It doesn’t amount to a hill of notes. …
They moved him to the five-hole to relieve some pressure and give him more RBI opportunities. So what did Todd Helton do in the sixth inning Wednesday afternoon with one out and runners on second and third?
He popped up.
Not that Helton is struggling, but he’s one 0-fer away from dropping below the Mendoza Line for the month. He’s 16-for-77 in July, putting him at .208. Four more hitless at-bats and he would be in the .100s.
Nothing unusual there except that Helton has never hit lower than .232 in a month in which he had an appreciable number of at-bats. Last July, he hit .400. His career average for the month was .328 before the season.
Now for the frustrating part: Helton has yearned for years to be playing in meaningful games in late July. He knows full well that, if he were hitting like his old self, the Rockies would be in the thick of things instead of threatening to fall out of the race in the National League West.
“I realize that,” Helton said. “I think about that. Don’t think I don’t realize that. I realize the situation and I realize how I’m playing, just put it that way. And I’m not happy about it.”
Will Helton snap out of it? Of course. Question is, can he do it by the end of the season? His strength – a.k.a. his bat speed – still isn’t where he wants it to be after the early-season abdominal illness that landed him on the disabled list.
If Helton looks skinny from the Coors Field stands, it’s because he is. He weighs 205 pounds, 10 to 15 fewer than he usually carries this late in the season. And he knows, with the heat and humidity of July and August having arrived, he isn’t going to gain weight any time soon.
“You can’t put on weight during the season,” he said. “You just can’t put weight on once you’ve lost it during the season. You have to wait till the offseason to put that weight back on.” …
How much pressure is Helton, a prideful man who embraces excuses as if they were alligators, putting on himself? One look at the Rockies’ payroll tells you everything you need to know. Helton is making $16.6 million. The next highest-paid position player on the roster is Yorvit Torrealba at $850,000. …
A number to try to ease Helton’s pain: He has hit .379 in his career during August, making it his hottest month. …
Says here the Twins win the AL wild card. As if having Johan Santana and Francisco Liriano at the top of their rotation weren’t enough, they went into Wednesday hitting a big league-best .321 as a team since the all-star break. …
Strangest stat of all from the Cubs’ long, strange trip of 2006: Carlos Zambrano has a higher slugging percentage – .435-.429 – than Derrek Lee. …
His relationship with George Karl aside, maybe there’s hope yet for Kenyon Martin. Amare Stoudemire was named to the Team USA roster less than a year after undergoing the same microfracture knee surgery as K-Mart. …
Just wondering: Did Packers rookie A.J. Hawk, who got married in Green Bay in one of those Under Armour workout T-shirts, spend his honeymoon at the corner tavern? …
The NFL’s top four quarterbacks? Make mine Peyton Manning, Tom Brady, Carson Palmer and Ben Roethlisberger. I only mention it this morning because all four are on the Broncos’ schedule. …
Go figure. Alex Rodriguez, a nice guy who is hitting .298 in July, gets booed every day at Yankee Stadium. Jason Giambi, an alleged ‘roid ranger who’s hitting a buck-95 in July, gets cheered in the Bronx. …
Could be worse, Rox fans. The Dodgers are 1-13 since the break and have been outscored 81-29.
Catch Jim Armstrong from 6-9 a.m. during “The Press Box” on ESPN 560 AM. He can be reached at 303-820-5452 or jmarmstrong@denverpost.com.
