MLB: the Rankings & Time; Colorado Rockies & What the Numbers Say

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: the Rankings & Time; Colorado Rockies & What the Numbers Say. . . //. . MLB---TODAY, no MLB club in the top spot of its division has a commanding lead with regard to number of won games. That edge in won games that can carry a franchise into the playoffs easily hasn’t come about yet in the current MLB season. Closest to a truly comfortable number one slot are the American League West’s 47-29 Oakland A’s, six wins above number two team, the L.A. Angels. Next best in this category are the National League Central’s 47-31 Milwaukee Brewers having five wins atop the St. Louis Cardinals. Leading the NL West are the 45-30 S.F. Giants, with three wins more than accrued by second place club, the L.A. Dodgers. Atop the NL East are the 40-35 Washington Nationals, two wins more than the Atlanta Braves have. Within the AL Central, the Detroit Tigers and the Kansas City Royals together lead with 40 wins each, and the AL East’s number one 43-35 Toronto Blue Jays have three more wins than number two team, the Baltimore Orioles. But these same teams were leading their divisions a week ago, lording it over the same number two clubs, and except for a month ago the NL East’s Braves being ahead of the Nationals and the Blue Jays being in third place, the same number one teams of today were number ones then. Too, the second place ball clubs of a week ago, and the second and third placers of a month ago, are either still in those slots or they have risen higher. Consistency seems to be a river that runs through the top half of each of the six MLB divisions. Not that change isn’t on the move within the majors---a week ago, only four MLB teams had achieved 40 or more wins since the season started; today, there are 11 teams with 40 or more wins. . . LAST week, the Giants were the leading team among the 30 that comprise both the AL and the NL, having 43 won games. Leading both leagues today are the A’s and the Brewers, each with 47 wins, two above today’s Giants. . . SO, which teams have the most “games behind” in the AL and the NL? A week ago that record belonged to the AL East’s Tampa Bay Rays, 13 back of first place, and to the NL West’s Arizona Diamondbacks, 14 to the rear of first. Today, that’s 12 and 15 games behind for the Rays and the D-Backs, respectively. A month ago, the Rays were in fourth position above the Boston Red Sox, with seven games behind, and the then last place D-backs were also seven back. These two clubs have “unimproved” by approximately 100 percent. . . Which to sing sad songs for? Surely the AL East’s Red Sox, last year’s World Series championship team, today in fourth position at 35-41/.461. Add the AL West’s 35-40/.467 Texas Rangers, rational expectations for a division leadership definitely “unmet,” now 11 games behind first position team, the A’s. Also add the AL West’s Houston Astros, like last year and the year before a bottom-dwelling team, now 33-44/.429 and 14 wins behind, added because of the team’s pre-season efforts, a costly stretch meant to pull the Astros out of those dark depths, so little to have come from that . . . COLORADO ROCKIES---WERE awards given to baseball clubs reflecting the see-saw and the yo-yo, the National League West’s Colorado Rockies would be among the receivers. This franchise just lost seven games straight. Earlier in June, the Rockies won five in a row from top ranking teams, two off of the Atlanta Braves, and three from the S.F. Giants. An irony is that this Rockies up, then down, back up, back down existence keeps the team steady-on, on life-support in third place of its division, hovering below or above .500, right now 34-42/.447, 11 games behind first place team, the S.F. Giants. On Friday, the Rockies lost to the Milwaukee Brewers, 13-10, on Saturday they lost to the Brewers, 9-4, and on Sunday they lost again to the Brewers, 6-5. That’s a total of 15 runs for the Rockies, more than gained by some teams that have won three games straight, indicating that the Rockies “have game” in spite of their losses. But of the seven straight Rockies losses this month, two ended with the Rockies scoreless, at zip, zero, nada, while in each of the two games the Rockies gave up eight runs (vs. the L.A. Dodgers and against the St. Louis Cardinals). But the bigger irony about the Rockies exists within the fact that the team holds numerous records for the year; and, the team includes several of the year’s top ballplayers. Were the Rockies a racecar, they’d be a Ferrari or a Mercedes Benz with just several small dents. Get this: even with its losses, and from a recent count, the Rockies are leading the National League in team batting average, around .310. On Friday, the Rockies were ahead of all other NL clubs in slugging percentage, .482, and in On-Base Percentage, .365. The Rockies are also leading the NL in extra-base hits, which includes most doubles to date, 148; and, on Friday the Rockies were tied with the NL East’s Miami Marlins for most home runs, 35. Moreover, Rockies OF Corey Dickerson is the leading batter re. both leagues, his average on Friday being .460, and Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki ranked second on Friday, BA .402, and Rockies OF Charlie Blackmon was tenth re. both leagues, BA .356. If there’s a scary gap pointing to likelihood of what’s keeping the Rockies from rising to a higher level in the ranking, it’s that the Rockies starting pitcher ERA is worse than 7.4, while the Rockies Bullpen ERA is around 3.8. That 7.4 ERA is not something that even the best batting order in baseball could offset easily, if at all. END/ml