Rocky Mountain Haiku: Terrible Poetry and The 2011 Colorado Rockies

via multimedia.heraldinteractive.com

High up in the sky

Balls flying far, tall, and gone

Mountain air allows

So while I was researching for this piece, I came across a cool website called Box Score Haiku. They take Rockies game boxscores and describe them via Haiku, thus the name of the website. I found it kind of interesting, so I figured I'd give it a try. Being that I've never tried this before, don't blame me if they suck. Feast on a recap, preview, and more mediocre, amatuer journalism after the jump.

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2010 Rockies Recap

W-L : 83 - 79  3rd in NL West

Pythagorean W-L : 86 - 76 

Runs scored: 770  Runs allowed: 717

Rockies               W      L     RS     RA

    Home               52     29   479    379

    Road                31     50   291    338

Reds

    Home               49    32    399    341

    Road                42    39    391    344

I also included the Reds splits as well for comparison, considering GABP is supposed to have the same "effect" as Coors Field.

Pitching crucified

But bats are responsible

Long season gone by

As you can see, the Rockies 2010 Home and Road splits are just awful.  The pitching was fairly consistent throughout the year, led by Ubaldo Jimenez. When you consider the "Coors Field Effect", it shows the pitching held up its end of the deal. The same can't be said for the offense. They scored almost 200 more runs at home than on the road. The individual splits are even worse, which I will touch on more when we get to the lineup for this years team. I'm not sure if they miss the mountain air that much, or they just really suck on the road.  Even with their road struggles, they were still in the hunt for the playoffs down the stretch. Until they lost 13 of their last 14 games, with 6 of those 14 games at home.

2011 Colorado Rockies

So what about this year? Well, most of the team is the same. Gone are Miguel Olivo, Clint Barmes, Melvin Mora, Joe Beimel, and Jeff Francis. Jose Lopez, Ty Wigginton, and Matt Lindstom join the party. Here's a look at the projected lineup, complete with Home and Away splits, as well as overall stats for 2010,  to show just how much difference there is. I'm not including the splits for the new guys or projected bench guys because they either were not here, or they will not play enough for me to care. Not suprisingly, every current starters Slugging pct. went down away from Coors(except Stewart). Most of them drop off dramatically, and it really shows why they struggled to the 3rd place finish they acheived in 2010.

 Projected Lineup - Slashes are Avg/OBP/SLG/AB's

CF Dexter Fowler - Home:.313 / .401 / .531 / 211 Away:.211 / .297 / .298 / 228 Total:.260 / .347 / .410 / 439

Fowler literally had and up and down 2010. He took a trip to AAA after a slow start to the year. After tearing it up there, he was invited to play ball with big club again. He picked it up a bit once he got back, leading the team with 14 triples. Fowler is a player they need to breakout to help team compete for the NL West.

 
RF Seth Smith  - Home:.284 / .352 / .585 / 176 Away:.209 / .276 / .357 / 182 Total:.246 / .314 / .469 / 358

The 28 year old Smith looks to be the projected starter here. His problem is that he can hit righties and thats it. Of his total 358 AB's in 2010, 306 of them were versus RHP. He should get to face lefties this year, but there's a chance it will be a platoon with Ryan Spilborghs if he struggles. Fun fact: His real first name is Garry. Yeah, two R's.

LF Carlos Gonzalez - Home:.380 / .425 / .737 / 300 Away:.289 / .322 / .453 / 287 Total:.336 / .376 / .598 / 587

CarGo went all Black Eyed Peas on us, and got retarded last year. I expect at least a little regression because of the bloated .384 BABIP. All I know is that he would look damn good in left field for the Reds this year. I mean, I guess I would take him, maybe.

SS Troy Tulowitzki - Home:.339 / .403 / .631 / 236 Away:.291 / .358 / .504 / 234 Total:.315 / .381 / .568 / 470

Hmmm, Gold Glover, hits for average and power, and plays SS......sounds like a Paul Janish type.

 3B Ian Stewart - Home:.266 / .355 /  .402 / 184 Away:.248 / .352 / .480 / 202 Total:.256 / .338 / .443 / 386

Stewart is another one of their young player they hope to have a breakout(see Fowler, Dexter). Health seems to be a bit of an issue. He has been banged up this ST already, may not make it back for OD. If he can't play, look for Ty Wigginton to get some time there, or Jose Lopez can move over to play 3B.

 
1B Todd Helton - Home:.273 / .379 / .392 / 194 Away:.240 / .345 / .343 / 204 Total:.256 / .362 / .367 / 398

 The 36 year old Helton seems to be reaching the downside his career. He has had trouble staying healthy the past few years, and his average fell off the cliff last year because of it. If he can stay healthy enough to get back some of his past form, he will most likely be in Scott Rolen mode with playing time. Wigginton will be playing the role of Miguel Cairo, Juan Francisco, or (insert random name here).

 
2B Jose Lopez - Total:.239 / .270 / .339 / 593

Lopez made it very clear he wanted traded to Colorado last year. Well, now he is here, and he still isn't very good. Maybe the change of scenery will help, and he can return to his .280ish batting avg. days in Seattle.

C Chris Iannetta - Home:.220 / .343 / .495 / 91 Away:.175 / .296 / .278 / 97 Total:.197 / .318 / .383 / 188

Ianneta's AB's are very low because he couldn't stay healthy and Miguel Olivo was better in 2010. Although Olivo and good in the same sentence doesn't make much sense, the 1.6 WAR he put up was the best in his career. Iannetta has put up a 2.8 WAR season as recent as 2008. Olivo is gone now, and it's time to see if Iannetta can come through. He'll never be an batting avg. guy, but, if healthy, he could be 20 HR a year guy. Wilin Rosario is a top catching prospect that seems poised to be in the bigs soon. He had to recover from a knee injury last year, but when he did play, he show some plus power and a strong glove behind the plate. He looks to be the only top prospect they have that is close to the majors.

Bench

The bench should be decent this year. The Giambino returns for another stint of pinch hitting and maybe some DHing for interleague games. The speedy Eric Young Jr. can play 2B and LF. Jonathan Herrera can cover whole infield except 1B. Jose Morales will cover the back-up catcher duties, and I already covered Wigginton and Spilborghs. 

Pitching Staff    (W-L / ERA / WHIP / IP)

RHP Ubaldo Jimenez - (19-8 / 2.88 / 1.155 / 221.2)

Jimenez was on his way to one of the best season by a pitcher ever the first 2 and a half months. Eventually, he came back to earth. He still had a very good year, and I see no reason to expect any different this year.

LHP Jorge De La Rosa - (8-7 / 4.22 / 1.315 / 121.2)

JDLR was resigned in the offseason after an injury plagued year. He was solid in 2009 when he pitched 185 innings, so, if he stays healthy, he should be decent this year.

RHP Jhoulys Chacin - (9-11 / 3.28 / 1.274 / 137.1)

As a rookie in 2010, Chacin had pretty good year. He struggled a little early in the season, but picked it up later in the year after a demotion AAA. Expect big things from Chacin this year.

RHP Jason Hammel - (10-9 / 4.81 / 1.396 / 177.2)

In his second season with Colorado after coming over in a trade with Tampa Bay, Hammel nearly matched his 2009 season exactly. Other than a slightly higher ERA, it is about dead nuts the same. So, there no reason to expect anything different, and that makes him a acceptable 4th starter.

5th Starter 

RHP Aaron Cook / RHP Felipe Paulino

Originally, it was between these two guys for the 5th spot in the rotation, but Cook broke a finger in ST. So, Former Astro Paulino will most likely get the nod.

Bullpen

CL Huston Street

RHP Rafael Betancourt

LHP Matt Reynolds

RHP Matt Belisle

LHP Franklin Morales

RHP Matt Lindstrom

RHP Matt Daley

Colorado's bullpen was solid in 2010, and that was even with Street on the DL for most of the season. Matt Belizzle somehow became a very good pitcher in Colorado(explain that one to me??). With a healthy Street, the addition of Lindstrom to go along with Betancourt in the 7th and 8th inning roles, and some decent performance from the other guys, the Rockies should be pretty good in the pen.

Bill Hall All-Star - Chris Iannetta (.326 / .412 / .689)  2006 - 2010

Even when he totally sucked last year, he still hit Reds pitching.

Tomo Ohka All-Star - Aaron Cook 2010 (2-0, .75 ERA / 12 IP)

Believe it or not, that's better than his overall line last year.

Jim Edmonds Honorary D-Bag - Troy Tulowitzki

See picture above, and he hits the shit out of the Reds.

via content9.flixster.com

"I figured the Rockies would be a little rockier than this."

 "Yeah, that John Denver is full of shit." 

The year ahead....

Yeah, I agree. John Denver is full of shit. The Rockies made a couple of OK additions, but nothing seriously helpful. If they can learn to hit on the road, the Rockies will have a very good chance of competing this season. Instead of a Christian Bale movie reference, I'm gonna go a step further. Ladies and Gentlemen, I present the Scott Bakula TV show the 2011 Rockies season will have to resemble to win.

via www.thegreenhead.com

That's right, they need to make a Quantum Leap forward in their road play, or they will repeat more of the same in 2011. Since it seems that Rocktober only happens in odd years, I'll go with a 90 - 71 season, and a wild card birth.