Rockies' Cook, Francis on opposite ends

Baseball Betting Lines

05/15/2008 - (Sportsbook Betting Lines) - Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Aaron Cook is responsible for 40 percent of his team's wins this season. Now raise your hand if you thought that would be the circumstance by mid-May.

If you did raise your hand then you're a liar because odds are Jeff Francis would have been the easy favorite. But that's not the case, at least so far this season, since last year's ace has yet to sniff a victory in the new campaign. Instead of Francis racking up the wins and breaking records early in the 2008 campaign, it has been Cook reveling in success.

Cook is 6-0 with a 1.90 earned run average in his last six trips to the mound. The six victories in six straight starts is a Colorado record, while Bill Swift, Pedro Astacio, Brian Bohanon and Jason Jennings each won five straight starts. Cook is 6-1 with a 2.26 ERA in eight total outings this season, and has pitched no less than six innings in each of those starts.

The right-hander certainly has caught the National League by surprise, especially after going 8-7 with a 4.12 earned run average in 25 appearances during the Rockies' run to the World Series in 2007.

"He's staying in a real good place in the game," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said of Cook. "Obviously, the string is most impressive and might be as impressive as anybody we had here."

Colorado (15-25) hasn't had many aces come through the organization, but the sentiments from Hurdle are very flattering for the aforementioned pitcher. Cook will face his biggest test of the season on Thursday against Arizona Diamondbacks ace Brandon Webb. Webb is an impressive 8-0 through his first eight starts of the season.

Even though the team has struggled mightily this season, Cook has been much like Andy Dufresne from the movie 'The Shawshank Redemption.' Dufresne crawled through 500 yards of sewage to get away, sort of how Cook escapes the reality of losing on the mound for his ballclub. Dufresne came out clean as a whistle, which conveys exactly how Cook looks this year for a beleaguered ballclub that has lost four straight and 17 of its last 23 contests.

To stay on that losing note, Francis is sporting an 0-4 mark and a 6.27 earned run average in eight outings this season. He is 0-2 with a 6.52 ERA over his last five starts, including a terrible performance the previous time out on May 13 at Arizona. Francis lasted a season-low 4 2/3 innings and gave up a season-high eight runs and 13 hits in an 8-4 loss to the Diamondbacks. He began his career with a 7-1 record against Arizona, but has dropped his last four regular-season starts against the D'Backs.

The left-handed Francis is scheduled to take the mound again on May 18 versus the Minnesota Twins. Francis went 17-9 with a 4.22 earned run average in 34 starts during Colorado's run to glory a year ago.

ROCKIES MAKE A FEW ROSTER MOVES

The struggling Rockies have placed pitcher Ryan Speier on the 15-day disabled list because of a right shoulder contusion. The move is retroactive to May 12.

Speier, a right-hander, was injured on May 11 when he was struck by a line drive off the bat of San Diego's Tadahito Iguchi. He has a record of 1-1 with a 3.38 earned run average in 15 games this season.

Colorado then recalled lefty Josh Newman from Triple-A Colorado Springs to fill the vacant roster spot. Newman appeared in four games for the Rockies from April 25 through May 3, recording a 3.86 ERA with no record.

WHO'S HOT

Besides starter Cook, Rockies third baseman Garrett Atkins is riding a 12-game hitting streak in which he is batting .383 with a home run, five RBI and five multi-hit games. Atkins leads the ballclub with a .337 batting average, seven home runs and 26 RBI this season.

WHO'S NOT

Francis is an easy choice for this category, but so is first baseman Todd Helton. Despite his .305 batting average over the last 10 games, Helton has just 11 hits with no homers and two RBI over that span.

ON DECK

The Rockies are 10 games below the .500 mark for the first time since the end of the 2006 campaign. After it wraps up a six-game road trip on Thursday at Arizona, Colorado will open a nine-game homestand at Coors Field versus Minnesota, San Francisco and the New York Mets.

Colorado is 7-10 as the host in 2008, while toting an 8-15 road ledger.

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Big 12 Conference betting odds

Work left to do: Texas Tech, Oklahoma State, Kansas State

Texas joins Texas A&M and Kansas as locks after getting league win No. 11. Texas Tech greatly helped its own hopes and crippled OK State's with the two-point win Saturday. Is K-State the last reasonable hopeful? Could be an elimination match in Stillwater on Tuesday, at least for the Cowboys.

Work left to do:

Texas Tech [18-11 (7-7), RPI: 44, SOS: 12] A critical two-point win over OK State leaves the Red Raiders with Baylor and at Iowa State left. Get both and the Red Raiders likely are good to go. Get one and there could be some interesting comparisons with a K-State team that could finish two or three games "ahead" of them in the standings but doesn't have any of the quality wins Texas Tech has. Not a lot in nonconference play (against Arkansas in Little Rock being the best win, by far) to lean on.

Oklahoma State [18-9 (5-8), RPI: 50, SOS: 35] Still without a road win, the Cowboys now need to win two on the road just to get to .500 in conference play. It's hard to recall a team (OK, other than Clemson) falling so precipitously from lock status to almost certainly out of the NCAAs at this point. There are wins to be had in the last three, including a very big home game against K-State on Tuesday, but this team is reeling. Can you tell the pressure to win is getting to them with the way the final possession played out at Texas Tech? There are some good nonconference performances to lean on, specifically beating Missouri State and Syracuse on neutral floors and Pitt in OK City, but if the Pokes don't right this very, very soon, that won't be enough.

Kansas State [20-9 (9-5), RPI: 56, SOS: 96] It pays to be in the Big 12 North. The nine league wins are Colorado (twice), Missouri (twice), Iowa State (twice), Baylor, Nebraska and (a good one against) Texas. That helps explain the middling computer profile. The win over USC is nice, but the nonconference leaves a lot to be desired. The game at OK State in Stillwater on Tuesday is huge, as it could KO the Cowboys and leave K-State with a home date against Oklahoma with which to work.



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