MLB: The Season's Back End; Colorado Rockies & Forward.

sports-notebook.blogspot.com . . . For more analysis, go to Mile High Sports Radio AM1510 or FM93.7, and to Denver’s best sports blogging team, milehighsports.com . . . SPORTS NOTEBOOK posts its columns Tuesday and Friday of each week. Ed. & Publ., Marvin Leibstone; Copy & Mng. Ed., Gail Kleiner). . . MLB: IT’s always a mean season for MLB clubs; and, the season’s back end, the normally less than 80 games to be played by each franchise after the All-Star break, is the season’s meanest component. This is so because the next ten or thereabout weeks will be about MLB franchises scrambling harder than ever either for supremacy or for the dignity that begins with and rises from clubs reaching .500, a margin below which a baseball team is dubbed, “Loser,” this within a sport that denies perfection no matter which team is at bat or afield. No matter which ballplayer is doing this or that, failure is in the air and sharing the odds. “Beat the Devil,” is baseball’s real battle cry. . . Right now, the 14 teams that are below .500 (seven within each league) are conjuring up ways to climb up and see other clubs fall behind, surprisingly among them last year’s World Series winner, the now 43-51/.457 National League West’s San Francisco Giants; so, too, the American League East’s now 41-50/.451 New York Yankees, a 2012 post-season club, finishing the 2012 regular season at 95-67, plus the AL Central’s 37-55/.402 Chicago White Sox, finishing last year in the top half of the majors, 85-77, and the now 44-49/.473 Los Angeles Angels, last year ending within the top seven MLB clubs, 89-73. . . Surprises at the top are the NL Central’s now 56-37/.602 Pittsburgh Pirates, in 2012 finishing below .500 (79-83), and the AL Central’s now 51-44/.537 Cleveland Indians, which ended 2012 under .500 (68-94). . . Today, the 54-41/.568 Atlanta Braves are the only franchise atop a division with a commanding number, six games ahead of the 48-47/.505 Washington Nationals. Leading the NL Central are the 57-36 St. Louis Cardinals, just one game ahead of the Pirates. The 57-36/.613 Cardinals and the Pirates are the only NL teams with more than 55 wins and also the NL’s only .600+ teams. First place, NL West, has been held by the 50-45/.526 Arizona Diamondbacks, three up on the 47-47/.500 Los Angeles Dodgers. . . In the AL, leading the AL East are the 58-39/.598 Boston Red Sox, three games ahead of the 55-41/.573 Tampa Bay Rays. The Red Sox are now the hottest team in the majors, leading both leagues with 58 wins, the NL’s Cardinals at their heels with 57 wins. Leading the Al Central are the 52-42/.553 Detroit Tigers, one game ahead of the 51-44 Indians. First place within the AL West are the 56-39/.589 Oakland Athletics, only two games up on the 54-41/.568 Texas Rangers. . . Except for that of the NL East’s Braves versus Nationals, the competition between all other division first- and second-place clubs could see turnabouts before the end of July, unless the Braves slip into a long losing streak (doubtful, based on recent performances). Among division third-place teams within the NL, two are five and six games behind, respectively the NL Central’s 53-42/.558 Cincinnati Reds and the NL East’s 48-48/.500 Philadelphia Phillies. The NL West’s third-place 46-50/.479 Colorado Rockies are four behind the Diamondbacks. Within the AL, the third-place AL West’s 44-49/.473 L.A. Angels are 11 games back of the Athletics. Inside the AL Central, the 43-49/.467 third-place Kansas City Royals are eight games behind the Tigers. Within the AL East, the third place 53-43/.552 Baltimore Orioles are four back of the Red Sox. . . Among the NL’s third-place teams, the Rockies have the best chance for post-season billeting, in that they are now but one game behind the NL West’s second place club, the 46-47/.500 L.A. Dodgers and three and four ahead of the Giants and the 42-54/.438 San Diego Padres. A similar situation exists for the AL East’s Orioles, just one game back of second place team, the 55-41/.573 Tampa Bay Rays. A downside for the Rockies is that a maintaining of the NL West status quo could see the Rockies staying a playoff candidate club yet still below .500. . . The clubs with the hardest days ahead are the NL Central’s 38-56/.404 last place Milwaukee Brewers (19 games behind), the NL East’s 35-58/.376 last place Miami Marlins (18 games behind), the AL West’s 33-61/.351 last place Houston Astros (22 games back), the AL West’s 43-52/.453 fourth place Seattle Mariners (13 games back), also the AL Central’s 37-55/402 last place Chicago White Sox (14 back), and the AL East’s 45-49/.479 last place Toronto Blue Jays (eight games behind). . . Were today’s numbers the 2013 end-of-season stats, looking best for the NL-championship battle would be the Cardinals or Pirates vs. the Braves. Best within the AL for a championship go-round would be the Red Sox vs. the A’s or the Rangers. Again using today’s data, the Braves and Red Sox would be the WS match. But it’s not only numbers dominating that which comprises the MLB season’s final quarter, i.e., those late August and September days that can draw up the unexpected more than during preceding months. Much as we depend on stats to decipher who is up or down in baseball, there is that which cannot be quantified. There are qualities among teams that suddenly appear and command the day. Neither the NL’s Giants nor the AL’s Detroit Tigers went to the WS last year as having won the most regular season games. Ahead of the Giants then 94 wins were the Nationals with 98 wins, the Reds 97, and the Yankees 95, all ahead of the Tigers 88 wins, as were the AL West’s L.A. Angels ahead of eth Tigers, with 89 wins. . . The rational among us are saying, “Hold your bets.” . . . COLORADO ROCKIES --- The Rockies are not a ballclub that wins consistently. Nor are the Rockies a club that loses consistently. See-saw, Roller-coaster, Ferris-wheel, as metaphors these objects describe the 46-50/.479 NL West now third-place Rockies. The Colorado franchise hasn’t surpassed a 2013 three-game winning streak, but in 2013 has lost four in a row only once. It reached the NL West’s first-place slot this year and has since gone down, up, down again from second to third position. It lost a four-game series in May (1-3) to the very worst team in the majors, the 33-61/.351 Houston Astros, but won a three-game series versus last year’s WS winner, the San Francisco Giants, in the same month, and this year has won more than five games vs. the NL West’s first- place team, the now 50-45/.526 Arizona Diamondbacks, and has won games this year against the NL Central’s leading club, the 57-36/.613 St. Louis Cardinals and vs. the NL East’s leading teams the 54-41/.568 Atlanta Braves and the 48-47/.505 Washington Nationals. Too, the Rockies were among the few of MLB’s 30 franchises sending more than one player to the All-Star game---SS Troy Tulowitzki, OF Carlos Gonzalez, and OF/IF Michael Cuddyer. Yes, were the Rockies now within the NL Central they’d be in fourth place, and they are now just one win above the AL East’s 45-49/.479 last-place Toronto Blue Jays, but were the Rockies in any of the four remaining divisions today they’d still be a third-position club. Presently, of course, the Rockies are aiming to climb upward, and if unable to do that to keep from slipping back, for the Rockies are today but four games behind NL West first-place, and two behind second-place. The opportunity for winning enough games to achieve a post-season slot still exists for the Rockies to exploit. Of much value now is that, as mentioned in Tuesday’s posting (this page, July 16), the Rockies next 10 games are vs. NL clubs well below .500, four vs. the NL East’s 35-58/.376 Miami Marlins, now the second worst team in the majors, and three each vs. the NL Central’s 42-51/.452 fourth-place Chicago Cubs and vs. the 38-56/.404 last-place Milwaukee Brewers. By winning as many as eight of the upcoming 10 games, the Rockies could offset the possibility of losses during subsequent games vs. teams far above .500, the Braves, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Baltimore Orioles and the Cardinals. For the 2013 Rockies, a much-used phrase still applies, “It aint over ‘til it’s over!” END/ml