Hole Punch Sports

Rockies : The biggest news is the trade of Shawn Chacon to the New York Yankees. The Rockies got a pair of double-A pitchers out of the deal. The question the article I linked to posed was, doesn't this contradict our build-from-within philosophy? Let me be the first to say: what a stupid question. Who cares? Dan O'Dowd's response was that it strengthens our youth movement. Is that going to be the explanation for every Rockies move, and for how much longer? Not that I've lost patience in this specific plan, any more than that I never believed in it, but younger is not always the same as better. I mean, Chacon's 27, so he ought to have some decent years left. How far in the future are we building for? More to the point, how far out of his prime will Todd Helton be by the time these guys are ready to contribute? I think he'll be the last superstar we have for a while at this rate, so we ought to make use of him. It'll be at least a few years before these guys...

Last week one of my roommates and I were debating the impact of the loss of Larry Brown on the Pistons' hopes next season. My roommate thought Detroit would fall far, finishing no higher than fifth in the East, a number I'm certain he plucked out of thin air. I asked him, who's better? Miami? Who else? My roommate's a delusional Nets fan, so he threw New Jersey on the table, which I of course consider ridiculous. (He's also a huge Angels and Raiders supporter, so you may correctly guess we don't agree on a lot sports-wise.) Why New Jersey? Well, they still have Kidd and Vincent, but they also added Shareef Abdur-Rahim, whom my roommate calls a 20-and-10 guy who never played on a winning team. I inquired, whose fault is that? My roommate later corrected himself and said Abdur-Rahim is a 20-and-8 guy, which is close enough to true, but even further illustrates the point: if he was a better rebounder, maybe his teams would win a little more often. Anyway, I'm n...

The big news in Denver-area sports, in case you missed it... Last Friday : Rockies drop a thriller to San Diego, 12-2. Padres pour salt on the wound by bringing in Brian Falkenborg to pitch the last two innings. The Rockies do not score, and Falky drops his ERA from a perfect 10 to 8.18. Saturday : Rockies win first 1-0 game in Coors Field history over Padres, a fact SportsCenter beat to death trying to make the recap interesting. Sunday : San Diego exacts revenge, a dish best served cold, with an 8-5 topping of the Rox. Todd Helton goes 2-for-3 with his tenth homer to continue his relatively hot recent hitting. Tuesday : Brian Fuentes pitches a scoreless...wait, make that doesn't pitch a scoreless anything in the All-Star game. Didn't see that coming. Wednesday : The Denver Post runs an outstanding article, "Depth makes Middlebrooks expendable" . It's unfortunate that headlines have to be crammed into such a specific space; the Post had to reject the original and...

Yesterday the Rockies made some big trades . Well, some trades, how's that. Here we go: Colorado sent Preston Wilson and cash to Washington for pitcher Zach Day, outfielder J.J. Davis, and either a player to be named later or cash. (Wonder which one we'll take.) To Oakland we sent pitchers Joe Kennedy and Jay Witasick for outfielder Eric Byrnes and minor-league middle infielder Omar Quintanilla. The two biggest names in these trades are Wilson, who leads the Rockies in home runs and RBI, and Byrnes, who, at least statistically, is a lot more comparable to Wilson than I would have thought. This year the 30-year-old Wilson is hitting .258, getting on base at a .322 clip, and slugging .491. Byrnes is 29, hitting .266, OBP of .336, and slugging .474. Pretty comparable. And their career numbers aren't so different, either: .265/.333/.481 for Wilson; .270/.336/.462 for Byrnes. Which is not to suggest that the two players are neck-and-neck in all-around skill. Wilson plays centerf...

I know this is a sports blog, but I hope you'll bear with me if I depart from the usual topics today to discuss something almost related. Golf. Now, you might not know this yet, but there's apparently an up-and-coming young female golfer named Michelle Wie who aspires to play on the pro men's tour and can, at least theoretically, win a spot at the Masters by winning the men's U.S. Amateur Public Links this week. First off, let me start by saying: fantastic! Anything with the potential of upsetting stuffy golf traditionalists is fine by me. However. I am quite bored with the whole women-competing-with-the-men thing, especially since it's beaten to death before any of the women have actually slain the pack of snarling men-folk. And I think we all know why that is. Don't get me wrong. I would love to see Michelle Wie miraculously (and it's going to take a miracle) qualify for the Masters, and then win it, partly because she's a woman, and partly because she...

Yesterday I turned on not one but two Rockies games during the seventh inning, one of which must have been a replay. Sweet. Since the Captain pointed out that he has a hard time following Denver sports from out of town, I'll just go over recent happenings and then worry about baseball next week. And yes, I promise not to mention the Yankees and Rogers in detailed fashion. Rockies : The Rockies did win yesterday's actual game 8-5, thanks in large part to two home runs from Todd Helton, who's actually not having much of a season. By his standards, it's horrific: .281, nine homers, and 38 runs-batted-ins. A recent Denver Post story suggested his struggles might be related to lingering resentment over comments made by broadcaster Wayne Hagin, who maybe sort of suggested that Helton was on steroids. If that's the actual cause, Helton might be the most easily distracted athlete of all-time. That's just weak, and I doubt that's it. Tough to determine what the actu...