Monday, August 31, 2009

Rox Talk - Week 21

The Week That Was
A 2-5 week against the Dodgers and Giants. The Roxs currently stand at 72-59. Six games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and tied in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 36-26 at home and 36-33 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 654-582 (expected wins is 72 versus historical wins at 61). On pace for 89 wins with 809 runs scored and 720 runs against.
Well that didn't go according to plan! Monday and Tuesday were such promising wins! A grand slam dagger into the Giants on Monday followed by another walk off win against the Dodgers. Rox closed within 2 games! Dan Patrick and sports talk radio said the Rox were at it again. What seemed like an insurmountable lead was suddenly down to 2 games. The Rox win the pennant the Rox win the pennant...oh sorry got a bit carried away. From that glorious Tuesday night to Sunday the Rox dropped 5 games and suddenly find themselves tied for the Wild Card and 6 back from the Dodgers. This was the first losing week since Week 13. Well I guess on the bright side this slide came at the end of August! Thirty-one games to go. Yes it would have nice to put away the Giants for good and stay on LA tail but there is still a lot baseball to be played. Our Rox are struggling with some nagging injuries...Cook's is probably the hard one has the Rox try to find a consistent starter down the stretch. Fowler and CarGo's injuries are the frustrating because their one-two punch was really starting to catch fire. It certainly is a scramble and yet this is the first true test of Tracy managerial acumen. Up to this point I think he has basically pointed them in the right direction and allowed the team to find itself. Now a steady hand is required to get the team focused for the September run. Lot of home games...time to take Coors Field back!

Rox Talk - Week 21

The Week That Was
A 2-5 week against the Dodgers and Giants. The Roxs currently stand at 72-59. Six games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and tied in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 36-26 at home and 36-33 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 654-582 (expected wins is 72 versus historical wins at 61). On pace for 89 wins with 809 runs scored and 720 runs against.
Well that didn't go according to plan! Monday and Tuesday were such promising wins! A grand slam dagger into the Giants on Monday followed by another walk off win against the Dodgers. Rox closed within 2 games! Dan Patrick and sports talk radio said the Rox were at it again. What seemed like an insurmountable lead was suddenly down to 2 games. The Rox win the pennant the Rox win the pennant...oh sorry got a bit carried away. From that glorious Tuesday night to Sunday the Rox dropped 5 games and suddenly find themselves tied for the Wild Card and 6 back from the Dodgers. Well I guess on the bright side this slide came at the end of August! Thirty-one games to go. Yes it would have nice to put away the Giants for good and stay on LA tail but there is still a lot baseball to be played. Our Rox are struggling with some nagging injuries...Cook's is probably the hard one has the Rox try to find a consistent starter down the stretch. Fowler and CarGo's injuries are the frustrating because their one-two punch was really starting to catch fire. It certainly is a scramble and yet this is the first true test of Tracy managerial acumen. Up to this point I think he has basically pointed them in the right direction and allowed the team to find itself. Now a steady hand is required to get the team focused for the September run. Lot of home games...time to take Coors Field back!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Rox Talk - Week 20

The Week That Was
A 5-1 week against the Nationals and Giants. The Roxs currently stand at 70-54. Three and half games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and three games ahead in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 34-24 at home and 36-30 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 632-549 (expected wins is 70 versus historical wins at 58). On pace for 91 wins with 826 runs scored and 717 runs against.
Rox are starting to look like a playoff team. Playoff teams get it done against bad teams. Going into DC and sweeping that series before the look ahead 4 game series at home against the Giants was huge. The Rox are 52 - 26 (that's a 0.670 percentage!) under Tracy. That is an amazing number. Hard to believe either the Rox were that bad out of the gate or that unhappy with Hurdle at the helm.

Not to look ahead but with one more game tonight against the Giants and 3 with the Dodgers the possibility definitely exists for the Rox to be tied for the Division Lead come Friday! I have tickets for Thursday game so I will certainly be rooting for this to occur. Either way the Rox have made up a huge gap (15.5 games!). With 38 games to go the gap is so much smaller that September will just be a tug of war. I remember back in high school when the Braves picked up Fred McGriff and went on a tear catching the Dodgers and Giants and making the playoffs. Good times. And finally why is it the Rox get no respect? We are the last competitive division in baseball with three teams still in the playoff chase and what do we get? Nadda...give me Roxtober again!

Some interesting sites:

Fan Graphs - Those wacky odds against Rox

NY Times - Ichiro, modern day Pete Rose...what is wrong with hitting base hits?

Olbermann - Gotta love baseball history!


Monday, August 17, 2009

Rox Talk - Week 19

The Week That Was
A 4-3 week against the Pirates and Marlins. The Roxs currently stand at 65-53. Five games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and one and half ahead in the Wild Card Hunt. Currently 32-23 at home and 33-30 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 598-522 (expected wins is 66 versus historical wins at 55). On pace for 89 wins with 821 runs scored and 717 runs against.

A wacky week. Cubs series over with Tulo's cycle. An uneventful Pirates series and then a frustrating Florida trip over the weekend. All in all we still gained on the Dodgers and mounted a lead in the Wild Card. 44 games to go with a big end of the month series with the Giants and Dodgers. Unfortunately we have a looming 3 game series in DC. BEWARE Will Robinson this series has the doom song written all over it....

Monday, August 10, 2009

Rox Talk - Week 18

The Week That Was
A 3-3 week against the Phillies and Cubs. The Roxs currently stand at 61-50. Five and half games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and tied in the Wild Card. Currently 29-22 at home and 32-28 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 551-490 (expected wins is 61 versus historical wins at 51). On pace for 89 wins with 804 runs scored and 715 runs against.
Pretty uneventful week. Road trip finally go the best of them. Team looked tired in Philly. The offense struggled. Arrived home to play the Cubs. Good start to home stand. It is going to be a dog fight all the way in. Only 5.5 out...could we dream of an actual division title?

This Week's Aside
MLB and Topps began an interesting relationship this week. Beginning in 2010, Topps will become MLB exclusive provider of baseball cards. What does this mean for Upper Deck? Who knows but it seems they signed a deal with the Player's Association so perhaps that means we will just get player cards with no logos? Who knows and probably who cares. Topps and Upper Deck ruined the card market years ago with multiple sets and gimmicks galore. The high cost of cards pretty much priced out the younger generation (is it any wonder kids don't have a clue about baseball and its players?). I love baseball cards but it just became too hard to keep up with what was coming out. I loved the retro sets but then it became increasingly hard to find someone who sold cards. Going online through eBay became key but somewhat expensive. Anyway it will be nice to get back to a simpler time. One player card a year maybe?

Also NY Times on Sunday had an interesting article on APBA. I have played strat-0-matic but not heard of APBA. Have to investigate further....hmmmm

Monday, August 3, 2009

Rox Talk - Week 17

The Week That Was
A 4-3 week against the Mets and Reds. The Roxs currently stand at 58-47. Seven games back from division leading Los Angeles in second place and half game ahead in the Wild Card. Currently 27-21 at home and 31-26 on the road, the Roxs have outscored its opponents 520-464 (expected wins is 58 versus historical wins at 48). On pace for 89 wins with 802 runs scored and 716 runs against.
Good finish to a horrible start of the week. For the naysayers the Rox's awful start in NY only added fuel to the fire that this team was simply smoke and mirrors. Hopefully 4 straight wins proved that we are still contenders. A relatively quiet trade deadline. The Rox's picked up Betancourt and Beimel for the stretch run. Good pickups especially with Corpas out. Sadly no Halladay. Long-term probably good for the Rox but for the NL Championship series probably not so good having to go into LA and win with out a dominant front line starter. We saw see...

Below is the list of road wins since the team's inception. Their 16 year average road wins has been 31. True indication that the Rox are a good team this year...they already have 31 road wins through 57 games. Mighty impressive. Funny how it seems the team has played better on the road and yet seem to still struggle at Coors. Welcome to Bizarro Rox World!