Gwreck

Know Your Rockies 2010 Last year: 92-70; Wild-card and lost the division series in 4 games to the Phillies. Series was tied 1-1 and then Phillies beat closer Huston Street in the 9th inning of games 3 and 4. Manager Clint Hurdle was fired during the season and replaced by Jim Tracy and the team immediately won 20 of 25. The Mets took 3 of 4 from the Rockies in late July last year, one of the few good things of the second half of the year and dropped 2 of 3 in a forgettable early September series in Denver. Rockies were 51-30 at home last year, 2nd best (by 1 game) in the NL. This year: 3-3, winning a series against the Padres and losing one to Milwaukee. They project to again be contenders for the NL West and/or Wild Card this year. Rockies have a solid team with Tulowitzki on a favorable long-term deal, several promising young players, reworked Helton's contract in the off-season and probably could add money during the year if they needed an additional body. Pitching Matchups: Fortunately, we miss staff ace Ubaldo Jimenez who beat San Diego on Sunday and is a possible Cy Young candidate (behind Lincecum/Halladay). Tuesday - 8:40 EDT gametime Greg Smith (L) v. John Maine Smith only pitched 49 minor league innings last year due to shoulder problems. Was nothing special in his 2008 rookie year with Oakland. Got knocked around a bit by Milwaukee last week. Never faced the Mets before. Wednesday - 8:40 EDT Aaron Cook ® v. Jon Niese Cook is the second-longest tenured Colorado player (after Helton). He's an innings eater and was 11-6 with a decent 110 ERA+ last year; pitches to contact and doesn't strike out that many. Had several good starts against the Mets in '07 and '08 but he hasn't faced the Mets since July 11, 2008 when held the Mets to 6 hits and 1 run in 6 innings. Cook trivia: was the Colorado starter in the Endy Chavez drag bunt game of a few years back. Thursday - 3:10 EDT Jorge De La Rosa (L) v. Mike Pelfrey De La Rosa was 16-9 with a 4.38 ERA last year but his key stats were a 2.33 K/BB ratio and 9.4 K/9 inning ratio. Opened his season with a good start against San Diego on Friday, 1 hit, 1 walk and 9 Ks in 7 innings. Had two solid outings against the Mets last year (6 1/3IP, 2ER, 5K, 3H, 3BB in July; 6IP, 1ER, 6K, 4H, 3BB in September). Bullpen: Closer Huston Street is out with shoulder inflammation and won't be back before May 1. Franklin Morales (L) is closing games in Street's absence and already has a couple saves this year. Tatis nailed him with a tie-breaking grand slam in the bottom of the 8th of this game last year. Rafael Betancourt ® is the top setup guy. He was a mideseason acquisition last year from Cleveland and was great with the Rockies: 17H, 5BB, 29Ks and a 1.78 ERA in 25 innings. Matt Daley ® has a live arm and was a rookie last year. He grew up a big Mets fan in Garden City. Story about his first trip to the Mets' home park as a player last year. Manny Corpas ® also has a live arm and had a 3.4 K/BB ratio last year despite a 5.88 ERA. Randy Flores is a situational lefty. Lineup: LF Carlos Gonzalez (L) The big prize from Oakland in the Matt Holliday deal (the As got him from Arizona for Haren). 24 years old and a potential star in the making; this will be his first season as a full-time player. 120 OPS+ last year with .525 slugging percentage. CF Dexter Fowler (S) .363 OBP in his rookie year last year with 27 steals. Solid #2 hitter. 1B Todd Helton (L) Bounced back with a good 2009: .843 OPS on the road (.963 at home). Still the active ML leader in on-base percentage and 12th all-time, right behind Jimmie Foxx and Tris Speaker. SS Troy Tulowitzki ® Total stud and you could argue the third-best player in the league (behind Pujols and Hanley). Still only 25 years old. RF Brad Hawpe (L) Solid protection for Tulowitzki in the lineup with at least 22 HR over the last four years. All-star first half but slumped in the second half of last year. Still had .903 OPS with pretty even home/road splits. 3B Ian Stewart (L) Took over the full-time 3B job last year and had 25 homers. Had similar season as Barmes, striking out a lot with a low batting average, but is a promising player. C Chris Iannetta ® Solid defense but his hitting (.228 AVG/.804 OPS) was a disappointment last year. 2B Clint Barmes ® Career highs in homers (23) and Ks (121) last year, with a .294 OBP. Good defender. Bench: Miguel Olivo ® had 23 homers last year with Kansas City in 390 ABs but is Iannetta's backup this year and will probably start on Thursday. You may remember Olivo from his Marlins days and him throwing a punch at Jose Reyes during a brawl on the last weekend of the '07 season. Video is here. Melvin Mora ® had his option declined by the Orioles during the offseason and is now backing up at second and third. Seth Smith (L), useful fourth outfielder with some pop and speed. Ryan Spilborghs ®, less useful fifth outfielder. Jason Giambi (L) and his gold thong, reduced to a pinch-hitting role. Ex-Mets: Melvin Mora is the last player left in the majors from the Mets '99 playoff team. Bob Apodaca has been the pitching coach for the Rockies since 2003. Ex-Rockies: Henry Blanco, 1999 season. Weather: Might be a little chilly on Tuesday/Wednesday nights but nothing extreme expected.

Francoeur 1.5 Valdes 1 Jacobs 1 Igarashi .5 Rodriguez .5

Francoeur 2 Igarashi 1.5 Feliciano 1 Meija 1 Wright 1

Raul Valdes, #883. (Was wearing uniform #22 for those interested).

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: I went to 13 games last year at Citi-- less than a handful of you guys, but more than a lot. I know what G-F's talking about, and it's not fewer asses in the seats. Exploring and getting to know a new stadium, bad team construction leading to a wary fanbase, slowly declining attendance... none of them explain the fact that the same fan base (presumably) that was more plugged in than those mooks across town for a good 40 years now seems to need to be told when to cheer. (And that once the electronic prompting ceases, so does the clapping or "LGM"ing, with rare exception.) Beg to differ on the "fewer asses in the seats" part. That *is* a big factor, if only due to the fact that there are always going to be a certain number of sheep, certain number of appropriate-cheering-instigators and a certain number of people who don't cheer at all. Increase the number of fans in total and you will almost certainly increase the number of appropriate-cheering-instigators. More differences: at Shea, 55k seats were stuck between the two foulpoles; at the new park everybody's more spread out. Ticket prices are a big problem too.

This is an unfortunate symptom of there simply not being very many people at the games. Paid attendance on Saturday was 33,094. That's the smallest crowd (excluding the other small attendances earlier this week) since May of 2007 and the smallest Saturday attendance since October 2, 2004.

Ditching the blue trim on the alternate home jerseys (the non-pinstripe ones) was under consideration for this year as well but I guess the cream pinstripes was enough change. I dislike the alternate home jerseys but would dislike them even more if the blue trim was removed.

It was *miserable* in the wind tonight but that meant a very short line at the Shake Shack, so I guess that's something. Wright not running hard was pretty inexcusable. I would've liked to see Jerry argue more for a video replay but I didn't have a great angle on the ball when it hit the wall.

Niese 2 Francoeur 1.5 Pagan 1 Igarashi .5 Takahashi .5 Feliciano .4 Nieve .1

Alternate thread title: Pope Benedict is Catholic.

Feliciano 1 Rodriguez 1 Wright 1 Bay 1 Francoeur .5 Matthews .5 Castillo .5 Nieve .5

The apartment is no longer Fred's. The article indicates he sold it in 1997.

That's a better lineup.

The 2006 reliever -- Duaner Sanchez?

12th inning debuts (5) C-1B, 1989 Barry Lyons.

Getting Rodriguez into the game for a second inning I think would have required either Francoeur in center (via double-switch and moving Tatis to RF) or having Francisco bat. (Note that I am accepting the prior player substitutions as fundamentally sound, which I think they were). On a side note, I was a little surprised to see Tatis enter the game at second base in the top of the 8th. With Cora, Tatis and Wright available, it seemed strange to have Tatis at second base. My impression was that using those 3 players, the best defensive alignment would be to have Wright at SS, Cora at 2B and Tatis at 3B.

We totally did not deserve to win, were given every opportunity to do so but couldn't come up with one hit when it really mattered. Damn. Beautiful night at Shea. Many thanks to KC for the seats. I'm not sure Meija threw anything other than fastballs. Just a tip Jenrry (or Rod, who I assume was calling the pitches): they know you are throwing fastballs. You might want to mix something else in there. Seems that Nolasco was the only one fooled (or really, who couldn't catch up). I too noticed Rodriguez' goggles. I believe they are indeed new.

Cora SS Castillo 2B Wright 3B Jacobs 1B Bay LF Matthews, Jr. CF Francoeur RF Barajas C Maine P

It pains me to say it but I think it's LaRussa. This is his 15th season in StL and he's had a winning record in 11 of his 14 years. 7 division titles plus a wildcard, 2 pennants, 1 championship.

Centerfield wrote: Of course injuries and dumb decision making should top this list, but here are things I can do without this year: 2. Takin' Care of Business I am saddened to report this did not happen.

I've always believed that a person is entitled to change sports loyalties only under the following circumstances: 1. Your team moves, in which case you can choose any new team, or disown the sport entirely if you want; 2. You or immediate family member plays for or is manager/general manager/owner of a team other than the one you root for, in which case you can root for the team you or they are affiliated with; 3. You move to a different city and adopt the local team as your own. This is a once-lifetime, irreversible allowance.

Tejada was in 11. I forget what Meija had but it wasn't the ST number.

Santana 3 Wright 2 Bay 1.5 Nieve 1 Matthews 1 Barajas 1 Pagan .5