Aaron Cook

The Rockies just won't quit.

Can the 2010 season for the Colorado Rockies get any more strange?

The Rockies have swept the Atlanta Braves and now once again find themselves on the edge of the playoff picture only four games behind in the Wild Card Race.

However, it’s not all good news as reliever Manuel Corpas went down with an injury. Corpas will have an MRI done today, and the Rockies are hoping he won’t have to have Tommy John surgery. Yeah, it’s a bad injury whenever TJ is thrown out there.

The Rockies are reeling.

Eight straight losses in July will do that to a team. While the Rockies aren’t officially out of anything right now, they will have to have another miracle turn around and play-off run like they had in 2007 to make the playoffs.

But this team isn’t 2007. The 2007 Rockies had better starting pitching and one of the best defenses in the history of major league baseball. Where this team features base-running errors, fielding errors and a high strike out rate for its hitters.

This is the second of three articles looking at the Rockies at the trade deadline. The first one was on the bullpen, and the next will be position players/offense. This article will look at starting pitching.

The Rockies have been rumored to be looking at starting pitching at the trade deadline. Just to hear the Rockies as potential buyers is somewhat surprising.

Let’s look at the Rockies current rotation listed in order of ERA/2010 performance:

The Rockies have been disappointing this season. There. I said it.

Colorado has been average, mediocre, maybe even boring.

Some guys have been on fire from the start while others can’t seem to figure it out, ruining the party for everybody.

Read on to find out who’s been carrying his weight and who’s looked awful so far in 2010.

30. Jason Hammel (SP) – That 7.52 ERA isn’t going to cut it. Even for a fifth starter, Hammel has been nothing short of abysmal this season.

Aaron Cook is a good pitcher.

Good is the only word to describe him. He will never be mistaken for great, but there are things that he does very well.

The thing that he does best is pound the strike zone with his sinking fastball. When he is winning, he throws that pitch close to 80 percent of the time. However, for whatever reason, Cook sometimes tries to be someone that he is not.

The Rockies lackluster performance in game one of the doubleheader on Saturday was made up for in game two.

When this Colorado Rockies team was put together, it was heralded as a young club with veteran leadership. The two would combine to produce fundamentally sound defense and clutch hitting on offense.

They say that sometimes you can predict the outcome of a baseball game strictly from the first batter to take his hacks.

Unfortunately for the Colorado Rockies, that saying rang true in their opening bout with the Philadelphia Phillies in Game One of the National League Division Series.

When Dexter Fowler swung at Cliff Lee's first pitch of the game, flying out weakly to right field, it was a sad portent of things to come for the red-hot Rox in their eventual 5-1 drubbing at the hands of the NL East Champions.