Strike One: Colorado will be well represented in the upcoming Major League Baseball All-Star game at Coors Field. Not only will the city of Denver and the most beautiful ballpark in the country be featured, but a Rockie will be on the National League pitching staff. German Marquez is the Rox lone rep in the game, and Trevor Story will be part of the Home Run Derby.
Marquez has had a recent run of great outings to earn himself a selection. But another Colorado arm could be in the mix to start the game if something quirky happens with the schedule this week.
If things remain on schedule it won’t happen, but if there’s a rainout this week or something, the starting pitcher for the National League could well be guy who grew up here going to games at Coors Field – San Francisco Giants righthander Kevin Gausman.
The 2010 graduate of Grandview High School, who very wisely turned down the Los Angeles Dodgers contract offer after they drafted him in the sixth round out of high school, and instead opted to play collegiately at LSU, is in his ninth big league season now, and having a standout year. Every pitcher in baseball is being overshadowed by the New York Mets Jacob deGrom, who’s having an historically great season. But Gausman is right there too, having won eight of his first 10 decisions, currently owning a stellar 1.68 ERA and an amazing 0.807 WHIP (which means walks and hits per inning pitched.) Gausman has already thrown more than 100 innings, struck out 116 batters and has held opposing hitters to a three-for-51 output with runners in scoring position. He’s having an All-Star season by any measure and will certainly be part of the National League squad.
Gausman has two more starts before the All-Star break and would pitch on the final Sunday of the first half against the Washington Nationals is things play out as they should. That would eliminate him from pitching in the All-Star game. Ironically, the no-brainer starter for the NL, deGrom, is also scheduled to pitch that same Sunday, so he too would miss out on the NL’s starting nod. Dodgers’ manager Dave Roberts will have to look past the two guys who have the best stats in the NL to find his starting hurler.
Gausman could of and should have been a Rockie. After five and a half seasons in Baltimore, the team that drafted him fourth overall out of LSU in 2012 draft, traded the righthander to Atlanta in 2018. He was released by the Braves in 2019 before signing with Cincinnati. He became a free agent in December of 2019 and signed with the Giants. But San Francisco let him go again in October of last year after the COVID shortened season before re-signing him exactly two weeks later.
There were at least three opportunities for the Rockies front office to jump in a sign the local product – now 30 years old – before their NL rival did. As Kyle Freeland has proven, guys who grow up in this environment tend to not have to lean on any of the old “it’s the altitude” crap as an excuse at Coors Field. The big “Wolf” from Centennial would have looked great in purple pinstripes. It will be great to see him recognized on July 13 regardless of whether or not he gets to pitch.
Strike Two: Marquez is an intriguing addition to the NL squad. He’s on an incredible roll at the moment, with having taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning against Pittsburgh recently as part of a spectacular three game stretch.
His season stats to date – a 7-6 record and an ERA of 3.59 – are okay but not All-Star great. What is great is his performance in those recent three outings. He gave up just four total hits in 23 innings pitched. He has an ERA of 2.10 over his past nine starts and won four games in June.
Marquez is the sixth Rockies starting pitcher to earn an All-Star nod. The only one to date who got to start the game was Ubaldo Jimenez.
The two are strikingly similar.
Back in 2010, the Rockies got a string of first-half performances similar to what Marquez has done recently – only better – from Jimenez. That season, Ubaldo would get the starting nod for the NL All-Star team in Anaheim after winning 15 games (against one loss) during the first half of the season. That included the only no-hitter in Rockies history in April of 2010 in Atlanta. Jimenez was historically great that first half and was named NL Pitcher of the Month for both April and May. He became only the second MLB hurler ever to throw a no-hitter and win five games in April, he had two streaks of at least 25 scoreless innings pitched in the same season and posted the lowest ERA in history at that time (0.78) after 11 starts. He was magnificent to watch.
During the first half.
Second half was a different story.
For whatever reason, Ubaldo wasn’t the same pitcher after throwing two scoreless frames in the mid-summer classic. He went just 4-7 in the second half of the season, and when he got off to a bad start the following year – he was just 6-9 after 21 starts – the Rockies traded him to Cleveland in late July.
There are many similarities between the two pitchers. First, both have/had electric stuff. Ubaldo blew up bats with his overpowering fastball and incredible movement. But he was horribly inconsistent during his Rockies career – and in his stops in Cleveland and Baltimore after that – and never reached his full potential. Marquez has been much the same – dominant at times and puzzling at others. Two seasons ago, he one-hit the Giants in San Francisco before giving up 11 runs in the first inning against the same Giants team a few weeks later at Coors Field.
No starting pitcher not named deGrom is going to be dominant every time out. But Rockies fans need to hope that Marquez can settle in and find something of a season-long groove and doesn’t end up following the same career path as Jimenez.
Strike Three: Might have mentioned the idea one – or one hundred – times before, but perhaps someone in Boulder was listening?
Been beating the drum for the return of the Mile High Classic – an annual college basketball tournament in Denver that was held with good success in the late 1980s – for several years now. The idea is to bring the University of Colorado, Colorado State and two out of state teams (in 1989, it was North Carolina and UMass) to town for a four team tourney. In 1989, Boyd Grant’s CSU Rams knocked off Dean Smith’s Tar Heels for the tournament title. It was great fun.
It could work again.
But you need willing participants. And so far, that part hasn’t worked out. CU head coach Tad Boyle has told me personally a couple of times that trying to get big name programs to come and play in Denver over the Christmas holiday break simply wasn’t doable for scheduling reasons.
But Boyle may have figured out a way. At least a way to start.
It was announced a few days ago that the Buffs will be traveling to Lincoln, Nebraska to meet the Huskers on the hardwood for the first time since 2011. The game will not be official, but it will count for something.
The Halloween afternoon showdown will be a charity exhibition fund raiser for three local Nebraska charities needing to raise funds for COVID relief. The following season, the Huskers will come to Boulder to return the game and benefit local Boulder area charities.
Let’s all keep hoping by 2023 we’ve heard the last of COVID and there won’t be the need for any more of these kinds of fund raisers. That doesn’t mean there won’t be the need to see these rivals continue to play.
Imagine the fervor for a four-team tournament at Ball Arena featuring CU, Nebraska, CSU and say, Wichita State (Boyle’s a former assistant coach there.) It doesn’t take a lot of imagination to see the Arena getting sold out for three straight nights with an electric atmosphere each time. Buff fans hate Nebraska. The Huskers have legions of fans in the region. CSU fans hate CU and would turn out in big numbers to see Niko Medved’s Rams take on Boyle’s Buffs (the two schools didn’t play last season due to virus cancellations, and aren’t slated to play this season, either.) And the Shockers are a perennial powerhouse whose fans could easily make their way to Denver on I-70 and help pack the place.
This. Could. Work.
Tad’s done his part. Now someone just needs to get the basketball rolling.