Well, the season began and ended on a positive note. Losing three of four to the Mets puts the Rockies right back to square one -- 67-95, their same record as in the expansion season of 1993. Aaron Cook finishes his truncated season 7-2. That's a good sign. Holliday, Barmes, and Helton were the hitting stars. What happens if we have all those guys healthy next season? Danny Ardoin was 0 for 4 with three strikeouts. What happens if we have something approximating a real major league catcher next year?

Meanwhile, the Indians completed their unlikely slide to allow Boston to back into the playoffs. Houston held off Philadelphia to win the NL wild card. And the Brewers finished at exactly 81-81. Tomorrow I will sit down and really dig into the postseason matchups (Boston at Chicago, New York at Anaheim, San Diego at St. Louis, and Houston at Atlanta). That should be fun seeing as I more or less gave up the heavy analytical stuff over the last month of the season here when the Rockies played an endless string of games against boring NL West teams about which there wasn't much interesting left to say. Right now? I like the Cardinals. But 5- and even 7-game series are inherently unpredictable. Stay tuned.