An Ode to Todd Helton

There were a lot of questions concerning Todd Helton this offseason.  Could he stay healthy?  Could he still be productive?  Is he too old?  Todd is doing his best this year to prove those doubters wrong.

Here's a look at Helton's stat line so far this year:

	GP	AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	BB	SO	SB	CS	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS
2011 Regular Season	25	83	11	26	7	0	3	13	7	8	0	0	.313	.370	.506	.876

Those are some impressive numbers if you ask me.  Todd's doing what has worked for him in the past.  He's driving the ball to the gaps for doubles, he's seeing a lot of pitches at the plate and he's getting on base.  Helton is the guy that young players should model their games after.  He the consummate pro and works his butt off day in and day out, and that's led to a successful and lengthy Major League career.


The stats speak for themselves when it comes to Todd's performance this year.  Recently, he's been one year on, one year off in terms of performance, and when he performs, the Rockies succeed.  At 37 years old, there's not a lot of time left for Todd, and he's trying to make the most of his remaining time in the bigs.


As a Rockies fan, there is no other player who exemplifies Colorado baseball like Todd.  He is, and for a long time will be, the face of the Rockies until Tulo and CarGo reach the stage Todd has.  You can talk about the Blake Street Bombers of the '90's, but to me, none of them measure up to Todd.  He stuck with this team when they were god awful.  He came to the park everyday, played his heart out and they still would lose, and for him to not abandon Colorado the way we see so many athletes do in this age of sports, that is extremely admirable and makes be proud to be a Rockies fan and a Coloradan.


As number 17's career winds down, take time to appreciate what this man has meant to the Rockies and the community.  It's not often you find a man like this in sports.  Todd Helton is a special player and will live on in Rockies lore forever.  

Deciphering the Rockies Bats

The Rockies may be one of the greatest puzzles ever known to man.  Just when you think you have them figured out, they flip the script and become the exact opposite of what you expected.

Now I know we're a month into the season, a mere 6th of the way through.  But we've gone from seeing the Rockies being a potentially elite squad to potentially a team that struggles night to night to score runs.  And that's the missing ingredient with these Rockies, offense.  Did you ever expect to hear that phrase about them?

This team is simply not hitting.  With RISP, against lesser opponents, doesn't matter.  The Rockies are hitting a collective .238, which is atrocious.  There are two players hitting over .300, and that's Todd Helton and Jonathan Herrera.  After a hot start, Tulo has cooled off considerably, and CarGo has had difficulty in the early going this year.  Those guys will get it figured out, they are too good of players not to.  It's the rest of the team you need to worry about, namely Ianetta, Stewart and Lopez.

With Chris, the OBP is high, so he is drawing walks, but when you are hitting in the 8 hole and you have two outs with runners on, swing away, especially with the pitcher on deck.  I would much rather see Ianetta strike out swinging than leave it up to the pitcher to drive in the runs.  Chris is too hung up on power and is trying to pull the ball too much.  He's at his best when he's hitting the ball the other way and driving it to the gaps.  He has to be a key player if the Rockies are to contend, and with the slew of catching prospects in waiting, time is running short.

It's the same old story with Ian Stewart.  He has got to get his swing figured out somehow, and hopefully his recent "opportunity" in Colorado Springs helped him out with that.  Ian has raw power and when he can make contact, good things will happen, but so far in 27 at-bats, he's struck out 12 times, gotten 2 hits and walked twice.  Lucky for him, he's a defensive upgrade at 3rd and is hitting a smidge poorly than Jose Lopez.

Lopez has to hit to be in the lineup everyday, because he doesn't add much else to the team.  He's a below average defender, he doesn't get on base and even when he does, he's not much of a threat to do anything.  If I were a betting man, I would say the next minor league "opportunity" would be given to Lopez, especially with guys likes EY Jr. and Chris Nelson tearing it up in the Springs.  Lopez was added for his bat, and he had better use it before he finds himself riding the bus again.

As for bats off the bench, so far this team has none.  Giambi and Spilly have basically been non-existent.  Wiggy seemed like he might have been getting going just before the injury, so we'll have to wait on that. The Rockies need to find someone to come off the bench late in games and come through with hits.  They can do one of two thing.  The first is to bring up a guy from the minors, whether that be Amezaga, who they have already called up, Mike Jacobs or even Josh Fields.  The next would be to go after one in a trade, which, in my opinion, is the lesser attractive option.

With that being said, the Rockies are still in good position.  I would much rather see them swoon early than down the stretch, obviously.  However, the issues with the players mentioned above aren't new ones and need to be corrected soon if they are going to be at all.  It's time fore them to grab their big boy bats and start doing work at the yard

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Rockies On Fire

Twelve games into the Major League Baseball season, and the Colorado Rockies have the best record in all of baseball.  Hey, I could get used to hearing that!


The Rockies haven't dropped a game in 9 innings yet, and are a few pitches and swings away from being undefeated.  Does it help that they've played the hapless D-Back, Pirates and Mets?  Sure, maybe a little, but a win is a win, and the fashion in which they are doing so is very impressive.  The Rockies are doing what they need to to secure the W.  If the if the pitching is struggling, the bats are picking up the slack.  The bullpen for the most part has been spectacular, and the defense has been expectedly superb.  Oh, and they've just wrapped up a 7-1 road trip, determined to put the road demons of last season to rest.


The top performers have been the expected (Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton), and the unexpected (Seth Smith, Jonathan Herrea, Dexter Fowler to some extent).  The rest of the lineup has struggle somewhat, but they seem to come up big when needed, whether it's Ty Wigginton driving in the go ahead run or Jose Lopez putting one in the seats.  This team has worked so cohesively.  This is how team baseball is meant to be played.


Am I the only one who is beginning to think that Tulo and Cargo are robots programed to excel at baseball?  Homeruns shouldn't be that easy to hit, and diving catches and throws deep in the hole shouldn't be that routine.  These guys are determined to put to rest the argument that their contract extensions were premature, and so far they are blowing it out of the water.


The starting pitching for the Rockies has been up and down.  Obviously, the struggles Ubaldo Jimenez on opening day are justified by a trip to the DL that, fortunately, is set to end Monday against the Giants.  There were some spectacular starts from Jorge De La Rosa, Jhoulys Chacin and Esmil Rogers, and then they followed them up with merely mediocre starts.  Greg Reynolds filled in admirably for Ubaldo, and Jason Hammel has just been ok.  Thankfully the bullpen has been spectacular to nail down the later innings for the Rockies.  Huston Street has come on to save 6 games, and aside from his shaky out today in game one against the Mets, is on pace to have a career year.


Now I know it's only April, barely two weeks into the season, and there's still more than 5 months left, but the Rockies look real good.  They find ways to win and everyone is getting in on the action.  This is such a great change of pace from years past, with the Rockies jumping out to a quick start and getting the job done on the road.  With all early indications, the Rockies look to be one of the elite teams in the NL and all of baseball.


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