Video Game Baseball

That was always my take on Coors Field...it seemed playing there was like playing one of EA's video games on the Rookie Level where you could hit a HR pretty much anytime you needed it. In honor of the Mile High city and since I'm a big fan of baseball parks, I think for road games I'll be giving you guys how players have fared in those ballparks. I was more curious to see how the Cubs pitchers have done at Coors Field, since I've always thought if you wanted a semi-successful pitching staff there, you need guys like Wood, Prior, and Zambrano who rely heavily on K's and at least in Z's and Prior's case not giving up a whole bunch of HR's. That will get you success in almost any park but well you know what I mean.

So here are some interesting numbers from Cubs at the great video game ballpark.

Name__________G__.AVG__OBP__SLG__HR__HR/AB__Career HR/AB
Grudzielanek__45__.309__.359__.450__3___63.7_______79.7
Walker________80__.341__.392__.610__15__17.8_______43
Sosa(Coors)___43__.362__.439__.782___20___8.7______13.9
Sosa(Mile High)12__.326__.429__.755__4____13.3
Alou (Coors)__ 30__.320__.381 __.631__10__12.2______21.5
(Mile High)_____7 __.400__.419__.600___1____30
D. Lee ________21__.324__.395__.507___1____71_______21.8
Ramirez_______21__.381__.385__.952___3____7________23.5
Patterson______ 6__.400__.423__1.000__4____6.3______33.7
Barrett_________15__.250__.340__.455__2____22.0_____42.1


I threw in Mile High Stadium numbers for Alou and Sosa as they were playing back then and the park was at the same altitude, so same issues. Garciaparra has played 3 games at Coors and did well but it wasn't worth mentioning. No suprise to anyone that other than maybe Barrett whose numbers are still good, all the Cubs have spanked the ball in Denver. For Sosa, Alou, Ramirez, Walker and Patterson they enjoy their best HR/AB at Coors (a close second is Minute Maid Park for Sosa, there are a couple of AL parks he's done better in but in only 3 games so I threw them out). Amusingly D. Lee has only 1 career HR at Coors in 21 Games while hitting 6 career HR's at Dodger Stadium in 22 games(an extreme pitcher's park). So my assumption is the Cubs hitters are frothing at the mouth as they touched down in Denver yesterday...as do all hitters I'm sure.

As for pitching matchups, we get Fassero tonight and lefties have not been kind to us mostly this year, particularly for Alou, Grudz and Sosa. Sosa is also dealing with his dizziness issues but I expect him to play as I'm sure the opportunity to pad his numbers at Coors will keep him in the lineup and August has historically been his best month, J. Wright has pitched well in limited action in his 2 starts since being called back up, but don't expect that to last and then J. Jennings for the 3rd game and well he's not the Rookie of the Year anymore.

Now the big question Cubs pitching. and their career numbers at Coors

Wood 5.25 ERA 12IP 3 BB 12 K .295 BA 2 HR
Zambrano 3.46 ERA 13IP 4 BB 7 K .188 BA 0 HR
Prior 2.08 ERA 13IP 1 BB 15K .204BA 0 HR

Well Prior hasn't been Prior this year and I still think they should shut him down and let Rusch pitch, not cause Rusch is better but because Prior is the future of this franchise and no reason to mess with that when you have viable options. We are talking limited sample size here but Prior and Z have had some success, Wood has not. Maddux and Clement luckily are the two guys who have been hit around the most and both will miss Coors Field this year. (Maddux 5.75 ERA at Coors with .323 BA against/ Clement has a 7.29 ERA with .328 BA against)

Well hopefully the Cubs bats continue their resurgence and our bullpen doesn't blow it, as a 3 game sweep would be real nice before we head into San Francisco and Bonds. I expect a particularly big series from Ramirez who has been hot lately and has loved Coors Field along with Sosa.