Reid Fischer's World of Rants

It’s June 1, and hopefully a new month means more success for the Rockies.  They were an MLB worst 8-20 in May, including a 2-10 stretch to end the month.

– On Monday the Rockies managed to lose 7-1 despite collecting 14 hits against the Dodgers.  That’s tough to do.  The optimistic side of me says at least they got 14 hits.  The pessimistic side points out the 0 for 11 with runners in scoring position.

– The bottom line: more offensive consistency is needed.  On Saturday the Rockies shelled Jaime Garcia for 12 runs (he had a 1.93 ERA coming in).  They scored a combined nine runs in the four contests prior to that.

– To add insult to injury, Felipe Paulino is pitching lights out for Kansas City since the Rockies gave him away for cash.  Paulino was 0-4 with a 7.36 ERA in 18 appearances for the Rockies this season.  He gave up at least one run in five of his last seven appearances with the club, capped off with a 14th inning home run by Prince Fielder in a loss at Milwaukee.  In two appearances with the Royals, Paulino has tossed nine scoreless innings in two appearances.  Kansas City is so happy with him they’ve placed him in the rotation. Not sure if Paulino wasn’t happy in Colorado or if something is afoot, but it has to be frustrating for the Rockies.

– The good news tonight for the Rockies?  A complete game shutout from Ubaldo Jimenez tonight in LA.  Jimenez gave up just four hits and struck out seven against the Dodgers.   His ERA is now under 5.00 for the first time this season (which says a lot about how much he’s been struggling), and he has now been close to his old self in three of his last four starts.  He is throwing harder and I thought for the first time tonight looked like the pitcher we saw during the first half of last season.  If this is a trend and not an aberration, it will a major key for a Rockies turnaround.

– The other good news for the Rockies is we’re only a third of the way through the season.  They still have time to turn it around, but they have to start hitting and they also need better production from the bullpen.

– Thank you ESPN for showing Giants-Cardinals tonight instead of your usual east coast fare.  Then again, perhaps a major penalty should be issued for showing the Mets on Sunday night baseball this weekend.

– I never thought I wouldn’t want to watch Sportscenter but it is rapidly getting to that point during the NBA Finals.  Way too many Miami Heat  press conferences I don’t care about, and today there was very little mention of hockey ahead of game one of the Stanley Cup Finals.  I know most sports fans prefer the NBA to the NHL, but I think the coverage of the two leagues should be equal.  Certainly not lopsided the way ESPN does it, where the ratio is 30 minutes of NBA to three for the NHL (probably not exaggerating).

– Speaking of the hockey, game one was absolutely fantastic.  Great goaltender battle between Roberto Luongo and Tim Thomas.  Both goalies played huge roles in helping their teams kill penalties.  The only disappointing thing is that it didn’t go into overtime, because that would have been unbelievable with the 0-0 score and the play of the two goalies.  .  Still, Raffi Torres’ goal with 18 seconds remaining has to be one of the all-time clutch goals in Stanley Cup Finals history.

– This has to be a tough pill to swallow for Boston, which shut down the league’s top rated power play and got great play against Vancouver’s offensive stars, and they still saw the game stolen from under them in the closing seconds.  It will be very interesting to see how the Bruins respond in game two being that they are still on the road.

– If I’m of the Ohio State Buckeyes, I’m not sure if I would be more embarrassed to hear about the cars for Terrelle Pryor, the loads of benefits being given to other players, or the cover up orchestrated not only by Jim Tressel but also by the rest of the athletic department.  The 5-game suspensions for the players at the start of the season seemed like a real joke at the time given that they were still allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl last year.  Given what we know now, those actions seem downright laughable.

– It is not exactly a secret that this kind of thing goes on at numerous college campuses around the country.  It’s generally a question of who gets caught.  It begs  questions that are way too numerous to list here, but chief among them: how much is a head coach responsible for knowing and enforcing.  I think while it is not practical for a coach to know where every player is at every moment of the day, Tressel had a huge staff at OSU plus a whole department responsible for compliance.  I think if Tressel wanted to put a stop to that culture at Ohio State he could have.  He just chose to look the other way.

– and of course, no one is happier about Ohio State’s fall than Michigan fans.  Party in Ann Arbor!