Know the Rox - May 10-12

[Frayed Knot]

Not your usual Colorado Rockies team. They�re below league avg in both BA & SLG but stay above par in Runs/game on account of drawing a ton of walks, second in the league. And the stadium still has something to do with it despite the era of the humidor.
Beyond that they lead the NL in starters with really silly first names (Ubaldo, Jhoulys, Esmil) and in relievers named Matt (Lindstrom, Belisle, Reynolds)

Still in first place in the NL West (1 game lead) with an 18-14 record, the Rox have cooled since sweeping the Mets in a four-gamer at Citi, games that were numbers 3 thru 6 of a 7-game winning streak for them and games 2 thru 5 in a 7-game losing streak for us. The Metsies didn�t exactly get blown out each game except for the last one [7-6; 5-4; 6-5; 9-4] but they played some pretty bad ball over that week. Mainly they got out-played and out-Tulowitski�d. TT in that series went 10 for 16 with 4 HRs + a double, scoring 5 and knocking in 8; .625/.700/1.438

But the Rox are just 9 - 12 since that series inclulding just getting swept by the Giants and losing three of their last four via walk-offs (Arz + Giants x2). Mets are 11-10 over that same stretch.

** Time Alert** - these are the first games out of the Eastern Time Zone for the Mets this season so adjust your lives accordingly.

* Monday, May 9 - 8:40 PM EDT -- Capuano vs Jhoulys Chacin [4-2; 2.85; 1.146 WHiP]
Mets didn�t see Chacin the first time around and his history with the Mets consists of just 1 inning of relief during a brief call-up in 2009. He was 9-11; 3.28 in his rookie year last season.

* Tuesday, May 10 -- 8:40 PM EDT -- Pelfrey vs Jason Hammell [3-1; 2.63; 1.248 - and no relation to Cole Hamels so he�s not automatically a dick]
Hammell pitched the first game of the earlier series and we tagged him for 4 runs (2 earned) over 6. He didn�t figure in the decision which we lost because of a Tulowitski HR off Parnell in the 8th

* Wednesday, May 11 -- 3:10 PM -- Niese vs Ubaldo Jiminez [0-2; 5.88; 1.462]
We didn�t see Ubaldo last month either as he was DL�d right after his Opening Day start. Since being re-activated he�s started four times with so-so results. His best start was his last when he allowed just one run over 6.0 IPs in a no-decision vs SFG. Still, quite a change from his CY-worthy first half last season when he was like 15-0 by mid-April (or something like that).


Round up the usual suspects:
C - Chris Iannetta and Jose Morales - Ianetta�s got 15 hits this season but 20 walks!!! Morales switch-hits
1B - Todd Helton - he�s old and can�t run, but hitting much better compared to recent years
2B - Jonathan Herrera - another one of their guys who�s hitting just OK but is taking a ton of walks
SS - Troy Tulowitski - he�s played every inning of every game so far
3B - Jose Lopez and Ian Stewart - Neither is hitting a lick. The lefty-swinging Stewart is just back from minor league exile.
LF - Carlos Gonzalez - BIG come-down from last season. Low BA (.239) and little power (27 hits, 20 singles)
CF - Dexter Fowler - Very fast, also taking a ton of walks
RF - Steve Smith & Ryan Spilborghs - Smith the LHB is out-playing the RH Spilborghs

Real good defensive team
Also a real good bullpen: Closer Huston Street, plus Rafael Betancourt, Matt Lindstrom, Matt Belisle, Clayton Mortensen, and LHPs Franklin Morales & Matt Reynolds

All RH starters this week so maybe only the day game for Paulino,
We need decent games from Thole, Pridie & Davis and can�t be walking all those dudes in front of the Tulo monster.

DL - starter Esmil Rogers, plus old buddy Ty Wigginton with the hot injury for 2011, the strained oblique.



Songs about Denver/Colorado

John Denver - Rocky Mountain High
I mean ya gotta start with this one. It�s pure Denver (the man, not the city) and, hell, he even named himself after the damn place even though his real name was Henry Deutschendorf Jr.
And you know how it goes so I won't torture you with the video.

Judy Collins - The Blizzard
A beautifully sung song (it is Judy Collins after all) even if the lyrics read like something straight out of a Lifetime movie.
There�s this blizzard you see ... and the singer can�t make her destination so pulls into a diner ... and she has a few drinks and starts pouring her heart out to �the stranger� a local who offers her a place to stay the night ... and even though the weather clears and she leaves in the morning, the one night with the nameless stranger from the diner allows her to finally cast off the remains of the rat she�s recently broken up with and has been in fact siniging to all along.
Amazing what getting laid on a snowy night will do for you.

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Bob Seger - Get out of Denver
Guitar licks straight out of the Chuck Berry catalog with a story line more like a less humorous version of �Uneasy Rider� where the longhairs are racing for the city line just a couple steps ahead of the law and the rednecks.
... Cops came bustin� in and man we lit out in a pickup truck sayin� GO!
get out of Denver baby GO!
get out of Denver baby
�Cause you look just like a commie and you might just be a member baby, GO, get out of Denver.

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Warren Zevon - Things to do in Denver When You�re Dead
Not sure if it�s an official Zevon song if death doesn�t enter into things somewhere.
The movie was named after the song.

LeRoy says there's something you should know
Not everybody has a place to go
And home is just a place to hang your head
And dream of things to do in Denver when you're dead

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Townes Van Zandt - My Proud Mountains
A Texas native, Townes lived in Colorado for a time and wrote several songs about it.

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Joe Walsh - Rocky Mountain Way
There's even some baseball content in this one

Bases are loaded and Casey's at bat
Playin' it play by play
Time to change the batter
And we don't need the ladies
Crying 'cuz the story's sad
Rocky Moutain Way is better than the way we had

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Edited May 8, 2011 by Guest

[Guest themetfairy]

Well played FK.

This is why I don't do KTEs - you guys constantly raise the bar too high for me!

[Edgy MD]

Love a lot of those Coloradosongs. This is my favorite.

[youtube:1w14ow2b]49HLHoHcJE[/youtube:1w14ow2b]

[ashie62]

Paulino gets a gay dame.

[Fman99]

Nice work FK.

[TransMonk]

Nice work, FK. Time to avenge that crappy CF series from April.

[G-Fafif]

Dave Loggins's "

" alternately suggested "please come to Denver, with the snowfall." That appeal involved moving up into the mountains "so far that we can't be found". An early example (1974) of living off the grid. Within a year, in "

," Barry Manilow defined the "cities and towns [he'd] been in" as "Boston to Denver, and every town in between."

And

from John Denver regarding his favorite state.

In the runup to Super Bowl XXV, Fred Norris, Howard Stern's song parodist (and "total personality" per the movie version of Private Parts), re-imagined "Get Out of Denver" as "Bend Over Denver" -- which they did, for the Giants, 39-20.

[Edgy MD]

Also a big fan of "Please Come to Boston."

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Edgy DC wrote: Love a lot of those Coloradosongs. This is my favorite. [youtube]49HLHoHcJE[/youtube]

I don't see a videeeo.

Seth Smith, not Steve. Who names their kid Seth Smith?

[Edgy MD]

I meant thees:

[youtube:3gxu6hyg]e49HLHoHcJE[/youtube:3gxu6hyg]

[Edgy MD]

And while we're on that early seventies country-rock tip:
[youtube:271jbmzo]dPpnvNlywP8[/youtube:271jbmzo]