Box Score Bytes - Game 149

- Giants take the season series 14-4.  Giants should give the Rox a share of their playoff money as I don't think it would have been this easy without us laying down for them...27-9 over the last two seasons as well

- Welcome back to the BIGS de la Rosa...hard to figure why the Rox bothered but it was his first start since May 24, 2011.  Maybe next year will matter...

- Another catcher interference call, this is the season's 6th for the Rox.  In the past this has been extremely rare but Colvin does something...

Box Score Bytes - Game 148

- Maybe it's just when we play the Giants but Rox just look horrible.  Besides a nice little run in late August this team doesn't look any better.  It has seemingly regressed to what we saw in May and June.  I really thought we'd see some growth, some excitement, something.  At this rate what we are seeing this month is what is going to start next April.  Frankly I have no confidence that what is fielded next year will be any better.  Seasons like this just suck the joy of baseball out of me...

- Giants have all of 24 homers in their own ballpark and yet are closing in on another division title...pretty much sums up what it takes to win in baseball, yup a little thing called PITCHING!

- Rox sit at 58 - 90 with 14 games remaining.  They need to go at least 9-5 to match their worse record ever.  With the way they are playing losing 100 is back in play.  Rox bottom my friends 

Box Score Bytes - Game 147

- Not for sure what it is about San Fran but they completely own us right now.  San Fran owns a 12-4 record against Rox this year.  Last year they took 13 games against the Rox.  In every aspect they are complete opposites of our Rox.  Awesome pitching with weak hitting, it is just confounding.

- Rosario hit his 25th home run and is now tied with Helton for the Rox rookie record.  My guess with 15 games remaining and seven of those at home he will be the all time leader.  As Troy Rench twittered, he is a 20/20 man in his own way with 25 homers and 20 pass balls.

- Giants batters have a .457 batting average against Francis this year...yikes

- Game had a little bit of everything with catcher's interference, field interference, a baseball ricocheting off a helmet, and a flipped bat which sort of led to a player being tossed but not really.

Box Score Bytes - Game 142

- Game 77 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 32-45.  Francis struggles through 3 innings.  He is know 5-5.  Rox one true pitching star in the this otherwise dismal season is probably showing his age.  Will he be back next year?  Starter's record is now 12-32 with 33 no decisions and bullpen record of 20-13.

- San Fran owns us again this year.  They hold a 10-4 edge and finished 7-2 at Coors.  Ever since the Lincecum comment a few years back about the humidor the edge that Colorado once had is noticeably gone. Maybe there was something to it...

- Rosario tied Tulo's record for rookie homers and is now within one of Helton's rookie record.

- For a team going no where and on a cold chilly night 24,000 crazy fools showed up or at least that was the paid attendance?

- Giants once again used 7 relief pitchers to get 9 outs last night.  That is just plain silly

Box Score Bytes - Game 141

- Game 76 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 32-44.  Chacin struggles and Rox piggyback can't stop the bleeding.  Rox might have false hopes due to a 20-13 bullpen record.  Is this truly sustainable over an entire season?  Starter's record is now 12-31 with 33 no decisions and bullpen record of 20-13.

- With White hitting a home run yesterday helping the Rox win, tonight Rox loss because we gave up a home run to the opposing team.  Just another strange chapter in the book that is Coors Field.

- Rox almost came back with a Colvin homer in the bottom of the ninth but then Giambi lined out to the end the game.  

Box Score Bytes - Game 140

- Game 75 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 32-43. Too bad White wasn't more efficient otherwise he might have gotten the win.  Starter's record is now 12-31 with 32 no decisions and bullpen record of 20-12.

- White did homer for himself so that is a good thing.  Second homer this year from a Rox pitcher.  Last one was Pomenranz's on May 7.

- Rox finally beat Vogelsong.  In his previous six starts against us he was 5-0 with a 1.80 ERA.

- Tracy got ejected for the third time this year when he felt that Giant's Scutaro had missed a tag...

Box Score Bytes - Game 112

- Game 47 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 17-30.   Alex White returns to the mix.  Goes four innings giving up 3 runs with 82 pitches.   Starter's record is now 6-22 with 19 no decisions and bullpen record of 11-8. 

- Rox were looking good until a 5 run 8th which effectively ended any chance of winning their second series in a row!  Bullpen has been good this year but ugly when things go bad.

-  A 3-3 road trip to LA and San Fran is a step in the right direction.  Rox wore purple uniforms for the whole trip.  I wonder if that was on purpose?  

- Rox are 3-8 against the Giants this year with seven to play.  Sure would be nice to play spoiler's in late September although to allow the Dodgers to win out might be hard to take!

Box Score Bytes - Game 111

- Game 46 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 17-29.   The hard luck starter, Pomeranz, continues to struggle.  Hard to know if it is the 4 man rotation or just immaturity.  He is now 1-7, failing to pitch past the 4th inning and surrendering 4 runs with 73 pitches.  Starter's record is now 6-22 with 18 no decisions and bullpen record of 11-7. 

- Interesting stat in that Giants now have 38 triples, only two shy of the Rox leading total of 40.

Box Score Bytes - Game 110

- Game 45 of the Great Tracy Experiment (Train Wreck): Record 17-28.   Chatwood's second start of the year and pitches 5 strong innings with only 71 pitches!  Somebody got the memo!.  Starter's record is now 6-21 with 18 no decisions and bullpen record of 11-7. 

- Hard to believe we shut an offense down at their home park after they erupted with 35 runs at your park in about a weeks time.

- Rox third shutout this year and second in four games.  Have to wonder if Rox pitchers were pitching in pitcher friendly parks all the time whether they would be more successful.  Aggressiveness on the mound and self confidence can certainly be powerful.  Coors has really wrecked havoc on our psyche this year...

- Helton's 2012 campaign is over.  Had surgery today and hopes to be ready for next Spring and the 2013 season which in all likelihood will be his swan song and farewell tour.  At 38 years young he played in 69 games and collected 57 hits in 283 plate appearances.  He has 2,420 hits in his career.  It would be nice if he could stay healthy next year and get to the 2,500 plateau.

Box Score Bytes - Game 106

- Game 41 of the Great Tracy Experiment: Record 14-27.  With Friedrich on the DL, Chatwood gets thrown into the  mix.  Another stellar outing, not, going 3.1 innings.  When will this madness end?  Starter's record is now 5-21 with 15 no decisions and bullpen record of 9-6. 

- Ho hum another sweep, a 1-8 homestand, good times and a loss to Lincecum.

- Giants totaled 35 runs at Coors Field after scoring six in their previous three games.

- Rox put Sanchez on the DL along with Helton...will anyone be left?

Box Score Bytes - Game 105

- Game 40 of the Great Tracy Experiment: Record 14-26.  Francis struggles again and manages only 3.2  innings.  Gives up 6 runs and saw his ERA increase to 6.02.  How bad is our rotation?  He has been been our best...Starter's record is now 5-20 with 15 no decisions and bullpen record of 9-6. 

- Pinch me but really?  The Giants, the offensely challenged, has banged out 33 hits in the last two games.  Yikes!

- Giants own us this year compiling a 6-2 record against us.  Ughhhhh

- Not to beat a dead horse but 105 games into this Rox starting pitching has 18 wins.  Think about that...on pace for 28 wins...second closest to this value is 37 from Rox inaugural year

Box Score Bytes - Game 104

- Game 39 of the Great Tracy Experiment: Record 13-26.  Sanchez and Guthrie are two peas in the same pod.  Sanchez suffers through 3 innings against his old team.  Starter's record is now 5-20 with 14 no decisions and bullpen record of 8-6.

- Giants are 18th in the league in runs scored, they score 16 tonight...nothing we haven't seen with visitor's this summer.  Seemingly they come in, swing big bats, and for whatever reason their pitchers go into the 7th inning.

- Fowler got his 50th triple, now is number one in Rox history

- Have to wonder after 39 games of the 4-man rotation is the bullpen starting to collapse?  Gave up 14 runs!

Box Score Bytes - Game 35

- Great article in the Post this morning about calling out O'Dowd.  Thanks Kiszla for making the connection that this team, as constituted, is his and not the coaching staffs problem.  Back in the Spring during FanFest, I sat in on the management panel and while I came away impressed by the knowledge of the constituents, I can't help but reconsider after the dismal start about what it means to talk stats and sabermetrics.  Problem with the Rox is they are masking their mistakes by convincing themselves with numbers that they have found some hidden gem.  It was like when the question was asked about fly balls and how Rox went after some homer prone pitchers (Guthrie and Moscoso) and if this was a shift in philosophy of the type of pitcher that might work at Coors.  Instead of just saying we needed arms and we took what we could get due to salary issues O'Dowd talked about how these guys are fly ball pitchers but that their fly ball percentages in the field of play was what mattered not the fact that they had fly balls over the field of play.  This type of number spewing would suggest someone is trying to convince themselves rather than face up to the truth.  I think at this stage in the game most Rox fans know that convincing a pitcher to come here is useless.  Sure you might find an old retread worth a season or two but the real pitching comes from within.  

- To continue my O'Dowd bashing, as fans we were told we were bringing in quality guys over the guys we jettisoned last year.  Therefore Smith and Wiggington were sent off (and well Lopez too).  Numbers below compare our new character guys (which by the way cost us a whole lot more money) through about 35 games.  Cuddyer costing us about $10M when Smith was still cheap.  We still have a black hole that is 3B and well 2B is still not contributing a whole lot to the bottom line.  Where is the uproar?  More money spent but no production changes.  Slick marketing O'Dowd, bring in some flashing names and all of your problems are solved.

		R	HR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
RF	Smith	18	2	0.274	0.330	0.453	0.783
	Cuddyer	19	4	0.278	0.336	0.476	0.812
3B	Wiggy	6	2	0.231	0.301	0.385	0.686
	Nelson	4	0	0.219	0.313	0.288	0.601
2B	Herrera	11	1	0.289	0.395	0.381	0.776
	Scutaro	21	1	0.259	0.315	0.333	0.648

- Off my soapbox.  Nice win, sort of, last night.  Let's not forget we had a 4-1 lead before our bullpen almost imploded.  All that early use starting to wear on the arms?  Guess they are real excited about coming home.

- How hard has it been to win?  Rox get three gift errors (by the way Pacheco should have scored on that popup error and well a healthy Tulo should have had an inside the parker) and yet we still barely won that game.

- Scutaro's WPA for that homer equal to 0.354.  You could say he singlehandedly won that game

- Worse statistic in baseball?  Gotta be the hold. Outman got one (great name by the way) even though he gave up 3 runs and left with a tied game instead of the lead..

Box Score Bytes - Game 34

- Could it get much worse?  Yeah Tulo could have broken his leg on the Dexter's foul line drive into the dugout.  Really not feeling a lot of love for Dex right now

- WPA hitters vs pitchers?  A lot of talk has been that when our pitchers are on then our offense is off or when our offense is on our pitchers are off.  Thus in games there is a pitching WPA and and offense WPA.  Graph below is the difference between the two.  When the value is near zero the pitching and offense contributes equally.  Not for sure what this is suppose to say but it would suggest we have had a lot of offense and very little dominant pitching performances.

- Once again Rox on the road had opportunities.  Last night runners on 2nd and 3rd with 2 outs in the Eightth and Cuddyer strikes out.  Then in the 9th we had the bases loaded and Nelson grounded out.

-  Your young pitcher goes out and gives you 7 strong innings with 10 strikeouts and all you can manage is 1 stinking round when the other pitcher gives up 5 free passes?  Yikes

- As the broadcast made it painfully clear Giants shortstop earned his fielding pay last night fielding 8 plays last night

- Rox who have put it into McCovey's cove?  None although Walker did it as a Cardinal.  Only 18 non Giants have done it 24 times.

- From HighHeatStats:

  - Friedrich first Rox pitcher to begin career with 2 starts of 6+ IP and 1 ER or less

  - Tulo has gone 11 games without an RBI hitting a pathetic 0.220

  - Cuddyer who had a hot start has come back to Earth only having a 101 OPS+ which is 10 points the

    average corner outfielder.  Helton is at 101 as well with five regulars all at 87 or less (100 is league 

    average)

  - Not that we wanted a lot out of Scutaro but for a guy that was suppose to be an upgrade at 2B 

    offensively he has all of 2 RBI with no HRs

Box Score Bytes - Game 12

- Rox bang out 6 doubles, two from their all time record.  A reversal after Padres did it on Monday night

- Nicasio gets first win since his broken neck, going 6.1 innings with 5 strikeouts and no walks...Nice and gets his first ever RBI!

- Rogers looks like he has found his role.  Came in and got 3 K's in 1.2 innings of work.  So far this year he has pitched 7.1 innings and has 9 K

- Base stealing wasn't a strong point getting caught three times tonight

- Fowler seems a bit anxious.  He had 4 at bats and saw 8 total pitches, compare this to Scutaro who saw 21 and CarGo who saw 14 in 3 at bats.  Think he is pressing a bit?

Box Score Bytes - Game 6

- Baseball is truly a confounding sport...how can you the night before have 22 hits and 17 runs and then be reduced to no hit baseball for 5 innings?

- The ageless one pitched OK, kept the team in the game, but again was let down by his fielders.  Two more errors to go along with the one in Houston.  Team has 8 errors through 6 games...on pace for 216 errors!

- Bumgarner is 2-3 against Colorado with 7 starts.  He has a 2.05 ERA with 43 hits in 44 IP and 10 earned runs, so I guess we can move on to the next gauntlet.

- Is Tyler Colvin going to be playing more in Center?  Hate to say it but with Dex's lack of hitting and errors in the field it will be harder and harder to keep trotting him out there.

- Rox currently have 5 triples and 3 homers...on pace for 135 triples and only 81 homers!

- Scutaro is not a lead off hitter...think the Rox should think about putting CarGo there, followed by Colvin, Helton, Tulo, Cuddyer, Catcher, Nelson, Scutaro, Pitcher

- O/U for the game was 8.5.  Total scored was 6.

Box Score Bytes - Game 5

- Crazy night at Coors...Rox go up 6-0, then Giants storm back 7-6, then Rox get 3 back to go up 9-7, then Rox really open it up by scoring 7 to go up 16-7, and then scoring ended with another homer and one run for the Giants.

- Welcome to Coors Mr Guthrie, you join a long list of pitchers cringing  (well maybe that is too harsh) at calling Coors home...
        Pedro Astacio won his home debut in August 1997 with a 9-5 decision going 7.2 innings and giving up 8     hits, 5 runs
        Jorge De La Rosa lost his home debut in May 2008 with a 7-12 decision going 4.0 innings and giving up 9 hits, 9 runs
        Darryl Kile lost his home debut in April 1998 with a 7-18 decision going 6.0 innings and giving up 9 hits, 8 runs
        Denny Neagle won his home debut in April 2001 with a 13-9 decision going 5.0 innings and giving up 7 hits, 3 runs
        Mike Hampton won his home debut in April 2001 with a 8-0 decision going 8.1 innings and giving up 5 hits, 0 runs

- 6th time Rox have scored 17 runs.  Still a perfect 6-0!

- 22 hits and no homers (but 3 triples and 8 doubles)?  This is the 2nd time in Rox history they have banged out 22 hits (their high is 25 hits).  CarGo had two of the triples, Dex had two doubles, and Cuddyer at three doubles!

- How crazy is the save statistic?  Chatwood got the save last night for working 3 innings with a 9 run lead

- O/U for this game was 8.5.    Teams combined for 25 runs, 34 hits

Box Score Bytes - Game 4

-Is there such a thing as a restart?  Yikes this could get ugly before year end...about the only positive I took from today's game was Roenicke's two scoreless innings

- I really try to look for positive things but when you get shut out on opening day against a pitcher who is considered washed up and of the four hits, one was a dribbler from your pitcher you really have to stop and say oh s*&#, it might be a long season

- Tulo and CarGo both had an error?  The day started with both the Red Sox and Yankees in last place...are we in bizarro world?

- Have to admit the first opening day I have been to that I didn't think Rox were ever in the ball game.  Really disappointing start of the season.  This isn't fun...

UPDATED - 148th time Rox have been shutout, 32nd time at home, third time at home by Giants, and second time at home by Zito (with the help of 3 relievers, back in April 2007)

Box Score Bytes - Game 162

1) In a meaningless game Rox do finally win one in San Fran.  It was a nice way to finish and hopefully a building block to next year

2)  In other news Game 162s in other parts of the country played out like a well scripted adventure/mystery/tragedy novel.  Some quotes from last night

Joe Posnanski, "I’ve written this before: I never argue with people who say that baseball is boring, because baseball is boring. And then, suddenly, it isn’t. And that’s what makes it great."

And an epic closing, "The Braves failed to score. Papelbon blew the lead. Longoria homered in the 12th. Elation. Sadness. Mayhem. Champagne. Sleepless fury. Never been a night like it. Funny, if I was trying to explain baseball to someone who had never heard of it, I wouldn’t tell them about Wednesday night. No, it seems to me that Wednesday night isn’t what makes baseball great. It’s all the years you spend waiting for Wednesday night that makes baseball great."

Box Score Bytes - Game 161

1) OK I realize Alex White is a work in progress at 22 but what was the value of getting him into the majors this year so that he started 7 games (pitch 36.1 innings) and get shelled to the tune of 48 hits and 12 home runs?  This could needs another good year in AA and to think realistically they think he is going to be in the rotation next year...ughhhh....new slogan Tulo and the Toddlers Part II

2)  Rox are 4-13 against the Giants this year.  They have scored 53 runs against them...and only 10 runs in San Fran...that is just plain frightening

3)  Nightmare for this game...Top of the 2nd runner's on 1st and 3rd, no one out and the next three batters strikeout...what more can you say to symbolize the season for offensive woes...and after that only one more hit the rest of the night

4)  Thankfully the season is almost done and we are not Red Sox and Braves fans!