Colorado Rockies fans are not viewed as an overly informed group as compared to the notoriously "good" fans (Red Sox, Yankees, Cardinals). But in some cases we deserve more credit than we are given. Here are three facts from the first half of the 2011 baseball season that Rockies fans knew before everybody else.
1. Adrian Gonzalez might be the best hitter in baseball.
I have said this for the last three seasons. That's why I picked him as MVP in my expert preseason predictions. I said it when Gonzalez was on the Padres, and people thought I was crazy because he did not play for the Red Sox, Phillies, or Yankees. The fact is he consistently put up 30 home runs and 100 RBI with a high average while batting in a lineup with absolutely no protection and in arguably the best pitcher's park in baseball. Now that he is in Boston people are astounded at how good he is, even referring to him as a "great story" of the first half of this season. Anybody who paid attention to him in San Diego knows he's been this good for a long time. Rockies fans have known this because he used to torture us night after night. He might be the best hitter in baseball, and that includes that Pujols guy.
2. Clint Hurdle makes you believe.
Fans understood this about Hurdle because of the Rocktober run of 2007, but after his long slide out of Colorado in the 2008 and 2009 seasons some wondered if that was a one year wonder. It wasn't. If you take a team whose highest aspirations pre-Hurdle were a .500 season, Hurdle will make that team believe they are a playoff team. He crumbled under high expectations in his last seasons in Colorado, but right now the Pirates believe.
3. The Rockies are in position to make the playoffs.
They are at least 5 games out of both the wildcard and the division, including an 8.5 game hole in the NL west. Yep, that sounds about right.
P.S. - This third bit of knowledge assumes that the Rockies figure out who the heck is going to stabilize their starting rotation. That's a daunting task at this point. What they really need is the current guys not named Juan Nicasio to step up, and find somebody for his spot because he is not ready for the big show yet. Easy right?
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