Losing streak continues…

The Rockies will enter the 2008 season having lost 7 straight. Yea I know the season has been over for a month or so now, but let’s rewind a bit. The Rox entered the World Series winning 21 of 22 before losing 4 straight and being swept by the Red Sox. Loss number 5, Troy Tulowitzki losing the Rookie of the Year. Loss number 6, Clint Hurdle finished 3rd in NL manager of the Year, though he was never really considered a candidate for this award until the last month of the regular season and into the playoffs. And loss number 7, today Matt Holliday loses the NL MVP to the Phillies shortstop, Jimmy Rollins.

Now we could say that this is East Coast bias, and to some degree we would be correct. Most of the writers and such who vote for these awards dont stay up late to watch a West Coast game. It’s part of why there are 2 writers per major league city that does the voting. But those who are in LA, San Fran, etc, dont and havent paid any attention to baseball in Colorado. And before this season who could really blame them. Just look at ESPN’s Baseball Tonight, it a decent but not a great program, but the only time there go “around the league” is to do scoring updates. You get very little information of the teams in the West and the goings on within their organizations, unless you’re the Giants, or the Dodgers and it’s not just about the NL West, you can certainly include the AL West. Maybe they should reconsider naming the program East Coast Baseball Tonight and let the rest of us fend for ourselves as we have done anyway when it comes to our teams.

The other problem here is that these post season awards are done before the playoffs begin and should be announced at that time. If you watched any of the playoff games on television, how many times did you hear a commnetator say, “Tulowitzki would be my Rookie of the Year.” or “Holliday with his numbers and how he’s carried this team this season would be my MVP?” We get all of the buildup in the post-season only to be let down a month after the Series is over? If the Division and the Championship series awards can be announced after a series is complete then there is no reason why the regular season awards can’t also be announced at the end of the regular season. What’s the holdup? There aren’t that many votes that need to be counted, but if it were left it up to the Denver Election Commission then we’d understand why it takes so long for the votes to be counted.