Rockies begin their tour of the NL West tonight in San Fransisco.  The Giants are hot, and lead the NL West and are 12-9.  The Rockies are 11-11 and 3 games behind. Following the Giants the Rockies head to San Diego for 3 games then to the LA Dodgers for 3 more. 

This west coast trip has never been good for the Rockies.  AT&T park does not fit the Rockies where the Rockie were 2-7 last year.  To make matters worse for the Rockies Esmil Rogers gets his first MLB start of the year Saturday and then Jhoulys Chacin on Sunday.  They are both highly rated prospects but both have things they need to work on, and being rookies, well, it won't always be pretty to watch them learn and develop.  The Rockies season now suddenly rest in those 2 young arms.  The Rockies will only go as far as they can carry them.

This trip is big for the Rockies, they need to go 5-4 which is better than they usually have done in the past.  If the Rockies go 3-6 and fall further behind the hole to dig out will become suddenly big.  This trip will be looked back on at the end of the season as a turning point, one way or the other for the Rockies season.  

I have to say, I'm more then a little nervous. It's too early for even a disastorous road trip to knock the Rockies out of anything, but right now, it seems the baseball gods are aligning the stars against them.  But this is what makes baseball great and legends out of young starting pitchers.