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The biggest issue for the Rockies young pitchers this year has been the problem of throwing strikes. One of the stats that tracks this is K/BB which represents strikeouts versus walks. For instance if a pitcher throws 100 K’s against 50 walks they would be at a 2.0 K/BB. Johan Santana is one of the elite at this ratio, his K/BB this year is 4.0, so he strikes out four times as many batters as he walks.

Can you guess which of these stat lines belongs to a Rockies pitcher?

K/BB_____ERA______W-L

1.68……….4.02……….9-10

1.76……….3.42……….12-13

1.50……….4.50……….10-13

Actually none of them do, they belong to Sandy Koufax, Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson after each respective pitcher's third season in the Bigs. Here is a breakdown comparison with Ubaldo Jiminez’s stats alongside:

Player _______K/BB_____ERA______W-L_______IP_____ER

Koufax…..…….1.68……….4.02……….9-10.……..203.5……….91

Ryan……….….1.76……….3.42……….12-13…….226.1……….86

Johnson………1.50……….4.50……….10-13...….186.2……….93

Ubaldo…….…..1.60……….4.63……….5-7……….130.1……….67

My dad is a big Sandy Koufax fan and I was working on a birthday present for him when I realized that Koufax and Uball’s stats were nearly identical at this stage of their career. So I looked up some other hard throwers as comparison. This table shows that Uball’s walks to K’s were nearly identical to Koufax’s, and even better than the Big Unit’s numbers during the same point of the players development. I think it shows that Uball’s struggles are typical for a pitcher of his genetic makeup and given time he will probably develop into an amazing pitcher.

An interesting thing to watch is Uball’s progression as he is nearing his 25th start. These other pitchers have shown some amazing development right around the 30-45 start range. With most of them showing a significant drop in ERA around that time. Randy Johnson threw his first complete game no hitter during start number 44. However most of these pitchers did not develop a lower walk to K ratio until start 75. Unit’s did not significantly decrease until start 130.

For a glimpse into the crystal ball let’s look at where the other three pitchers finished their careers. Or in Randy’s case through 2007. Uball showed the ability to bounce back in his last game after giving up three runs in one inning, and relied on his curveball to induce groundballs, as well as establishing another out pitch. I look forward to watching him this season and hopefully he continues to progress towards these numbers:

Player _______K/BB_____ERA______W-L

Koufax……….2.93……….2.76……….165-87

Ryan………….2.04……….3.19……….324-292

Johnson………3.24……….3.22……….284-150

One more day til the big day and I'm as jittery as a six-year old before Christmas. Usually Opening day occurs on a day I am working or in school, but this year I have the day off from work, so if I can find a TV I can watch the game. Otherwise I will be listening to it on the radio and blogging with all of you. Either way it's going to be a great day!

Here are my favorite Opening day memories:

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1993- Against the Mets, and all spring I had been listening to some guys on the radio named Wayne Hagin and Jeff Kingery talk about players I had never heard of before. Charlie Hayes? Alex Cole? David Nied? who were these players? I didn't care, I had traded in my Cubs hat for a sleek black one with a CR on the front. The game started around 11:30 local time, which happened to be during my lunch hour. Fortunately for me, one of my football coaches let me watch the game in his classroom. All I remember from that game was how inept we were at getting on base. The lone bright spot was an opposite field two run HR by Dante Bichette that barely grazed the top of the fence as it slid over to the opposite side. It was the start of something great, and a few days later something magical happened. I was sitting in class with a hidden radio in my jacket when suddenly I made a fool of myself as I jumped up screaming and shouting in the middle of the classroom, "EY hit a HR! It's gone and it aint comin' back!!!" Let's just say the teacher was a little unhappy with me. After getting kicked out of class I walked to a friends house and watched the rest of the game. Bryn Smith never looked so good as that daybut then all bearded Rockies tend to shine.

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1995- It snowed on opening day and my Dad told me they would never schedule another Home Opener in Colorado. He should have watched the end of the game, it was magical and Dante Bichette became the best Opening day hitter in history (I am sure there are stats to back this up, right?).

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2001- Mike Hampton beat the Cardinals and for one day looked like the pitcher we all hoped he could be.

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2007- I am frantically driving to Denver after leaving early for a business meeting that did not start until the following day. My family is with me and we plan on spending a few days in the Mile High city enjoying the weather and catching the first game of the best year of our lives, when we hit a traffic snarl going up to the Eisenhaur tunnel. 850 KOA barely comes in through the speakers, and time begins to run out, finally get through the tunnell and speed down the hill. Alas it is the 8th inning when we finally reach the outskirts of Denver. So I pull over at a park, let the kids out to play and listen to the rest of the game on the radio. It was a sweet victory over the dBacks, one of many that year.

Does anyone else have magical Opening day memories? What are your plans for tomorrow?

Today I took the plunge and purchased the new baseball game by 2k sports for my PSP. All winter long has been spent keeping my baseball cabin fever at bay by replaying the Rockies 2007 season on MLB2k7. After spending hours bumping the players sliders to levels that approached their 07 output and beating up on the Padres and Dbacks I was excited to finally try the newest version.

So after work I rushed home and ripped open the packaging, inserted the game and started up the exhibition game without reading the instructions. The 2k company has the two World Series participants as the preset teams to face off in the quick-start exhibition game which of course pitted our Rockies vs the Red Sox. The graphics show up on my PSP great and it's exciting to see the Home team face off again in a rematch versus the evil empire II.

The game started as a Game 1 rematch of Jeff Francis against former Marlin Josh Beckett. The starting lineups set by the 2k8 staff had Quintanilla as the starting second baseman. They didn't even have Nix, Giles or Barmes on the 25 man roster. I replaced Quintanilla with Heff Baker who also hit 8th in the lineup. Then he repaid my choice by booting an easy grounder by former Minnesota Twin David Ortiz that allowed Jacoby Ellsbury to score from second. Francis settled down after the error and scattered three hits over three innings before Uball took over in the fourth to throw two shutout innings. Jeff Baker made up for his error by blasting a 430 foot opposite field homerun over the right field wall. Franklin Morales exhibited a nasty changeup by striking out former Indian Manny Ramirez. Then power from the 2 spot appeared in the 8th inning when Tulo deposited a homerun over the left field wall against former Mariner Mike Timlin. Then Corpas came into his own by closing out the side in 9th for a 2-1 victory.

My plan is to work through my own spring training by playing a few exhibition games to get a feel for how the new game plays and also to see how the players perform. Then I will probably push some sliders to matchup the players skills and start the season.