Rockies done?

This is gonna be a quickie, since I don’t have a ton of time on my hands (pfft, school!), but - are the Rockies done for the year, in late August? I know that they’re still mathematically in contention for a lot of stuff, and they still have a real chance at a lot of stuff, but it seems like the Rockies themselves are giving up. They can’t score runs and aren’t even making excuses for it anymore. They’re getting great pitching and should easily be 5-10 games above where they are right now, but it seems no one on the team wants to step up and give everyone a big smacking around for this BS lack of production.

A few days ago, Andrew Mason of DenverBroncos.com wrote about Mike Bell, runaway star of the training camp and Broncos’ starter, being pushed around by veterans for breaking the Broncos rule that they don’t run out of bounds unless forced. It seems to me that the Rockies might be missing this kind of a veteran leader, a guy who pushes the guys around when they act stupid and don’t produce with, oh, the bases loaded and no outs. You know Helton isn’t that type of a veteran, and it seems like Clint Hurdle is now just talking about the things they’re doing wrong in press conferences, instead of how to improve them.

What the Rockies need is to somehow pick up a veteran, leader guy who plays a good center field and hits .300+ with 40 HR a year…anyone who thinks someone like this is available, stand on their head. Putting a guy like that behind Matt Holliday would make it hard to pitch to this team, and getting a leader in the clubhouse to push the guys would really help. Of course, the Rockies also need experience and the time the Broncos have had to build this foundation of un-written rules, and the tradition of enforcing them hard. Give them the rest of the year, I think a lot of these woes will end by next season. But what the Rockies need to remember is that it’s not too late for this year, either - and their attitude and demeanor of late is very discouraging for a fan who saw so much promise for the team at the end of last year.

In other notes, Kaz Matsui was re-called from the AAA SkySox, and was with the team tonight against the Brwers. We’ll see how Clint decides to use him, though my guess is we won’t see Kaz much until later in the year, when he starts taking a few games a week from Carroll and/or Barmes.