MLB: STANDINGS; COLORADO ROCKIES, "UNBROKEN" // NFL: "PICKS"

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: TODAY’S STANDINGS; COLORADO ROCKIES, “UNBROKEN” // NFL-2014, “PICKS” . . . // MLB, STANDINGS---EACH of the six MLB division leading franchises has won more than 70 games as of now, the AL’s L.A. Angels ahead of each from its 77 wins and 52 losses. Next in line is the NL East’s 75-55 Washington Nationals, and close behind are the AL East’s 74-55 Baltimore Orioles and the NL West’s 74-58 L.A. Dodgers. But irony persists in the majors: the Angels are only one loss less than second place club, the 77-53 Oakland A’s, while the Nationals are much better off for holding onto a division championship slot, seven games ahead of second place team, the 68-63 Atlanta Braves, same re. the Orioles six game lead over second place team, the 68-61 N.Y. Yankees. Less than a month ago, the A’s were atop the Angels by two wins, so there’s time for the A’s to retake that number one slot. Another team on top three weeks ago and now in second position, that’s the AL Central’s 70-59 Detroit Tigers, two wins back of the now 72-58 K.C. Royals, the Tigers also having games enough ahead for re-taking the number one position . . . COLORADO ROCKIES---IT isn’t always a complete fall from grace when a franchise within the majors finds itself in last place of a division and league, when it could finish a regular season as professional baseball’s worst team relative to wins over losses. The Colorado Rockies are in that situation now, but to view the Rockies from numerical standings only is an inaccurate way of judging just where the club belongs regarding skills and meeting next year’s challenges. Yes, number of wins against losses is everything when players, management and fans want a post-season berth and a crack at the WS, but not having that isn’t reason to believe that a team has no juice left whatsoever and that recovery isn’t possible unless everyone is canned and owners and management start from scratch. Sure, a lot needs to be done, but it should be with keeping in mind meticulously only those reasons why the Rockies have dropped so unexpectedly to what may become the worst season for the franchise since year of origin. It shouldn’t be one of those “erase the board completely efforts,” which risks there being a team requiring several years of hard work before an above-the-margin season can occur, which seems to be the fate of most completely and suddenly revised ball clubs. For example, the Rockies still have one of the best slugging line-ups and defense squads in the majors---IF Troy Tulowitzki, OF Carlos Gonzalez, OF Charlie Blackmon, OF Corey Dickerson, OF Michael Cuddyer, IF Justin Morneau, IF Nolan Arenado, IF Josh Rutledge, IF D.J. LeMahieu. This grouping has kept most of the team’s losses from any mention of the humiliating defeat being an every day occurrence. Unlike the truly awful, the Rockies seven shutout losses (less than 10 percent of the team’s accumulated 2014 losses to date) have been offset by 11 of its 53 team wins being of double-digits each, e.g., the team’s 12-1 win vs. the Philadelphia Phillies. Of its 53 losses to date, only seven have been to teams gathering 10 or more runs. Also, the Rockies have won games this year against teams that are today in leading positions within their divisions, among them, the S.F. Giants, L.A. Dodgers, the Washington Nationals, K.C. Royals, Atlanta Braves; and, the number of times that the Rockies have loaded the bases in games lost as well as won would bury any thoughts one has that the Rockies are only hopeless. . . NFL---WITHOUT any serious degradation of its offense, and with new defense power and upticked skills, the Denver Broncos have the best shot for taking the 2014 AFC crown and then off to the SB. But at the Broncos heels will be the N.E. Patriots, which can boast a better defense than fielded last season. Of course, injuries to key players can demonize and change this outcome, which would help to leverage the Indianapolis Colts, Baltimore Ravens, possibly the S.D. Chargers, for changing post-season outcomes considerably. As for the NFC finish, the Seattle Seahawks have held on to last year’s victory attributes and can repeat conference success; however, mean challenges for a different set of NFC outcomes can be rushed forward by the S.F. 49ers and the Green Bay Packers. END/ml