Saturday, May 18, 2013
Townsend: Troy Tulowitzki denies accusing Madison Bumgarner of doctoring baseballs
(sports.yahoo.com)
Read More...That brings us to Coors Field on Friday night. For a few seconds it seemed like we may have been headed towards that inevitable flare up. It happened in the third inning with Troy Tulowitzki running on first base, D.J. LeMahieu at the plate, and Madison Bumgarner pitching. As it’s being reported, Tulowitzki asked first base umpire Tim McClelland to check the baseball. McClelland complied, stopping play to give it a once over before tossing it out of play.
Bumgarner had the outward reaction ...
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1 2 >Upon further investigation he actually got MVP votes three years ago. And his groundbreaking 35-year contract extension ends after next year.
For a team with so much interesting young talent, the Rockies have been shockingly bad this year. That pitching staff is atrocious.
Actually Giambi is also on the DL, as is the relatively youthful Michael Cuddyer who has gotten most of the other 1B starts. For the meantime the role of Rockies 1B will be played by either Tyler Colvin or somebody named "McBride".
Looking at the Rockies BB-ref page... holy cats, that red-green bar graph looks horrible. Since the All-Star break they're 5-16 and have a team ERA of 6.51. They are 9-22 in blowouts, and three of their blowout wins somehow came on three straight days (May 30-June 1 - only two were against the Astros).
A catching sensation? I know Wilin Rosario has been good this year, but he still looks like, at best, the next Miguel Olivo.
I like Helton, and he's supposedly a good fielder which has made him a pretty good player even when he's not hitting that well. Still, something seems wrong with the Rockies have a starting 1B who hasn't hit more than 20 HR in a season in 8 years.
Let's see...2,420 hits, 354 HR (in Coors...wink wink, nudge nidge), no rings, no MVPs, but 58.5 WAR and 164 HOF Monitor.
Naah, he doesn't get in.
Fun fact: 74 of the Rockies 96 games not started by Jamie Moyer were by pitchers with worse ERAs than Moyer. Yikes.
Rosario is a terrible defensive catcher, but he sure hits the ball a long way. He's tied with Brian McCann for most homers among NL catchers this year, even though Rosario hasn't been the starter for the whole season.
Even better: the Rox have 18 players -- 8 position players and 10 pitchers -- with negative WARs. Can't anybody here play this game?
Yeah, it's amazing. This is an epic bad staff.
BBRef's WAR is useless. Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler are both having very good seasons, even if BBref has them an inch behind Belisle.
I believe he's actually tied with Jorge de la Rosa, who hasn't pitched in a game this year.
Maybe Belisle is pitching from behind second base and making plays way outside his range.
Quick everyone, name the 5 players who've started the most games at 1B for the Rockies.
1. Helton 2068
2. Galarraga 677
3. _________ 105
4. _________ 78
5. _________ 44
I'd never noticed it before either. I was doing the math like a sucker.
Vander Wal is probably next, with 41 starts over 3 1/2 seasons before he was traded to the Padres.
Jerald Clark, Greg Colbrunn, Angel Echevarria, and Ryan Shealy are even lower down the list.
Oh, I don't know about that. The 2002 Rays did have one starter manage a 98 ERA+ but had only one pitcher on the entire staff with 30+ IP and an ERA over 100 -- Esteban Yan at 103. The staff ERA+ was 84, a couple points worse than the Rox. The 2008 Pirates had an 82 ERA+. The execrable 2003 Tigers had an 81 which wasn't that much worse than the 2002 Tigers mark of 86. And of course the 2012 Astros stand at 84 despite several above-average pitchers (by ERA+). The Twins are at 86 too.
But, wow, the 2012 Indians are down at 81. Zach McAllister has given them 11 starts at 113 ERA+ (and peripherals to match!), otherwise their "top" starter is Masterson at 81.
It probably is rare not to have at least one guy start a game and have an ERA+ over 100 but this level of overall crappiness is pretty standard for crappy teams.
To be fair, when a team has pitchers with negative WARs, the logical thing to do is replace them with other pitchers from the minors who will probably also have negative WARs. With the Rockies having used a whopping 24 pitchers in the first 96 games of the season, I'm surprised they don't have 14 or 16 pitchers with negative WARs.
Rosario is currently carrying a 98 OPS+ for 2012, as a 23-year-old.
The first time Olivo put up an OPS+ that high or higher, he was 30.
Money for nothing, and your chicks for free.
Huh? Vlad's a no-doubter, and Damon and Abreu have basically no chance.
Not saying that's necessarily what it should be, but it's what it is.
Not saying that's necessarily what it should be, but it's what it is.
They gave up on that kid way too soon.
And if Helton gets any sort of healthy vote total then the League of Not-Quite-Extraordinary 1B (Delgado, McGriff, Cash, Hernandez, Olerud, Clark) and Larry Walker should rise up in arms.
Even his OPS against the current D backs pitching staff is .822, and when he did get his hits, it seems like they always came at a key time. He had a walk off HR against JJ Putz earlier this year.
Ball park effects in his peak, pre humidor, and then playing with a bad back and soggy balls taking away his HR power probably have really hurt his HOF chances. But Helton was a great player.....a player that you HATED as a division rival. Although I am loathe to root for ANY Colorado Rockie, it would not be a bad thing if he recovered and had a decent swan song season for them and went out on a high note.
Still....a huge part of me wants to end this post with a #### You Todd Helton. Thats what a pain in the arse he's been.
I thought he'd get to 500 homers and make a run at 3000 hits. Vlad has a lot more of the feel of HOFer than Abreu, but it's not backed up by reality. I thought Vlad would have the superior peak, but even there it's not much of a difference. Vlad wins the fear factor hands down. Look at intentional walks - Vlad has more than twice as many even though lefties normally get more of those (relative to batting ability). But Abreu beat you just as much as Vlad did.
Vlad's final great moment as an Angel was his go-ahead, 2 run bloop single off Papelbon. Part of the reason he was able to do that was Abreu, 2 batters earlier, hitting one off the wall.
In the eyes of the voters, Vlad's .318 average, big power edge, 200 hit seasons, and MVP award (and several other top 10 finishes) will give him a big leg up over Abreu's candidacy.
Abreu is 792nd all-time.
Vlad's in. Bobby's out.
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