Small Sample Hero? Control Freak? Flamethower? Sounds like a comic book convention gone horribly wrong…

Phillies at Reds, 9:35 a.m. PT — Fire up a pot of coffee and sidle on up to the Internet (really, I’d like to see that). Cole Hamels and Bronson Arroyo square off in Monday’s first game. Plus you get a chance to watch Jeff “Offensive Beast” Keppinger in action. Honestly, I always thought that guy could be useful if given the chance, but .435/.480/.826 through the first week? Man, I love small samples. They’ll show you just about anything you want to see.
Mariners …read more

Not a lot of great pitching matchups today. Eh, that happens…

White Sox at Tigers, 12:55 p.m. PT — At 0-4, Detroit is the only team without a win so far this season. Baseball is a strange game. Dontrelle Willis makes his Tigers debut. For a guy who should be in his physical prime, Willis sure has fallen fast. Where’s Steve Avery when you need him?
Dodgers at Padres, 12:55 p.m. PT — This is by far the best matchup of the day: Brad Penny goes up against Cy Young Award winner Jake Peavy. Penny is 0-2 with a 6.67 ERA over …read more

The Texas Rangers have signed right-hander Jason Jennings to a 1-year deal worth $4 million. The story to date: Jennings was pretty good as a rookie with Colorado in 2002. Then he had three seasons of extreme blahness, followed by a terrific showing in 2006, after which the Rockies shipped him to Houston, where he pitched poorly and got hurt.
Jennings went 2-9 with a 6.45 ERA for the Astros in 2007. He underwent elbow surgery in August and is expected to be ready by Opening Day.
Jennings owns a career record of 60-65 with a 4.91 ERA; he spent much of …read more

Man, I had way too much coffee this morning. You could get a contact high just reading this.
Enough about me, how about the Manager of the Year awards? The good news is, the voters got one of ‘em right. The other one? Eh, it’s defensible.
You liked Colorado’s Clint Hurdle and Cleveland’s Eric Wedge (as did I). Neither of those teams was expected to do as well as they did this season.
The Indians you could kind of see coming, but they play in MLB’s toughest division. Wedge was the clear choice here.
In the National League, things were a little trickier. Bob …read more

I
Seventeen base hits
weren’t all that doomed the Rockies –
too much Josh Beckett
II
Schilling kept things close
before bullpen sealed the deal
despite Matt’s four hits
III
No DH, no prob –
surge in the sixth and seventh
couldn’t beat Red Sox
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So much for invincibility. Now that the Rockies can’t rely on that anymore, they’ll have to pick themselves back up and start playing good baseball.
The bad news is that Colorado got spanked in Game 1. The good news is that a 12-run loss counts exactly the same as a 1-run loss, so there’s plenty of time to regroup. Seriously, ask the 1960 Pirates.
Unfortunately, if the Rockies are going to make a stand, they’ll have to do it behind a kid making his 19th big-league start (Ubaldo Jimenez). Oh, and they’re facing a guy with 216 regular-season wins under his belt …read more

Well, that certainly was exciting. Boston beat the Rockies, 13-1, in the first game of the World Series at Fenway on Wednesday night. Colorado left-hander Franklin Morales, working in relief of starter Jeff Francis, had a particularly rough outing:

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Half a million of my neighbors have been forced from their homes by wildfires that surround San Diego, so you’ll forgive me if I don’t really give a damn about baseball just now. That said, the World Series starts on Wednesday night (first pitch, 5 p.m. PT), and I expect you’ll be wanting some cogent analysis.
Might I recommend Purple Row for Rockies coverage and, er, pretty much anywhere on the Internet for Red Sox coverage. Oh, I have to pick just one? Okay, give Fire Brand of the American League a shot.
Good luck to your team. Good luck to my …read more

I think they’ve got a pretty good chance. I support that statement with actual facts in my latest offering at Hardball Times.
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The ALCS heads back to Boston. While the Rockies do whatever it is teams do while they’re waiting for their opponent to be determined, the Indians and Red Sox hook up for Game 6 on Saturday night (first pitch: 5 p.m. PT).
This is a rematch of last week’s Fausto Carmona/Curt Schilling showdown. The Indians won the earlier contest on the strength of a seven-run 11th inning. (Hey, if the Rockies are trying to trademark “Rocktober”, maybe the Indians could trademark “7-11″; you think?)
Where there are Red Sox, there is drama. This time it comes in the form of rookie Jacoby …read more