Well, this is just great, huh?  The Rockies follow up a three-game sweep of the Yankees by … getting swept in their next two series.  I call this Coors Equilibrium.  A stretch of brilliantly-played baseball, followed immediately by a stretch of mediocre or worse play.  The 20-7 stretch from May 22 to June 21 obviously wasn’t going to last forever — even the best teams don’t play .740 baseball over an entire season, as that would equate to a 120-42 record, which nobody’s ever done — but did anyone expect it to come crashing down so suddenly?

I think what may become the turning point of the Rockies’ season, when all is said and done (and no, I don’t mean this in a good way) was the 10th inning on Friday night in Toronto.  Tulo homers to put the Rockies up two in the top of the 10th, and everything’s good, right?  Then Fuentes can’t nail the door shut.  Then Iannetta botches things even further by throwing the ball into the outfield and allowing the winning run to score.

That started the Streak of Very Bad Things.  Immediately following was a pretty awful start by Aaron Cook that resulted in an 11-6 loss.  Then, the offense, evidently bored with scoring a bunch of runs and losing because of poor pitching, decided to shut it off the next day and get no-hit for eight innings by Dustin Freaking McGowan.  Then, on Monday night, the Rockies inexplicably erased a five-run deficit in the ninth inning, capped by another Tulo homer that gave the Rockies a one-run lead and led to a crazed Cubs fan running out on the field at Cubs pitcher Bob Howry.  Of course, Fuentes again blew the save.  Rodrigo Lopez then decided he’d join the rest of the starting rotation by mailing it in in an 8-5 loss (only the second game Rodrigo’s started this season that the Rockies have lost.)  Then the Rockies got shut down by Carlos Zambrano today.

At this point, it’s almost too obvious to rag on the bullpen, but they’re certainly the weak point of this team, and the ‘pen turned two losses into wins this week.  That alone would be the difference between being two games over .500 and two games under.  But the starting pitching isn’t any good, either.  Anybody who still thinks that the Rockies are selectively using the humidor to influence the outcome of games needs only look at Jason Hirsh’s 5.63 home ERA (versus a halfway-decent 4.39 on the road.)  It used to be that Rockies pitchers stunk at home and, strangely, were even worse on the road.  That really doesn’t seem to be the case any more.

Well, welcome back, old Rockies.  We sure missed you.  (No, not really.)

After a three-game sweep of the almighty Yankees earlier in the week, the Rockies traveled north of the border and immediately dropped their first two games against the Blue Jays.  Yes, I realize that a three-game sweep of the Yankees doesn’t quite mean what it would have, say, four years ago, but it’s still a big deal to a team that hasn’t been having much success in recent years.  But the same Rockies pitching staff that gave up five runs in three games against the Yankees has given up twenty runs in two games to the Blue Jays.  To further the point of how out of whack this all is, the Yankees are hitting .282 as a team; the Blue Jays are hitting a paltry .256.

Of course, "the same Rockies pitching staff" is a bit misleading.  The three games against the Yankees were pitched by Josh Fogg, Jeff Francis, and Rodrigo Lopez.  Francis, of course, is the de facto staff ace, who’s won five of his last six starts and has an excellent 1.77 ERA over that stretch.  In eight of his last nine starts he’s given up two or fewer runs, and he’s gone less than seven innings just once in that span.  Fogg is constantly cited as the Rockies starter fans would most like to be sent to the bullpen, including by myself, but recently he’s been one of our better starters; the Rockies have won in his past four starts, and he has a 3.91 ERA in that time.  And, well, the Rockies are only 7-1 in games started by Rodrigo Lopez.  I wonder what our record would be if we’d had him starting all season and not had to deal with stretches of BK Kim and Taylor Buchholz being used as starters.

On the other hand, the two games against the Blue Jays have been started by Jason Hirsh and Aaron Cook.  Hirsh in many ways is the prototypical rookie starting pitcher: he looks brilliant at times, but at other times he just looks lost.  Outside of a complete game five-hitter against the Orioles on June 10, Hirsh has mostly been looking lost of late, and it’s hurting the team.  Of course, there’s nobody obvious to fill his spot in the rotation, so the Rockies will probably just stick it out with Hirsh.  Aaron Cook was supposed to be our ace, but that’s hardly been the case.  Outside of a four-game stretch in early May when Cook won three straight starts largely due to great run support (heck, Cook had a 5.71 ERA in those starts) he hasn’t been great.  Eight of his sixteen starts have been quality starts, but he’s also had seven starts in which he’s given up five or more runs.  And outside of that three-game stretch, the Rockies are 3-10 when Cook starts.  That’s not what you expect from an ace.

The offense, on the other hand, has been good in this series, though part of that is just the matter of facing off against Josh Towers and Ty Taubenheim.  Tomorrow it will be Dustin McGowan and his 5.68 ERA (and he can’t blame that ERA on Coors, either.)  Josh Fogg goes for us, and, well, if Fogg can beat Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina, surely he can beat Dustin McGowan, right?

I hope so.  We need to stop the bleeding right now before this turns into one of those season-unraveling losing skids that we’ve become used to in Junes and Julys past.

Yesterday morning, Colin Cowherd said something that had to make the blood of a Rockies fan boil.  I know it did it to me.  Cowherd was complaining about Mark Kiszla’s column chastising the Rockies for nearly doubling ticket prices for the Yankees series.  Cowherd’s point was simple: People want to see the Yankees, so it’s just good business for teams like the Rockies to raise ticket prices because people want to see the Yankees.

That’s true, and props go out to Charlie Monfort for realizing this and telling all those fairweather fans in Denver (not to mention the Yankees fans that have been trying to make Coors Field a second home the past three days) that if they only want to see the Rockies play when the Yankees are in town, and not go to the other 78 games of the year, that they’re going to have to do it for twice the price.  If what you really want to see is the Rockies, well, there are 78 other games that you can go to for a much more reasonable price.

But what Cowherd failed to mention was that the Rockies beat the Yankees on Tuesday night.  And Wednesday night.  And this afternoon.  So what if the Yankees are just a .500 team right now?  When you can sell out the ballpark (or come close to it) three games in a row, and those fans that come out that, presumably, wouldn’t normally go out to a baseball game at Coors get to see the home team win three in a row, that’s really good business.  Props go out to Clint Hurdle and the boys for actually sweeping what may be the biggest series of the year.  Think some of those fans who came out just to see the Rockies play the Yankees this week won’t be coming back more this season?  Certainly, especially once they realize that they won’t have to pay nearly as much if they want to come back.

What a week it’s been.  Even though the Yankees are a .500 team right now, they were coming in on a hot streak, and most people (ESPN, I’m looking at you) were probably expecting them to just roll over the Rockies, scoring something around 40 runs over three games, and watching their pitchers shut down the Rockies offense.  Instead, it was five runs over three games, as the Rockies pitchers were the ones doing the shutting down.  And even if this is a .500 ballclub, they trotted out three pitchers among whom Andy Pettitte has the least career wins with 190.  That’s more than the three Rockies starters combined, who have just 153.  Never mind the lineup that features two virtual locks for the Hall of Fame (Jeter and A-Rod), along with a bunch of other guys who have had pretty solid careers themselves.  Just the fact that the Rockies weren’t intimidated by the Yankees would have been a victory.

Considering how little attention he’s getting, you probably wouldn’t know that Matt Holliday is leading the NL in batting average by 18 points, and he’s just two off the lead in RBI.  Matt’s only seventh among all NL outfielders in All-Star voting despite his stellar year.  If anyone needs any further evidence that the humidor has turned Coors Field into a less hitter-friendly park than it once was, look no further than the five runs that the vaunted Yankees lineup scored there this week.  Sure, Matt Holliday’s batting .405 there, but who cares?

What a week.  With the way the Rockies are playing (coupled with the fact that we won’t have to face Roy Halladay), I wouldn’t be surprised if they went into Toronto and swept that series as well.

Rooting for your team is a lot more fun when they’re playing well.  After beating the Devil Rays on Saturday night, the Rockies went to 35-33 on the season, and they’ve won seven of their last eight series (and the one they didn’t win was a four-game split with the Cardinals.)  The Devil Rays series was soured a bit by a loss on Sunday in what was a very winnable game.  Scott Kazmir was all over the place, but the Rockies couldn’t really take advantage of it.  As much as I like Aaron Cook, he’s hardly an ace: In five of his last ten starts, he’s given up five or more runs.  He seems to actually pitch worse when the Rockies give him a few runs to work with.

But now, the Yankees come to town, and if there’s a team in baseball that’s hotter than the Rockies… well, it’s the Yankees.  The Yanks have won 11 of 12, they’re 13-3 in the month of June, and while they’re not exactly breathing down Boston’s neck (they’re eight games back) they’re at least making things a little more interesting in the AL East.  The Rockies are 10-5 in June, which isn’t too shabby, either, and they’re 17-7 since May 22.  Still, we’re five and a half back of the Padres, and unlike the Yankees we’ve got three teams ahead of us in the standings.  It’s conceivable that the Red Sox could go on a losing binge, but to ask the Dodgers, Padres, and Diamondbacks to all do the same is asking a lot.

Still, the recent results are highly encouraging.  I hardly think this qualifies as the biggest series of the year, though that’s certainly what the Rockies PR department would have you believe, but it’s still pretty big, perhaps bigger than that series with the Red Sox last week.  After all, we’re talking about the Yankees here.  A-Rod.  Jeter.  Clemens.  Matsui.  At the very least, the Rockies will get more than the obligatory highlight on Baseball Tonight this week, even if it’s showing A-Rod hitting a couple of bombs off Tuesday night’s starter, Josh Fogg.

In other news, our first-round pick Casey Weathers signed today.  Weathers could be in the majors as early as September.

You’ve perhaps noticed that my posting on here has been relatively sparse lately.  My internship has a lot to do with that, as I’m working forty hours a week, in addition to commuting an hour each way every day (and not getting paid for it, imagine that.)

The Rockies have been playing well lately, no doubt about it.  Since dropping a series to Kansas City from May 18-20, the team’s gone 14-7, including winning every series save for a four-game split against the Cardinals.  A win tonight against the Red Sox and the Rockies will have won 6 of their last 7 series, including four straight on the road.  What’s more, the Rockies, should they hand Josh Beckett his first loss of the season tonight, will be a .500 ballclub.  Imagine that.

Still, this franchise just seems like a tease.  They had a winning record after the All-Star Break in that dismal 2005 season, and they led the NL West for a good portion of the first half last season, but they’re still capable of tanking at times.  There’s no doubt that the team’s gotten a bit lucky; they’ve been outscored by 30 runs and have a Pythagorean record of 29-36, and that’s no doubt enhanced by last night’s 12-2 shellacking of the Sox.  Of course, we’re 8-7 in one-run games, so it’s not like we’re disproportionately winning those ballgames.

The Devil Rays come to town over the weekend, and while normally that would be cause for celebration — what better way to get to .500, or even over .500 — the Rays are hot right now, having won 7 of their last 10 games.  Much of this has to do with getting better starting pitching.  After watching the triumvirate of Edwin Jackson, Casey Fossum, and Jae Seo be completely awful over the early part of the season, the Rays noticed that the Triple-A Durham Bulls had a better starting rotation.  Then they noticed that, well, the Bulls were their AAA franchise and there was no point in having Fossum and Seo blow up any more, so they ditched Seo and sent Fossum to the bullpen.  Now in their place are Andy Sonnanstine, who had an excellent 66/13 K/BB ratio in 71 innings at Durham, and J.P. Howell, with a likewise excellent 64/18 ratio.  I guess Jackson gets to stick around because he’s young and still has potential, but it’s almost impossible to think well of his 0-8 record and 8.20 ERA.  Unfortunately, the Rockies won’t get to tee off on Jackson this weekend, instead getting Sonnanstine on Saturday, sandwiched between the two Rays starters who have been consistently good, James Shields (6-0, 3.04 ERA) and Scott Kazmir (4-3, 4.07).  For us it’s Lopez, Hirsh, and Cook.

My colleague Mark at Bad Altitude thinks that Willy Taveras is just awful, a sentiment I don’t agree with.  Even Willy’s .367 OBP and 15 stolen bases haven’t convinced Mark.  I guess he’s entitled to his own opinion, but I don’t want Cory Sullivan in center field any time soon, and since the Rockies apparently don’t plan on giving Ryan Spilborghs a shot at starting, that’s the best we can really hope for.  If there’s one thing I don’t like about the sabermetric approach, it’s that sabermetric types often seem to be convinced that hitters who don’t hit for power are useless, which I don’t agree with.  The 1990s, when every two-bit shortstop in the majors suddenly became a home run threat, are over, and it’s hard to expect that they’ll be back any time soon what with the rigorous steroid testing now in place (I assume it’s rigorous, anyway, but then again Barry Bonds has not tested positive for anything, so who really knows.)  The humidor at Coors Field hasn’t completely eliminated the old Coors Field game (you know, lots of homers, no lead is ever safe, final score something like 12-8) but it’s becoming less and less common.  That makes a guy like Taveras, who can cover the huge center field at Coors and use the huge outfield to his advantage as a hitter, very valuable.  That’s the main reason why he’s been better this season than he was in Houston.

Anyway, I’m hoping for a win tonight, but it’ll be tough against Beckett, particularly after the Rockies pantsed the Sox last night.  Curt Schilling has done just about everything short of giving a pitch-by-pitch breakdown of last night’s game.  Yes, Curt, you lost to Josh Fogg.  Deal with it.

After correcting Spring Training Mistake #1 (getting rid of Mabry), the Rockies finally got around to correcting Mistake #2.  Those of us in the Rockies blog avalanche weren’t too thrilled about these two guys not only making the squad, but, in the case of Finley, getting fairly significant playing time.  Finley appeared in 43 games for the Rockies, making a total of 102 plate appearances, largely in a pinch-hit/occasional starting CF role.  Mabry was only a minor mistake by comparison, as he appeared in 28 games and got 39 plate appearances before the Rockies decided they’d had enough of his .118/.231/.235 and dropped him for Ryan Spilborghs, who’s currently hitting .308/.345/.462.  Big difference.  Guess that’s what Clint gets for deciding he needed Mabry’s veteran presence, not to mention left-handed bat off the bench to complement Jeff Baker (currently hitting .224/.289/.382 … but that’s better than what Finley or Mabry was doing.)

Finley was a little better than Mabry, hitting .181/.245/.245, and evidently the fact that he can still (sort of) play center field kept him with the team longer than he should have been.  In the case of Finley, though, it almost seemed like the Rockies had penciled him in as their backup CF from day one, while simultaneously giving the shaft to 2006 starter Cory Sullivan (not a bad move; Sully’s hitting a Finley-esque .221/.291/.273 at AAA.)  With Spilborghs already on the team and able to be an adequate CF when Willy Taveras needs a day off, the beneficiary of this is Sean Barker, whose next major league at bat will be his first.  Barker was hitting .333/.364/.556 at Colorado Springs, which I guess merits a callup these days, since Sully (as mentioned) isn’t hitting and Seth Smith probably isn’t ready for the majors.  Barker’s 27, so he’s not exactly young, he’s an LSU product (like fellow Rockies OF Brad Hawpe), and he can hit for some power: he knocked 20 homers at Visalia in 2004, 14 at Tulsa in 2005, 13 in a little more than half a season in the Springs in ’06, and 5 so far this year.  He also strikes out a ton; once every four at bats for his minor league career, and that number’s gone up as he’s moved up the minors (once every 3.17 ABs last season.)  Assuming he’s not used as often as Finley (he probably won’t be, since he’s not a veteran) he could be a decent part-time player for the time being.

On the other hand, calling up Barker means the Rockies continue to carry six outfielders for no apparent reason.  Well, that’s a bit misleading since Jeff Baker doubles as a corner infielder, but Omar Quintanilla’s been playing well lately at AAA.  On the other hand, the Rockies know about what they have with Quintanilla, but they haven’t seen Barker in the show yet.

And finally, Spring Training Mistake #3 turned out not to be a mistake at all.  We all thought the Rockies were, well, nuts when they decided to put BK Kim and Josh Fogg in the rotation to start the year, sending Ubaldo Jimenez back to AAA.  But with Ubaldo’s 6.60 ERA at AAA, that’s not looking like such a bad move.  And while Fogg and Kim haven’t been great — Fogg has a 4.53 ERA, and Kim isn’t a Rockie any more — it’s hard to imagine Ubaldo being much better.

On to the draft.  Well, what do we expect?  Quick answer is that whatever happens in the draft on Thursday probably won’t make the Rockies any better in 2007.  As we all well know, baseball draftees don’t have the immediate impact on their teams the way basketball and football draftees do.  To wit, among players the Rockies have drafted in the last four years, only two (Troy Tulowitzki and Chris Iannetta) have even made it to the majors.  Whatever happens on Thursday won’t affect the Rockies’ fortunes for the next three years or so.

Also unlike basketball and football, I may have never heard of any of our draft picks unless they play for Vanderbilt.  That’s all I really have to offer… but Purple Row has a lot to say about the draft if that’s your cup of tea.