Stats n' Rants: "Sick & Tired"

The Boys of Summer's
STATS n' RANTS

Tulo voices out on the Rockies.

• Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies, says he's "sick and tired" of the Rockies' losing ways, which is a fair statement, but another fair statement is that the fans and team management can say the same that they are sick and tired of Tulowitzki taking a yearly trip to the Disabled List, as well as another notable star on the team in Carlos Gonzalez. Both have huge contracts, and their cost per-game may actually be challenging Alex Rodriguez's cost per-game during his full-time, peak-contract days, which makes both Tulo and Car-Go overall: over-paid. Earlier in the season, the Rockies looked like a surprise team in the N.L. West, now it's the same old routine. For some sports franchises, some teams seem to have a ton more injuries yearly compared to some others, and at some point you have to start questioning the teams' training techniques. There is always one team in each major sport, during each era that stands out, in the NBA, I remember the Cleveland Cavaliers in the later 1980's, and they could never keep their starting five all together on the same court in Larry Nance, Brad Daugherty, Craig Ehlo, Mark Price, among others. I want to say the Angels in the 1990's was one of those teams, every year. The Clippers in the 1990's & probably 2000's, or the fact that even healthy players didn't want to play for them, they were that bad! Then there are fluke things like the Texas Rangers, who have had relatively healthy guys (year-in & year-out) out for incredible lengths this season... Prince Fielder has played nearly every game for the most part since breaking into the big leagues, was in the best shape of his career entering this season, ended up playing only 42 games this season, until his season ended, having to have neck surgery.

• Ryan Howard, remember when he was one of the biggest stars in the game? Well, believe it or not, despite his .220 batting average & mediocre .301 on-base percentage, he actually ranks 4th in the National League in Runs Batted In with 67, as of today. For his team, remember when the Philadelphia Phillies was a force to be reckon with and used to be a World Series contender for a stretch there? Yeah, unfortunately GM Ruben Amaro does remember, who seems to not know when to admit that the dream is over! This group, this run that they had, the run that has finished more than two years ago, actually, is done - dead, over. Rebuild! But what does Amaro do? He gave a overly-generous contract extension to often-injured Chase Utley during the end of last season, that left a lot of people scratching their heads, then at this year's trade deadline, they stayed put, when they should have been selling. Not to go all NBA again on you, but Amaro is starting to turn out to be the MLB's version of Joe Dumars (Pistons former GM), you had a great run, but if things don't change -- (in Seinfeld's Soup Nazi voice) -- "No Philly Steak Sandwich for You! NEXT"!

Chicago's Alexei Ramirez.

• The Chicago White Sox didn't make any moves at the deadline, and in this case, this was the right move. In many ways, the White Sox are a much-improved team from last season, and have come along further & quicker than anyone has expected them to in 2014. Would they have wanted to wield in some more prospects by unloading the likes of Gordon Beckham, Adam Dunn & Alexei Ramirez? Sure... but they got some youth, a few good free agent bargains, not to mention free agents who will want to sign -- just to play with a talent such as Jose Abreu,  maybe unload two of the guys (I would keep Ramirez), and they can quickly be fighting for the wild card as early as next season, but probably won't see real progress until 2016. 

And this concludes my first edition of Stats n' Rants, which I will shoot as a weekly edition of the Boys of Summer.