Might Mrs. Mendoza get Holliday some coffee some day????

On Friday, the 1st of February, Mrs. Mendoza will be going to Coors Field for a job interview. Yep, whenever the good people of Colorado call (303) ROCKIES they just might connect with Mrs. Mendoza. To say that she and I are excited would be the biggest understatement in the history of the world. This is a dreamjob for her and I and apparently the starting point for most in the baseball-management industry.
Cross your fingers, blogosphere and think good thoughts for Mrs. Mendoza.
-Mendozas' 5280 (reasons to believe that Mrs. Mendoza will get her dream-job tomorrow).

Tulo's bonus for being the rightful winner of ROY?

He gets a $30 mill, 6 year contract from O'Dowd and Company. Good news for the Rox and a rare smart move on their behalf. Should make Tulo very happy, especially since he only made $381k last year.
It should also make Mrs. Mendoza happy since she got this jersey for Christmas this year and now she'll get to hopefully wear it for a long time.


Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to chant "TULO" that much louder now)

Just in: Holliday and Rockies agree on $23 million for 2 years

http://www.denverpost.com/rockies/ci_8009276
First reaction: the Monforts are idiots for not going at least for $100+ mill, 7-year. In a way, this almost guarantees that Holliday is on his way out after 2009.
Second reaction: Holliday was ours for the next 2 years anyhow, the Rockies could have been real a-holes and let the negotiations go to arbitration where they might (or might not ) have been told to pay less than what they offered. So in a way this is the Rockies showing good faith for an awesome season Holliday had.
Third reaction: Taveras deserves a quadrupling of his salary whereas Holliday only double? Sorry but the principle of that statement does not add up. Of course, the Rockies would have had no speed whatsoever with the loss of Taveras, he just better not get injured again.
Fourth reaction: what about Hawpe and Atkins?????? Lock them up, Monforts!
Final reaction: Can it just be Spring Training time already? I'm getting anxious wondering if this is indeed the same team as last year or if mindsets have changed.
-Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to keep these guys together)

SF Giants and Anaheim Angels

So now it's official official; we will see the Rox take on the Angels on 3/8 and then the Giants on 3/9. By the way, the Giants website for spring training tickets had that same countdown thingy that the Rockies website did for the World Series tickets and guess what? The countdown actually let you in to buy tickets eventually. What a concept.
It pleased this Rockies fan.
By the way, did you know that Jason Hirsh's wife works for the San Diego Chargers football team as a picture-printer for the offense and defense. Basically, when you see Chargers QB Phillip Rivers on the sideline looking in that little book full of defensive pictures, Hirsh's wife made it. The things you'll learn.

-Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to watch the local news say that Hirsh didn't win a World Series ring but his wife could win a SuperBowl ring).

Rockies website didn't crash this time!

So the spring training tickets went on sale Saturday and the Rockies' website went flawlessly well. Tickets for the homeplate grandstands and the boxes right behind the fence went amazingly fast. By the time we started trying to buy tickets it seemed they were going at a rate of 1 row every hour (for just the 1 day, 8th).
Anyhow, we'll be there in Tucson for March 8 game against Angels, will you? Now's the time to plan trips and start taking off time from work.
We're there.
By the way, for the hell of it I've joined Google AdSense (above) for no particular reason than to be a part of capitalism.

Next task is to buy Giants-Rockies tickets in Scottsdale for the game on the 9th. Those go on sale on the 15th. We'll see if Mrs. Mendoza and I can get directly behind the homeplate fence this time.
-Mendoza's 5280 (reasons to go to coloradorockies.com now)

Oh Matt Herges...

we all knew you weren't as good as you portrayed yourself to be. Nice job buying hgh along with Lo Duca.
And who woulda thought that Glen Allen Hill (Rox 1st base coach) would use such things; no surprise of course since he looks like a 24-7 hard-ass there at first anyhow. Very little emotion from that guy.
Report is here: http://files.mlb.com/mitchrpt.pdf

Mendoza's 5280 (fools in the MLB)

Mitchell Report will destroy baseball?

Think of it as if the reset button on baseball will be pushed and a new, clean team will have to emerge (ie Rockies). My guess is Dante Bichette will be the one Rockie who's named.
We'll see.
Report is here:
http://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/mitchell.htm

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons for baseball to startover with the Rockies winning it all)

Mitchell Report due out before yearend

A report which will supposedly name names linked to steroids use in baseball is due to come out some time before yearend. Angels GM Moreno says that the names in the report will anger people.
We'll see.
In Rockies news, the spring training schedule was released. Methinks Mrs. Mendoza and I will be shooting for the 3/8 and 3/9 games this year. 24 hours of driving well-worth it. Also, it looks as though the Rockies are sticking with Hi-Corbett (at least for now since the White Sox's stadium in Phoenix opens in 2009; and remember, if the White Sox leave it allows the Rox to leave Tucson as well).
Lastly, it looks like the Tigers made an offer to Hawkins. This wouldn't be a huge loss since Hawkins rarely through anything that wasn't a mid-90s meaty fastball this past season.

Mendoza's 5280 (Steroid abusers)

How awesome are the Rockies? Very very.

$233k goes right to Coolbaugh's widow. That's class. On a sidenote, had the Rockies won the World Series, Tulowitzki could have almost doubled his 2007 salary with the money the winners got.
Here's another sidenote, suppose hypothetically that the MLB had been charging a $2 'World Series Winners Pool' fee on top of every single ticket sold this season (75 million+), and so essentially you'd see the winning team's share for winning the World Series worth more than $150 million (players share would be 10 times more from $300k to $3M). I'm wondering what the effect would be on baseball as a whole.
If you think about it, it might make WS winning teams more motivated to stick together (instead of splitting up due to demanding more money) and you could finally see the return of baseball dynasties due to teams having quality players sticking together because now there's a monetary reason for them to stick together as team.
To make it fair for the opposing WS team, you could add $1 to that 'World Series Winners' fee so that they'll be motivated to stick together as well.
Some cheap-skate fans, though, will not like the idea of paying up $3 extra for something labelled as 'World Series Winners Pool' thing; because of this MLB should enlist the help of Republican Party marketers (who came up with such things as 'War on Terror' instead of 'Empire America', 'Death Tax' instead of 'Estate Tax', and 'Climate Change' instead of 'Global Warming') to come up with a name for the fee. Perhaps it could be the 'Make Baseball Better for America' fee or 'Keep Baseball in America' fee or 'No terrorists at my baseball game, please' fee.
What would you call the fee?

Mendoza 5280 (ways to keep baseball in America)

A-Rod getting $30 million a year is back on the table

Apparently he'll get $6 million per homer hit that ties Mays, Ruth, Aaron and Bonds and again if he breaks Bonds' record. What's interesting is that the MLB Players' Association doesn't allow these kinds of 'pay per performance' deals, so to bypass it they will have him sign balls and apparently do autograph sessions (where he'll supposedly be paid at a rate of $3 million an hour for 2 hours or something like that).
So there you have it, players are no longer going to play the sport as a team unit with a goal of winning the World Series, but rather as individuals trying to break records.

Mendoza's 5280 (reasons for Holliday to ditch Boras now).