Tough Times at Blake Street

It’s never easy to watch your team lose.  But, as a fan, you deal with the losses because you know; your team will always eventually win. Every team has its ups and downs, but right now, it’s absolutely painful watching the Rockies play.  Even when it seems like things are going right, everything goes wrong.  Take the last two losses to the A’s for example:  After a short stint of cold bats, the Rockies offense heats up again.  Last night Helton hits his second grand slam of the year, and Cuddyer hits TWO home runs.  We have an 8-7 lead going into the 9^th and of course, Betancourt uncharacteristically blows the save and the Rockies lose, 10-8.  The Rockies brought in Jeff Francis to try and give a boost to the rotation, but unfortunately for him, he had to get re-acclimated to the Majors by facing a RED-HOT Angels team.  He got smoked.

In the 9^th inning of the final game against the Angles it seemed like some Coors Field magic was about to be re-kindled with Scutaro on, Cargo at the plate and no outs, down by 2.  Cargo hits it a scorcher up the middle to the pitcher who amazingly catches it, and in the motion of throwing to first to pick off Scutaro drops it.  The Ump then calls it a no catch, and the Angels pitcher calmly gets up, tosses it to second and then to first for the easy double play.  Nobody on, 2 outs, rally over.  With the advantage of slow motion replay, it’s obvious it was the wrong call, but what are you going to do? And that’s just the way things have been going for the Rox as of late.

What can you even say as a fan, writer or analyst?  The Rockies offense is still one of the most potent in the entire NL: top five in Runs scored and Slugging.  But starting pitching is absolutely horrid.  Because of how bad it’s been our bullpen is already overworked and now they too are beginning to see struggles.  Changes need to be made in the rotation, and it seems like Tracy and O’Dowd are content with watching the same pitchers have the same struggles night in and night out.  They gave Outman another start last night (why?) and again he had another poor outing.  Francis was a decent pick up…. 4 years ago.  I don’t want to draw conclusions on one game alone, but Francis is not going to be the savior of the rotation, no matter how well he plays from here on out.  Guthrie is looking like the biggest mistake ever of the offseason, and all those analysts who said a fly-ball pitcher at Coors was a recipe for disaster were dead on.  I hate to say it though, but we need Guthrie to somehow get his act together.  If Guthrie can just start eating up innings and set a better example for the rest of the rotation (main reason he was brought in) that’s a start.  He’s a seasoned vet, and I think if he can get a couple good solid starts under his belt, he’ll return to form.

With the way the rotation is playing, getting spot starts from players like Outman, one just has to scratch their head when we have a guy like Pomeranz dominating down in AAA.  Sure he’s got some mechanical and control issues right now, but this is the guy we got for UBALDO! Last night is perfect example of why he should be brought up.  Why try to convert a guy mid-season to a starter when he’s clearly just a struggling pitcher, when you could call up the kid who should dominate and just allow him to experience some growing pains like they are with White and Friedrich.  Out of all our young pitchers Pomeranz is the easily best and he’s the one not playing.  Whether it’s simply biting the bullet and calling up Pomeranz or making a trade for a legitimate innings eater, (not a sleeper, a proven, seasoned starter), the Rockies need to shake things up.