LOS ANGELES —
This being a family newspaper, I can’t write the words I want in an attempt to describe the past week of Rockies baseball.
It was messed up. It was bizarre. It was maddening. It was depressing.
In other words, it stunk.
A rundown:
• From last Sunday through Friday, the Rockies won just one game. That’s hardly earth-shaking, of course, considering they had lost 12 of their last 13 games entering Saturday, and since posting a 7-2 record in April, they had gone 5-18.
During spring training, I predicted the Rockies would make modest improvement and finish 75-87. To accomplish that now, they would have to go 63-67 the rest of the way. My prediction is not looking good.
To finish the season an even 81-81, the Rockies would have to go 69-61 the rest of the way. Hmm …
With a current winning percentage of .375, the Rockies are on pace to finish 61-101. For the record, I don’t think they will lose 100 games for the first time, but they had better turn things around quickly to avoid that ignominy.
• Manager Walt Weiss had to have an emergency appendectomy Wednesday night at an Orange County hospital. I was relieved by the news, because all we heard at first was “stomach pains,” “tests” and “hospital.”
Weiss, a gentlemen in every sense of the word, doesn’t show a lot of outward emotion. I know that some fans want him to explode once in a while, but that’s just not who he is. But, believe me, his competitiveness burns white hot just under the surface. It’s a shame the Rockies’ woeful pitching doesn’t give him much chance to be a winner.
• It was a lousy week for Troy Tulowitzki, who tweaked his left quadriceps in Friday night’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He had to publicly address trade rumors Thursday — something he hates talking about.
That was all compounded by the reality that he’s not hitting well right now. Entering Saturday’s play, he was hitting a sub-Tulo .284 for the season, with two home runs and 11 RBIs. He has gone 3-for-20 with nine strikeouts in his past five games.
• Lost amid all of the Tulo controversy was the status of first baseman Justin Morneau, who recently turned 34. He suffered neck stiffness after diving for a grounder in Wednesday night’s loss to the Los Angeles Angels and sat out the next two games. Given his past issues with a neck injury and concussions, the Rockies were playing it safe. And Saturday, he was put on the seven-day disabled list.
Morneau is hitting .354 (17-for-48) with six multihit games since April 24. He’s in the final year of his contract, so he is certainly a trade candidate when he’s back healthy.
• First-year general manager Jeff Bridich blasted the media Friday, calling the Tulo trade rumors “a media production.” I told him I disagreed, saying, essentially, that it was Tulo’s own agent, Paul Cohen, who lit the fuse with his comments to New York Post baseball writer Joel Sherman.
Bridich vehemently debunked my theory, and he said something I found curious.
“My hunch is that if we had a very different two weeks, and we had a record as we had in April, that we wouldn’t be talking about this at all, right now,” he said. “Funny how none of this came up in April when we were playing very different baseball.”
Of course it didn’t come up then when the Rockies were winning. The whole point is that Tulo, now 30, wants to play for a winner before he runs out of time. And when the Rockies play like the worst team in baseball, it’s only natural for trade speculation to surface.
Patrick Saunders: psaunders@denverpost.com or twitter.com/psaundersdp
Spotlight on …
Cole Hamels, pitcher, Phillies
What’s up: Hamels is like the Liberty Bell or cheesesteak sandwiches. He is a Philadelphia institution. But his days in a Phillies uniform probably will come to an end this summer. The aging Phillies rank as the worst team in the majors and are looking to unload veterans.
Background: Hamels, a left-hander, will enter Monday’s start against the Rockies at Coors Field with a 3-3 record and a 3.53 ERA in 2015. In his most recent start, a victory over the Pirates, he struck out nine in seven strong innings. Unlike most pitchers now, the 31-year-old Hamels has never dealt with a major injury. Plus, he has made at least 30 starts in every season apart from his first two years in the majors. He went 9-9 last year with a 2.46 ERA and 198 strikeouts in just over 200 innings.
Saunders’ take: It won’t be easy for Hamels to leave Philly, but it seems inevitable, and he will be the hottest target for a contender willing to give up prospects. How effective and dependable is the lefty? Consider this: Hamels is 98-14 in 150 career starts when his team gives him at least three runs. Most rumors point to the Boston Red Sox as Hamels’ next team. The Boston Globe reported this year that the Red Sox made a “serious” offer to the Phillies for Hamels, but the deal fell apart because there were too many major-league players involved and not enough prospects. The Red Sox need pitching, badly, but it wouldn’t shock me if the San Francisco Giants make a run at Hamels at the trade deadline if they are still in contention.