The Rockies whom have resorted to legalized cheating by placing baseballs in a humidor to nullify the "Coors Field effect" are in the thick of the division and wild card races. Has it helped? Here are their regular starting roation's ERAs, home ERA is listed first:
Byung-Hyun Kim: 2.75/6.85
Jason Jennings: 3.00/3.84
Jeff Francis: 3.02/3.75
Aaron Cook: 3.81/4.11
Josh Fogg: 5.46/3.88
When you consider the other parks in the NL West are pretty strong pitcher parks beyond SBC (which has played neutral over the last few seasons), you have to wonder if something fishy is going on over there. I'm sure the Rockies are on the up and up and wouldn't dare think about having two sets of baseballs, one with the humidor turned on "Dead Ball Era", the other to "Steroid Era". But it does lead to some questions to exactly what is going on over there. If anything, you have to think the Rockies pitchers are at a major advantage on how the humidor-baseballs react differently on the breaking stuff since they use them on a regular basis. Personally, I think it's ridiculous and should be banned immediately. When did doctoring baseballs become legal again?
The great lefty hope Rich Hill is back at it again off two very promising starts. I watched a bit of his last game versus the Pirates and despite the opponent, I thought he did a miraculous job of spotting his fastball on the corners, while mixing in his curve at just the right times. And it really appears that he has his confidence back, which seems to be the most important thing for the kid, who's actually the oldest pitcher on the starting staff at the moment.
Go Cubs!
GAME ONE HUNDRED-FIFTEEN IN-GAME DISCUSSION THREAD [PARACHAT]
CHICAGO CUBS (48-66, (Div) 5th - 14.0 GB; (Wild Card) 12th - 10.5 GB) AT COLORADO ROCKIES (55-59, (Div) 4th - 3.5 GB; (Wild Card) 6th - 3.5 GB)
Montecristo Park, 8:05 pm CDT
Weather: Cloudy, 86 degrees, Wind in from RF @ 14mph
TV: CSN, DirecTV 743
Radio: WGN, XM 188
Aaron Cook, RHP
7-10, 3.95 ERA, 152.2 IP
63 K, 39 BB, 10 HR
291/336/404 sgainst | Rich Hill, LHP
27 K, 21 BB, 8 HR
284/373/539 against |
|
*Juan Pierre, CF
#Cesar Izturis, SS
Michael Barret, C
Aramis Ramirez, 3B
*Jacque Jones, RF
#Angel Pagan, LF
*John Mabry, 1B
Ronny Cedeno, 2B
*Rich Hill, P | Jamey Carroll, 2B
Clint Barmes, SS
Garrett Atkins, 3B
Matt Holliday, LF
Ryan Spilborghs, RF
Luis A. Gonzalez, 1B
Choo Freeman, CF
Danny Ardoin, C
Aaron Cook, P |
| Cubs vs Cook:
Cesar Izturis:4-13, 308/438/308, 1 K, 3 BB
Phil Nevin: 4-12, 333/385/417, 3 K, 1 BB, 1 2B
| Rockies vs. Hill:
No Rockies with more than 10 AB's
|
(sigh)...No Murton again. I'd love to see the Cubs stick a first base glove on him or Pagan to keep both of them in the lineup and increase their versatility in case either one or both end up fighting for a bench spot next year. And who the hell is Ryan Spilborghs?
Comments