thath may be why he is missing a lot due to the fact that he's not really used to throwing the two-seamer. Either way, he definitely doesn't have "it" tonight. Branyan sure does!!!

3 innings for Benny in the book. Really hard what to make of his outing so far.

Ughhhh, we are bailing this clown out right now. He goes 3-0 and then barely hits the zone for a strike and we groundout. Then he comes back to Kapler with a breaking ball that the catcher has to reach above his head for.

This is where he needs to start working on that changeup and 2 seemer again. Side note: is anyone else enjoying the Rockies broadcast team? Both pretty smooth and well informed. Plus they genuinely seem like baseball fans.

Ben, you're curveball is not working again. The other pitcher's curveball is. Do something about that.

On paper this is a game we should absolutely win. And after the first 1.5 i don't see anything that would change that. Let's pile on some runs early and get them down and out.

Wow. Two great strikeout pitches by Ben and the ump blows it. His velocity is down but his control is right on. Hopefully he gets that velocity back up or all those strikes he is throwing at 90MPH are going to bite him. Rockies pitcher has touched 98 on same radar.

Yes, players will get raises, and you won't have all of that money to work with. However, to say that contracts like Gagne's and Cameron's have no impact on whether or not we can re-sign Sheets is just silly. There might not be a salary cap but there is definitly a salary budget. It might as well be a salary cap, only it's enforced by the owner and not the league. So yes, getting rid of Hall, Cameron, Gagne, Counsell and Suppan does free up about 30 Million. Part of it will have to go to raises but part could be spent on Sheets. Successful business owners like Mark Attanasio didn't get where they were by shrugging off an "extra couple million per year".

So since the OBP in GPA counts for 1.8 times what SLG counts for, that roughly means that getting hits or getting on base is more important than the type of hits you are getting? Or is it just accounting for the fact that slugging is always a higher number and GPA makes it more of a 1:1 type deal?

So since the OBP in GPA counts for 1.8 times what SLG counts for, that roughly means that getting hits or getting on base is more important than the type of hits you are getting? Or is it just accounting for the fact that slugging is always a higher number and GPA makes it more of a 1:1 type deal?

Reading through those stats, did you notice Corey Hart's K/BB ratio? 42/13. Roughly, that translates to 125k's and 40 walks for the season. He had a 99/36 ratio last year. While i'm not really worried about him, i just wanted to point out that Braun isn't the only one having trouble drawing walks. IMO, this is because we are a very young team. It will get better with time. How much better? I guess we'll see. While Hart has been a very good hitter with RISP, he isn't anywhere near Braun's level when it comes to hitting bad pitches. The more selective he can be, the better he will get. He's already pretty darn good!

2009 You put LaPorta in the outfield, move Hart to center. I don't know who plays right, Braun or LaPorta, whatever. Bye bye Mike Cameron. Savings: $7,000,000 This goes without saying, but, good bye Eric Gagne. Savings: $10,000,000 Trade Suppan for whoever you can get for him. Make the trade that saves us the most money regardless of who we get back. Even if we have to pay half his salary for the next two years: victory. Savings: $6,000,000 in '09 and 7,000,000 in '10 Craig Counsell is making 2.8 MIL. Enough said. Savings: $2,800,000 Bill Hall wants to be traded. Very well. Savings: $4,900,000 (possibly more) These moves free up just over $30 Million in 2009. Sign Ben Sheets Sign a veteran third baseman who can at the very least play defense and hit for average. Let a prospect fill Counsell's role and push Rickie and JJ for playing time. Get a solid reliever if the opportunity presents itself. You can do this and still have some cash left over. Even if you don't do everything, the one thing that you MUST do is swap Sheets for Suppan. I know that sounds funny but when Gallardo comes back that is essentially what you are doing.

Is Sheets talking about the game in Colorado in which he was shelled when he says it was, "as good as i pitched all year"? Strange. I see what he's saying but strange. Then again, 2004 was a great year in the life of Ben Sheets... great great year.. i'll never forget it.

They can say whatever they want to say, but when it all comes down to it, San Diego would be absolutely GIDDY over the acquisition of Tony Gwynn Jr. Their team is going nowhere this year. Do you really think fans are going to pile into Petco this summer to watch the Padres lose 90 games? No, but you add the son of their franchise player to the mix and you have instance revenue. Not to mention the fact that he actually might be a better option than what they have. I'm not sure that they need Hall, but what the hey.

Nice sig Robin. I came back home to visit last fall and went to a theatre in Madison (westgate or west town, not sure) where they sold spotted cow. I was quite surprised. It threw me off my game a little, but i quickly gathered myself and made the call: "Two for each of us." This is what clutch players do. Predictions: Pitching Sheets has been putting together some nice games lately, however, he's been giving up lots of hits and hasn't had excellent K numbers. If he keeps this up in Denver and Houston he's going to give up some runs. I think this WILL happen in Denver but he will rebound in Houston. Prediction 1: Sheets(1), Bush, and McClung get stung Prediction 2: Suppan and Sheets(2) are superb Prediction 3: Parra does well but doesn't last long (5IP, 2ER) which puts the burden on our tired bullpen. Hitting The bats finally woke up for more than one game at a time. Will the Branyan power surge continue? Is Prince really back or will he settle down into another long slumber? What about Braun, will he ever slump for more than a day? No, yes, and probably not. Prediction 1: Branyan comes down to earth, has only two hits the entire trip. Neither is a homerun. 3TO faithful can still rejoice: plenty of K's. Prediction 2: Prince and Braun continue to power the team. 3 knocks for Prince, 2 for Braun, but Braun gets a handful of XBH's. Prediction 3: Weeks gets going. I'm calling it. Conclusion Everything that is lacking about this team usually comes out when we're on the road. I don't expect that this trip will be any different. But the fact that we now have the bats going will make up for some of those issues (pitching and fielding). So what may have been a 1-5, or 2-4 trip will turn out to be at least a split. Some of the bad play will follow us home but we will get things straightened out for another solid home stand. That's a different story, though. 3-3 at worst, 4-2 at best.

I know you guys are big fans of statistics, and it really is intriguing. But these are human players, not robot players. Just as Billy Hall has fallen off the last couple of years, Joe Dillon could have a monster season from a platoon. Or he could also be awful. I bet Rickie was projected to be a pretty darn good hitter too. For me, if Ned and Doug are confident enough in Joe Dillon to fill Hall's spot, then so be it. Good players pop up out of nowhere all the time, why not Joe Dillon? He might not have five great seasons in a row, or even have a great season ever again, but he could have one this year facing only lefties. Whatever happens, i'm just glad that we are no longer employing the Magruder's of the world... Counsell doesn't count, at least he LOOKS like he should be able to hit.

One last thought. It's great to see this team come alive again. But we can't get caught up watching the Cubs. We just need to take care of business and let the chips fall where they may. Even if Chicago stays on fire all year which is highly unlikely, who says the wild card can't come out of the Central? Record-wise, we are the best division in the National league and the AL East are the only group better in all of baseball. This is sure to change, but Chicago and Milwaukee beats anything the West has to offer. The East is a wild card. I just don't see the Marlins doing it all year and who knows when or if the Mets will wake up.