Rockies playoff material?

I just got back from taking my buddy Steve to the Rockies/Yankees game. I, of coarse, love the Yankees while Steve hates the Yankees. I think I might be the only Yankee fan at the USGS. As a joke I got Steve and I Yankees tickets for his retirement present. The joke was supposed to be that the Rockies are so pathetic that the Yankees would storm into Colorado and beat them up. I ordered these tickets back in January or February. I picked the ticked up in march from the box office. Even then when I went to pick them up the ticket agent said, "Mr. Hoefen we have a problem!" "The Yankees called and said they were too scared to play the Rockies and weren't going to show up!" Good one. So here we are June 20th 2007. The Rockies have had a great month and just won 2 of 3 in Boston and are one of the hotter teams. The Yankees had a horrible start but are putting it all together and have had a good string of wins.

At the start of this series both the Rockies and Yankees had 35 wins. The Yankees began the season with a $195 million payroll while the Rockies are ranked 25th in spending with an opening day payroll of $54 million. The following stats were taken from the Denver Post. Here is the salaries of the starters in yesterdays games:

Yankees: Damon 13M, Jeter 21.6 M, Abreau 15.6 M, Rodriguez 27.7 M, Posada 12 M, Matsui 13 M, Cano 491K, Nieves 382K, Mussina 11M for a total of $114.7 Million.

Rockies: Taveras 402K, Matsui 1.5M, Halliday 4.4M, Helton 16.6M, Atkins 400K, Hawpe 403K, Tulowitzki 381K, Torrealba 1.07M, Fogg 3.6M for a total of $28.7 million.

WOW!! Needless to say the Yankees came in here and lost 3-1 last night and then tonight got shelled 6-1. What is going on here? Are the Rockies really playoff material?

Tomorrow I get to look forward to Roger Clemens. Don't get me wrong. I may go down to the game just to see him throw a few pitches because he IS Roger Clemens. This is another one of those salaries I don't understand. Again from the Denver Post, in May of 2007 Clemens signed a 1 year contract with the Yankees for $28,000,022. His prorated salary since he missed part of the year is $18 million. Based on projections and no injuries this is what he is scheduled to make:

$153,005 - Salary per Day
$792,000 - Salary per start
$12,409 - Cost per inning
$10,200 - Cost per strikeout
$705 - cost per pitch.

That is great isn't it!! Now on top of that the Yankees have a pretty bad bullpen. Clemens isn't a spring chicken here anymore so he now becomes a 5-7 inning pitcher. That leads us to the middle relief which stinks. I am not sure how Clemens is going to get those wins but it sure will cost the Yankees one way or the other.

I might go down to the game just to witness Clemens in all of his greatness. I think is supposed to be in the high 90's so I might fry in the process.

Look out for those Rockies though. I was even a little impressed.

T