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Folks, I’d like you to follow me on over here. The Shawn Chacon Experience is a blog that will follow a season in the life of a Rockies fan in 2009. I think you’ll enjoy it.

The Shawn Chacon Experience

The Weekend Fourteener – March 15th, 2009

A little late, yes, but it’s Weekend Fourteener time:

1. And now, a word from a spoiled brat: “At the end of the meeting, he wasn’t like, ‘Jay, I want you as our quarterback, you’re our guy.’ It felt like the opposite. He basically said that I needed to tell him if we can’t work this out, to let him know. I thought he was antagonizing me and that was disappointing because I was ready to move on, committed as a Bronco. Really, I figured we’d hash things out, shake hands, laugh a little and move forward.” In other words, so long, Jay Cutler, and don’t let the door hit you on the way out lest you start crying.

Trading Cutler The Right – and Only – Move

Jay Cutler may or may not want to be traded. The Denver Broncos may or may not have tried to trade him to acquire Matt Cassel. The Broncos may or may not have instigated those discussions. Cutler may or may not have asked for a trade after Jeremy Bates was fired. Relations between Cutler and the Broncos may or may not have been irreparably ruined. Jay Cutler may or may not be a Bronco in 2009 and beyond.

There’s a whole lot that’s nebulous in this extremely strange situation. How and why it started, what everyone’s role is, and what the ultimate outcome will be still aren’t anything close to being resolved, and some of the particulars never will be. If I were in the business of making an educated guess, however, I’d give you good odds of Jay Cutler wearing a different uniform next season.

The Weekend Fourteener – March 8th, 2009

A busy, hectic week on all ends kept us from getting new material up, but that’s what the Weekend Fourteener is for – catching up. We’ll return to a semi-regular posting schedule this week with more Rockies content on the way, but for now, the Fourteener.

1. By the time you read this, the Denver Nuggets may no longer be in first place. Pending the result of their game in Sacramento tonight, the Nugs could lose their lead in the Northwest Division to the scorching-hot Utah Jazz. And frankly, it’s deserved, as the magic that seemed to hang over the team after the Chauncey Billups trade has dissolved. Injuries are starting to catch up (Kenyon Martin and Anthony Carter have missed recent games) and the lack of true bench talent this team has is being exposed. Chris Anderson can’t score, JR Smith can’t play defense, Linas Kleiza can’t do anything (we really should have traded this guy when we had the chance), and Carter might be the worst rotation player on any playoff team. Sure, not every player can be a complete player, but there just doesn’t seem to be a great five-player mix on this roster right now. Maybe they’re just in an extended funk, but with the Jazz and Blazers making their move, they need to snap out of it, and fast.

The March 1st Weekend Fourteener

Since we can’t get to everything that happens over the course of a single week in Denver sports, the weekend is a time to play catch-up with everything that might have gone under the radar. In honor of the peaks that dot our state’s landscape – and because there will be fourteen points per article – we’ll call it “The Weekend Fourteener.” Enjoy.

1. I’ve racked my brain for the last 24 hours trying to figure out why, exactly, the new Denver Broncos front office is looking to trade Jay Cutler, and I can’t come up with anything that makes sense. Three years in to his career, Cutler’s been to the Pro Bowl and appears to be on a career path that could place him with the elite QBs in the league by the time his prime hits. That’s not good enough for new GM Brian Xanders and coach Josh McDaniels, apparently, who were all set to ship him to Tampa Bay in a three-way deal that would have brought Matt Cassell to Denver. That deal fell through, but the message it sent couldn’t be clearer: Cutler isn’t a McDaniels type-of guy. Now, it depends on which source you’d like to believe, but the prevailing wisdom is that Cutler’s pissed and now wants to be traded. There’s no way to get around it: the relationship between the new coach and his best player has been damaged, perhaps irreparably, before minicamp can even begin. The prediction here is that, for the Broncos, this will get worse before it gets better.

Rockies Blueprint to Contention – Part 1

The Colorado Rockies opened their Cactus League season with a 5-3 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks Wednesday afternoon, and although nothing could possibly be less indicative of how a season will transpire than the first game of spring training, I still find myself bothered by the result. The sole reason, of course, is that I really hate losing to the Diamondbacks.

Other than that, of course, there are no conclusions to be drawn – not from Ubaldo Jimenez and Alan Embree’s rough outings (Jimenez gave up three runs, Embree the other two), not from Chris Iannetta throwing out two potential basestealers, and not from an 0-for-3, 2K performance by Ryan Spilborghs. These are the most stress-free boxscores a baseball fan can ever read if they’re taken with the right perspective.

I thought it prudent to celebrate the beginning of the baseball season with the beginning of a new series here at MHCSports: “Blueprint to Contention.” I wanted to call it “Blueprint to a Pennant” but I thought that sounded a little too pie-in-the-sky, even for February. The fact is, the Rockies are in a winnable division, and even if we don’t see a Rocktober redux this season, there is ample opportunity for the Rockies to be playing meaningful September baseball for the second time in three seasons.

Of course, for any team that has aspirations to contender-hood, a lot of things have to go right. Take the 2007 Rockies – they had an MVP caliber season from Matt Holliday, a fabulous debut from Troy Tulowitzki, a bullpen bailout performed by Manny Corpas, and the best year that Kaz Matsui, Willy Taveras, and Jeff Francis are likely to ever have in their careers. Not all of these things seemed probable at this time two years ago, but there were all things that likely would have been fingered as necessities if the Rockies were to do anything of note in 2007.

That’s the point of this “Blueprint in Contention” series. There are things we can pretty safely assume, and even some of those things might be derailed for various reasons. But it’s the factors that don’t seem so certain while still seeming within the realm of possibility that separate a team playing out the string in September to a team making plans for October baseball. This series will explore those factors and try and determine their likelihood.

Nuggets Embarrassed by Boston

You see a team often enough – and I’m not talking about just one week, or one season, but an entire era – and you start to pick up on things. You see poor shot selection, slow defensive rotations, and a host of turnovers, and it doesn’t take much longer than 8 minutes of basketball to realize, “Uh-oh, this team forgot to give a crap tonight, it’s a good thing ‘24’ is on so I can have something else to watch.”

When the Denver Nuggets have an off night… boy, they sure don’t screw around, do they?

Rockies Acquire Murton – Precursor to Larger Deal?

Matt Murton is the newest Colorado Rockie. Could his arrival signal a long-tenured Rockie's departure?

The Colorado Rockies made another trade with the Oakland A’s this afternoon, acquiring outfielder Matt Murton in exchange for minor-league infielder Corey Wimberley. The trade didn’t merit a spot on ESPN’s Bottom Line, and you’ll likely only see about 5-6 paragraphs on it in the Denver papers tomorrow. Outside of Denver and Oakland, it’s almost an overstatement to call it a footnote trade, the kind of deal that shows up in agate type on the back page next to the Gil Thorp cartoon.

So you’ll just have to trust me when I tell you that not only does this trade matter, and not only could it very well be a precursor of things to come, but it’s got the potential to be a real steal for the Rockies.

Nuggets Squeak by Depleted Spurs

Nuggets and Spurs’ fans were supposed to be treated to a contest between two of the top three teams in the Western Conference Tuesday. While those two teams were indeed on the floor at the Pepsi Center this evening, the game was absent its most recognizable stars. In what was a perplexing coaching decision by Greg Popovich, the Spurs played without the services of their three best players. Manu Ginobili, Tony Parker and Tim Duncan all missed the game for various reasons. Ginobili’s absence was not surprising given his hard fall to the floor Monday night in the team’s overtime victory against Golden State. He was officially out with a bruised hip. What was shocking was Popovich’s decision to sit both Parker and Duncan considering both players aren’t known to be battling any known ailments. The Spurs starting five consisted of George Hill, Roger Mason, Matt Bonner, Bruce Bowen and the prehistoric Kurt Thomas. His team is in the middle of an eight game road trip and it did play an extra five minutes in its win over Golden State late Monday night, but the Spurs next game isn’t until Sunday in Boston. I almost didn’t want to believe ‘Pop’ was serious about sitting Parker and Duncan. I kept peeking at their bench waiting for the two guys to get up but it never happened. It was certainly an interesting decision by the Spurs highly respected head coach to say the least.

The Nuggets were not without their absences either. Kenyon Martin was not in the arena on this night due to strep throat. Chauncey Billups was essentially a non-factor as well after getting in early foul trouble and then spraining his ankle toward the end of the first half. He did not return in the second half and was 1-5 from the field in 18 first half minutes.

The new Melo returns to form as Nuggets topple Bobcats

With his fingers taped, as seen above, to help with a still healing hand Melo poured in 19 and five assists as the Nuggets easily defeated the Bobcats Friday night. Now the real test begins with a crazy tough February. (Assocaitate Press photo.)

Carmelo Anthony may not be an All-Star in the eyes of NBA coaches, but he showed the home crowd he was worthy in his first game back after missing a 10 game stretch.

The Nuggets easily defeated a scary Charlotte Bobcats team 110-99, in a game that wasn’t as close as the score might suggest.

The should-have been All-Star dropped 19 points and dished out five assists. Melo’s hand appeared to be a non issue as he scored inside, outside and distributed to teammates all over the floor. It wasn’t a spectacular performance, but it was just what fans have come to expect of the new and improved Anthony. He had help, of course, with Nene pouring in 22 and 12 boards and Linas Kleiza had 21 points off the pine.

And the unsung hero was Chris Andersen with 6 points, 6 boards and 4 blocks in just 19 minutes.