Colorado Rockies (67-95, .414, 5th in NL West)

This needs its own post. But I want to save it for July when news is slow. It'll even go on both web sites, it's that good.

Of course, I'm talking about the accident that cost Clint Barmes the Rookie of the Year Award and any shot at respectability. Barmes hit like a demon last year as he got off to a hot start, batting .400 into June if my recollections are correct.

Then, in one of my favorite fluke accidents in a sport that is known for fluke accidents and dumb explanations for injuries (see: Wade Boggs and his cowboy boots), Barmes falls down the stairs. He tells the club that he was carrying groceries and didn't want to take the elevator, etc., but it turns out that instead of groceries it was fresh deer meat after a hunt. I assume the Rockies frown on firearms during the season, but I never heard a solid answer to why he didn't admit to falling down the steps with deer meat in first place.

Barmes is back to face hecklers wearing antlers this year and Jeff Jennings is a really good pitcher. If he can keep his numbers down in Coors Field, he should be able to write his own ticket out of baseball purgatory soon enough. Not as much fun to watch as Felix Hernandez or Dontrelle Willis, but a solid pitcher worth seeingwhen you get a chance.

The Rockies as a whole had a pretty crappy season in a pretty crappy division, so it's a special kind of failure to come in last. It'll be even more special to come in last again. They should get a medal for that sort of continued futility.

Colorado Rockies
C: Torrealba; Ardoin; Closser
1B: Helton; Luis A. Gonzalez; Shealy
2B: Gonzalez; Carroll; Josh Wilson; Quintanilla
SS: Barmes; Carroll; Wilson; Quintanilla
3B: Atkins; Gonzalez; Carroll; Baker
LF: Holliday; Cory Sullivan; Piedra
CF: Sullivan; Freeman; Salazar
RF: Hawpe; Piedra; Shealy

SP: Jennings; Cook; Francis; B.H. Kim; Day; Kim; Fogg; Esposito
CP: Fuentes
RP: King; DeJean; Tsao; Cortes; Dohmann; Cerda