When Does the '09 Season Start?

Phew! It's about time. I thought we were never going to give up hope on this season. It seemed that every time we won a few games in a row, Arizona or LA would lose a few in a row and we'd still find ourselves teetering on the brink of contention while still trying to validate our record which hasn't been at least 7 games below .500 since April. These last few games in Hot-lanta did it.....finally. I think our bullpen literally gave up 1,000 runs to the Braves who came into the series with an inexplicably worse record than your Colorado Rockies. Now that we're just playing out the rest of the season like we should have been doing since about the end of July if the NL West had been worth a damn, here's what the Rocks need to do in order to get back on the contention train for 2009.

1) Get the young kids some PT
Make Dexter Fowler the starting centerfielder for the rest of the season and see what the kid can do. He's already shown he's got the speed, the arm, and the glove, so just put a pair of spikes on him and turn him loose. No more Willy Taveras which means: no more pop ups to right field, no more bunts back to the pitcher, and no more .300 on base percentage for a leadoff hitter. Get rid of Taveras in the offseason and put Fowler in the mix to be the starting CF next season.

Give Joe Koshansky some starts at first base. He hasn't really performed well at the Major League level yet, but either did Ian Stewart until he got consistent playing time when Todd's back finally told him to eff off. This guy has absolutely torn up the Pacific Coast League in Colorado Springs to the tune of a .300 average with 31 home runs and 122 rbis. He also had an on base percentage of .380 with an OPS of .980 which is damn impressive. He also hit for not none, not one, but two cycles this season. That just doesn't happen in professional baseball. He's excelled everywhere but with the big club yet and given some consistent time at first, he could be the second coming of Ian Stewart....whose first coming happened about 2 months ago. He's our first baseman of the future once Todd's contract finally expires after next season and who knows how long his back is going to hold up. Start him a few games in a row and see how he responds.

Send Greg Reynolds out to the hill to start a couple games as we finish out the schedule. As Clint has already done this (Reynolds will take the place of Livan "Once the Season's Over" Hernandez in the rotation) it makes me believe that Hurdle hasn't gone completely daffy yet. Close, but not quite.

2) Finish with a flourish
Yeah this season has been as big a disappointment as the new Indiana Jones movie, but that doesn't mean we have to go into the offseason with the bitter taste of defeat in our mouths. We still have 3 games against the Doyers and 6 against the D-Bags and if we want to play the role of spoiler for any of these clubs, we have the technology and the talent to do so. If we can end the season on a high note, we'd hit the offseason perhaps willing to sacrifice some of our homegrown talent (Atkins) to make some noise on the free agent and trade market as we look for a legitimate starting pitcher to stabilize our rotation.

3) DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER EVEN THINK ABOUT PLAYING LUIS VIZCAINO
Worst. Free. Agent. Signing.....of the past year. (Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle, you still take the cake on that one)

4) Use this season as a learning tool
Yeah it's been a rough year to say the least. But that doesn't mean we should just forget it ever happened. For whatever reason we completely bombed this year. (In the dictionary under the term "whatever reason" you will find the pictures of Luis Vizcaino, Kip Wells, Mark Redman, Glendon Rusch, Willy Taveras, and Tulo's first month of play.....seriously, look it up. It's in the W's) Did we come out cocky? Maybe, but it still shouldn't have been the entire reason we played so poorly this year. The team needs to use this season as a learning tool. Learn from the mistakes you might have made this year so they don't happen again. Tulo will learn to not punch wooden bats that are prone to splintering with his open palm. Todd will learn to give himself a day of rest or two every now and then. The Franchise will learn to tell the damn trainer when his shoulder is bothering him right away, and Matt will learn what $150 million over 7 years looks like when he hits the free agent market.

Since baseball season is almost over, we set our sights to football. But don't worry, I'll still have a series of Rockies season recaps to write once all 162 games are played.