Colorado Rockies

In baseball there is a saying that every team wins 60 games and every team loses 60 games. What each team does with the other 42 games determines whether they are contenders or basement dwellers.

If Thursday night against Atlanta was one of those 42 games for Colorado, it was a good sign.

Twice the Rockies battled back from two-run deficits and overcame a sluggish start from ace Aaron Cook.

Meet Jorge de la Rosa.

Jorge is a left handed starting pitcher for the Colorado Rockies. His fastball resides typically in the low 90's. His off-speed offerings include a plus change and slider. His curveball has potential if he can fix its release point. He strikes out over a batter per inning and costs only ("only" used loosely) $2 million.

Why is de la Rosa so available? Well he is 5-7 with a 5.14 ERA and the Rockies fifth starter.

After a 21-7 June, the Colorado Rockies suddenly find themselves in a pennant race.

Less than three weeks ago, this was a team on the verge of trading away its best players, packing its bags and hoping for next year.

Now, the Rockies are a team poised to make a run at the playoffs.

As we sit three weeks from the July 31 trading deadline, what is the team’s next move?

This was, after all, a team stacked with potential trade bait only a few weeks ago. Now, most of these players look to be serious contributors to a potential Rockies playoff race.

The Colorado pitching staff is chalk full of talent.

They have Ubaldo Jimenez who throws 99 MPH heat with movement, to go along with breaking pitches that buckle opposing hitters knees. They have Aaron Cook, an All-Star a year ago who throws a sinker that ranks in the top-10 in all of baseball. They also have Jason Marquis, the newest All-Star Rockie who leads the National League in wins on good pitching, but mostly pure competitive drive. Jorge De La Rosa throws in the mid-90's from the left side and has a change up that falls off the table.

A clear sign that your bullpen is pitching well is when, with two outs in the ninth inning with no one on base and two outs, the closer is summoned from the bullpen, just to get some work.

At the beginning of June, the Colorado Rockies were in the basement of the NL West, a comfortable place for them, sitting at 20 and 29, 13.5 games out of first.

At the end of June, the Rockies were only 7.5 games back of first, and only 1.5 games out of the NL wild card.

Many things were positive for the Rockies in the month, so let's take a look into some specific numbers that helped Colorado climb the mountain in the standings.

The series trend of low-scoring games continued on Wednesday afternoon in the rubber match between the Los Angeles Dodgers (50-29) and Colorado Rockies (41-37).

The Dodgers were unable to give Clayton Kershaw any run support, but still became the first team in the Majors to reach 50 wins.

Rafael Furcal singled home the lone run of the game in the bottom of the eighth inning to give the Dodgers a 1-0 win.

Kershaw hurled five innings of one-hit ball without allowing a run, but left the game in a scoreless tie.

On paper the Rockies just lost a series with the Dodgers after a 1-0 pitchers duel where Jason Hammel came out on the wrong end.

However, after a winning road trip and a hard-fought series against the team with the best record in the Major Leagues, the Rockies should head back to Coors Field with a little more confidence.

With their tremendous winning streak of late, the Colorado Rockies have been generating a lot of discussion. Is this team as good as the 2007 club that rode a lucky streak into the World Series? Or are they destined to fade down the stretch?

Many pundits are inclined to believe the latter, and why shouldn't they? After all, this is the Rockies we're talking about, right? What reason do we have to believe they're going to be able to keep this up?

Friends, the Colorado Rockies are much better than you think they are.

A message to Rockies fans: One series loss does not mean the team is in a downward spiral!

Yes, I will admit the two losses in a row were a surprise to me, but not troubling. Two losses in a row does not mean a team is beginning to struggle.

It means that the Rockies are, after all, human.

However, that is not to take anything away from the success that the Rockies are finding on the diamond.

This team has shown the world that they should be included when the conversation turns to the top teams in baseball.