Better Know A Playoff Team: Colorado Rockies

Two troofs and a lye:

1. The Colorado Rockies were originally owned by famous boxing analysts Ferdie Pacheco and Bert Sugar and are named not after the mountains but boxers Rocky Marciano and Rocky Balboa.

2. After struggling through an injury plagued sophomore season, Troy Tulowitzki quietly had a huge season at shortstop this year.  While his defense didn't rate as wizard-like as it did in 2007, his offense was super, posting a .297/.377/.552 line and a .393 wOBA, second highest in the Majors for shortstops.

3. The Rockies' 92 wins this season is the most in franchise history and only the second time in their 17 seasons that they have reached 90 wins.

This is the third time in the Rockies history that they have finished in 2nd place in the NL West, and all 3 times they have made the playoffs as the Wild Card.  They have never won the division and have finished in the bottom 2 in their division in 13 of the other 14 seasons they have existed. 

The Rockies were 18-28 when they fired Clint Hurdle just before Memorial Day weekend.  They named Hamilton's own Jim Tracy interim manager at the time and since then the team went 74-42.  Expect to hear that repeated umpteen times over the next week.