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...first World Series, Colorado is a loose, nothing-to-lose crew led by a cadre of green but muscled troops named Troy Tulowitzki (a possible Rookie of the Year at shortstop), Brad Hawpe, Jeff Francis (a 17-9 regular-season pitcher), Garrett Atkins and Matt Holliday (the probable NL MVP), who can still stroll unrecognized down Denver's 16th Street Mall. Then there are the older hands: Helton, speed burner Willie Taveras, Yorvit Torrealba and Kazuo Matsui (of Tokyo by way of New York City, cast off by the Mets...
...swiftly: the Rockies' opening day drew 80,227 to old Mile High Stadium--still the largest single-game turnout in baseball history--and first-year attendance totaled 4.5 million. These were happy days, particularly when hitter-friendly Coors Field was christened in 1995 and the team scooted into the NL playoffs...
...play, in which esoteric statistics guide decisions, Robinson doesn't know OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging, Moneyball's sacred stat) from UPS. "I don't like the computer," he says. "I go with instincts and gut feelings and heart." Entering last weekend, the Nats had won an NL-high 17 one-run games, in which a manager's chess moves have the most impact...
...Derek depart without so much as a fare-thee-well, and lost Martinez to the Mets-which mightn't have been such a bad thing, no matter how he performs in Queens. (The bet here is that he'll be swell for a year or two, especially against those NL lineups, but by year five he'll be cooked to a crisp. And he'll begin to act up in year three, as is his wont.) Gabe Kapler certainly deserved to play every day somewhere, and if that somewhere needed to be Japan, well, then, good for you, Gabe...
...Benson, meanwhile, established himself this winter as one of the most overpaid pitchers in recent memory, but the Mets can be excused one mishap. Benson is about as average as pitchers can be, sporting a career record of 47-53 and an ERA of 4.28, slightly better than the NL average of 4.41 over that span. He didn’t deserve $22.5 million, but will still help the club...