"Reign of Error" Over as O'Dowd Resigns. Or is it?
by The Baseball Observer, October 14, 2014
The Baseball Observer was stunned into speechlessness by the announcement that "Dealin' Dan" O'Dowd
and his witless assistant, Bill "everything is secret" Geivett both announced their resignations in the wake of just another typically bad Rockies season. The Baseball
Observer expected O'Dowd, dubbed "General-Manager-For-Life" by one of the twin owners of the team, Chuck or Dick Manfart, to
remain in charge until he was no longer able to make an intelligent decision. Although his detractors have said that
O'Dowd has never made an intelligent baseball decision, the Observer has always hoped he would make one, buffeted by the sheer numbers
and statistical probability, and in so doing would get the ball rolling and result in another, and another, and so on. But now we will
never know unless some other team is foolish enough to guarantee losing seasons and angry fans by employing Mr. O'Dowd. Fortunately,
Cleveland and Colorado should now be protected via the double jeopardy rule.
The Observer does wish to convey its overwhelming gratitude to Mr. O'Dowd for putting the Rockies' long-suffering fans out of their misery
by taking it upon himself to resign. We all know that Chuck and Dick would never have pulled the string and just about everyone was sick of O'Dowd.
Wait a minute! Maybe O'Dowd finally did make an intelligent decision by resigning! Unfortunately, his place is now being taken by a nameless
flunky from the damp dark bowels of the Rockies' organization who will probably be a ventriloquist dummy moving his mouth to the cadence of the
self-serving decisions of Dick and Chuck, who will continue their policy of building personal wealth at the expense of a gullible public. Their
first move will probably be to retain O'Dowd and Geivett as consultants to complete the sham. At least we won't have to listen to the annual
litany of excuses until after next season. Go Rockies!
"Rockies Suck" Now Official Motto for 2014
by The Baseball Observer, August 4, 2014
As the Rockies accelerated their annual descent toward mathematical elimination
from the playoffs by losing 4-0 to the Detroit Tigers yesterday, the only enthusiasm we could
detect from the radio announcers was toward the day off today. Now eighteen and a half games
behind the first place Dodgers, the Rockies' front office should take note of the article below
and believe once and for all that bad Opening Days always result in bad seasons. The highlight of
the season is now only weeks away: the annual scrambling by the front office to attempt to generate
some excuses for the yearly disaster and find some scapegoats to fire. Then they will try to
fabricate some reason for fans to tune in next year. Good luck with that.
Rockies' Opening Day Sucks!
by The Baseball Observer, April 5, 2014
The Rockies trotted out their rote Opening day program with honor guards
from 5 service groups, followed by a gigantic American flag being stretched
out over the field by other service men and women with help from the Denver
Sheriff's department. Then they finished it off by releasing a few hundred
purple and silver helium balloons and firing off some ear-splitting
fireworks that released some sparkly streamers. I did not attend any other
opening day ceremonies this year, but I am confident that none was as boring
and unimaginative as this one. I only hope that the Monforts are adequately
compensating the service groups for their participation in this event and
not just using them to save money.
Last year the Rockies management
did away with the traditional fly over by military or commercial aircraft,
claiming it was because of the sequester budgetary crisis affecting the
military. They ignored the fact that there are numerous non-military
alternatives that they could have turned to but didn't. This year there was
no fly over at all and they didn't even bother to make excuses.
Fans
from the early days of the Rockies will remember star-studded opening days
that were truly entertaining - but those were during the Jerry McMorris
years before the penny-pinching Monfort twins took control of the team and
started making games more like going to church than attending a sporting
event. Speaking of church, as often as they complain in the press that they
are losing money, I expect the Monforts to start passing collection baskets
around in the audience soon.
Widely acknowledged as having the worst
marketing in Baseball, as well as the worst concessions and customer
service, not to mention one of the worst teams on the field most of the
time, the Rockies won't be satisfied until they have the worst of
everything, apparently. At the same time, our cost for opening day went from
$44 in 2012 to $68 in 2013, to $95 this year, for progressively worse seats.
This year I was on a flat metal bench deep in center field that didn't even
have cup holders and was soaking wet at gametime. They also run some kind of
sold out scam to jack up ticket prices, even though the stadium never
looked more than two thirds full.
Thankfully, the baseball players,
especially Charlie Blackmon, did an excellent job of providing
entertainment. Juan Nicasio pitched an excellent game and Blackmon got 6
hits and knocked in 5 runs as the Rockies trounced the Arizona Diamondbacks
by a 12 to 2 score.
Well, the Baseball Observer tried the positive
thinking/first law of karma thing last year, predicting the Rockies would
win the pennant, hoping against hope that the sheer power of the mental
image would will the Rockies into being a good team. Needless to say, that
didn't work, as the team's front office continued their longstanding policy
of only pretending to try to win just enough to prevent a fan revolt.
Actually, the Meat Boys have put together an impressive
lineup of position players who will be exciting and will score a lot of
runs, as shown by their 5.4 per game average after today's shellacking of
the Diamondbacks 12-2 in the home opener.
The problem is the pitching, with number one Jorge De
La Rosa injured, all of the rest would have to have career years just to
lead the Rockies to a .500 season. Fortunately, most of them have had such
dismal histories up to now that a career year is well within the realm of
possibility for all of them. If the Rocks get at least mediocre starting
pitching and against the odds the relief pitching hangs together, they could
beat out San Diego for last place and finish less than 20 games behind the
first place Dodgers.
The Baseball Observer also predicts the Cardinals will
win the NL Central and the Old Phillies will win the East. The Angels will
finally win the AL West, Cleveland will win the Central and Boston will
repeat in the East. Again, no Wild Card team will survive the short 1 and 5
game series' so you pick 'em.
Tulowitzki will finally win the MVP in the NL, and Mike
Trout will win the AL. Two new people will win Cy Youngs.
The Baseball Observer sees a Boston/St. Louis World
Series that leaves him/her very depressed.
Note on August 4th, 2014. OK, The BaseballObserver blew the Tulo/MVP prediction due to
injury. No excuses for Philadelphia or Boston - should have seen it coming. Pulling for an
all Los Angeles World Series for the first time ever.
It is that time of year again...
Rockies Management Presents 2012 Excuses
By the Denver Baseball Observer (DBO)
Every year at about this time (slightly later in 1995 and 2007) the Rockies' management commissions their paid shills at the Denver Post to roll out their excuses for the previous failed season. They do this as part of their marketing plan for next season, reasoning that if the fans think next year will be better they will continue to buy season tickets or at least plan to attend games and continue to buy licensed merchandise (apparel and other junk emblazoned with Colorado Rockies logos).
This year their paid spokesman is Patrick Saunders, a longtime sportswriter at the Post, whose article
Mile-high madness (20 years of baseball at altitude) appears on page 1CC of the Sunday, September 16, 2012 edition. There is also another version of the article on the denverpost.com web site, but that version may change, so this article is based on the print version. The Baseball Observer considers Mr. Saunders, as well as most of the other sportswriters at the Post, paid shills because their parent company is also one of the Rockies' owners, and they are recipients of substantial gifts from the Rockies, including press box privileges, which are not given to objective reporters. The stories written by Mr. Saunders and his peers at the Post frequently contain statements and opinions from Rockies? management presented as facts, the aforementioned article is no exception.
The article begins with one of these statements "baseball played at high altitude is a game of a very different color". This is the favorite excuse of Rockies management that is trotted out frequently, but has no basis in fact. There are other baseball clubs at high altitude, Albuquerque and Colorado Springs are two examples, where baseball has been played for much longer than the Rockies have existed and yet teams there have had winning traditions and have continued. The Denver Bears won several minor league championships in Denver before they were banished by the arrival of the Rockies. The Baseball Observer attended numerous Bears games at Mile High Stadium and never heard anyone, from fans to reporters, to players to team management, complain about how difficult it was to play baseball at altitude. Baseball is certainly not the same in Denver as it is in Los Angeles or New York, for example, but the differences are minor and inconsequential. If you believe the Rockies and the Denver Post, then you also believe that if the Yankees moved to Denver, they would never win another World Series.
Patrick (May I call you Patrick?) writes in the article that the Rockies General Manager,
Dealing Dan O?Dowd, is planning to take extraordinary measures to address the situation of playing baseball at 5,280 feet, or actually 5,183 feet, the precise elevation of Coors (nee Molsen) Field. However, the Post writer found that Mr. O'Dowd's intentions were not clear, as he illustrated with this quote:
Number one, I don't want to make us appear that we are making excuses. Number two, I don't want to make it sound like an insurmountable problem. I don't want to convey a sense of hopelessness. That's not how I feel. (Actually the Post wrote it as
No. 1 and No. 2 but since they didn't indicate how O'Dowd made it clear that he was abbreviating, I spelled them out.)
And this one:
We now realize where we are at and where we play. I think we need to attack it in unique ways that create an opportunity and a competitive advantage for us. There is not going to be one easy answer to any of this.
The Rockies have played in Denver for almost 20 years now, and O'Dowd has been the GM for 13 of them. Doesn't it seem that he and the rest of the Brain Trust must be incredibly dense to take that long to figure out where they play? Did you still think you were in Cleveland, Dan?
Mr. Saunders then brought a Mr. Bill Gievett into the article. Mr. Gievett now shares the GM duties with Mr. O'Dowd, at his own recommendation. It is easy to see why: even though Mr. Gievett claims to have
been in the game forever, be echoes O'Dowd?s claims that something nontraditional must be done in order to win games in Denver. He thinks, along with O'Dowd, that the thousands of fans clamoring for new management are wrong, because they have finally figured it out and good times are coming.
At this point, I, as the Baseball Observer must interject. The fans who think new management is required to fix the problems with the Rockies are absolutely correct. In fact, it is so obvious anyone with a brain should see it. What does that say about the owners? Anyway, here is the considered opinion of the Baseball Observer:
The statements attributed to the Rockies' co-GM's are, if true, simply insane if taken at face value. To explain this, look at the Oakland Athletics and their success chronicled in
Moneyball. The Athletics, Billy Beane, and others have studied baseball to see how to win and they found it was really very simple. Baseball is a game with fixed rules. There is no room for innovation or nontraditional methods, unless you change the rules to your advantage, which is not going to happen. The A's figured out that to win, you really only need two things: great fundamentals and good players. All things being equal, the teams with the most effective pitchers win, so most of the emphasis in stocking any team should be to get the best pitchers possible. After that, use scientific evaluation techniques to get the best combination of hitting and fielding at each position. The A's excelled because their evaluation techniques, based on the principles of Bill James' Sabermetrics allowed them to find excellent players that were overlooked by other teams. They also imposed their system on all employees including the players, to insure that everyone was going in the same direction and used fundamentally correct methods. These same principles make for successful organizations in any endeavor, they are not rocket science.
The Rockies do not win consistently for one reason: the owners do not want to win and are not committed to it. The Monforts obviously enjoy running the Rockies with all the fun and power that it brings and are not driven to turn the franchise into a consistently high-performing team. That would require too much money, hard decisions, and loss of control
- it wouldn?t be fun anymore. So, they are content to hire people they like rather than winners and leaders, and to continue with the same approach they have for the last 20 years and just try to dupe the fans into thinking they are working hard to build a winner.
All of these other problems the Rockies consistently cite: the poor record on the road, pitchers who can't pitch in Colorado and hitters that can't hit anywhere else, high burnout rates and frequent injuries, dry baseballs, etc., etc., are just diversions to take everyone's eyes off of the real reasons for the teams mediocrity: owners that will not bring in the best players and administrators because they don't care about winning. For them, it really is not about winning or losing but how much fun they can have playing the game.
In the end, probably the smartest guy the Rockies every had was Dante Bichette, who was quoted as saying the only thing that made sense in the article:
It's going to be tough to ever perform well on the road for Colorado. That's why you have to hammer people at home.
There are a number of philosophies that would produce winners here in Colorado. One of them would be to build a team that is unbeatable at home like they were in the early years. That approach filled the stadium and took them to the playoffs in 1995. Another would be to follow the A's example. But in the end the Monforts will probably follow the same model they have always followed, with the same results. And the only ones that will be happy and satisfied will be themselves and their cronies in the expensive seats down on Blake Street.
But there is one thing about the Colorado Rockies situation that bothers the Denver Baseball Observer. Monfort, the two-headed monster that owns the team, had a similar situation with the Monfort Slaughterhouse in Greeley, Colorado. They inherited the business and didn't have to do anything but enjoy themselves and rake in the profits, yet they decided to sell it. Why? Maybe they were bored, or they were afraid they would drive it into the ground and have nothing left. In any case, they sold the goose that laid the golden egg, as the saying goes, and ended up buying the Rockies. Maybe that same feeling of foreboding is beginning to creep up on them like the dark shadow of doom, and they are thinking of selling the team or moving it to another location where they will not have to constantly battle the evil specter of high altitude.
I hear Portland is in the market for a Major League team. Maybe Monfort knows how sick the fans are of their lame excuses, losing records, and the same smiling faces, and they are doing it on purpose! Think of the movie Major League, only without the sexy owner, and change the move from Cleveland to Florida, to Denver to Portland. It sounds like just the kind of thing the Monfort would do.
Postscript: The Denver Baseball Observer was confused today, Tuesday, September 18, 2012, when he/she/it noticed an article in the Denver Post by Terry Frei asserting that he was sick of the excuses being made by the Rockies, too. Then the DBO realized that it has begun already, and that Frei is part of the plan to make everyone hate the Rockies and smooth the path for the Monforts to take the team to Oregon. Maybe we can get the Bears back.
Ex-Rockies catcher goes ballistic along with
current team and fans
The Baseball Observer
June 3rd, 2012
The Texas Rangers are in a bit of a funk at the
moment. They were outscored 31-11 in their last two games at lowly
Seattle, and have lost 4-2 and 3-2 to the second place Angels team,
which they lead in the standings by 3.5 games prior to Sunday. These
circumstances seem to have set the entire team’s nerves on edge, as
we shall see.
Going into the bottom of the seventh inning of
the game on Saturday, the score was tied 1-1, after the Rangers had
only managed a single tally out of a no-out bases loaded opportunity
in the top of the inning. The Angel run had scored on two Texas
errors in the 6th. Here is the batter by batter replay in the 7th:
1.
Erick Aybar singles on a bunt back to
pitcher Yu Darvish that would probably been an out if fielded
cleanly.
Mistake number 1.
2.
Angel catcher Bobby Wilson strikes
out while trying to bunt.
3.
With Mike Trout batting:
a.
Aybar steals second safely as
Shortstop Elvis Andrus drops the ball.
Mistake number 2.
b.
Trout then grounds to Andrus, who
could have charged the ball and thrown Trout out, but doesn’t,
instead complaining that the ball hit the base runner, Aybar. Three
umpires disagree. Mistake number 3a.
4.
Pujols walks.
Mistake number 3b.
5.
With Alberto Callaspo batting, Trout
steals second.
Mistake number 4. Callaspo
singles, scoring Aybar and moving Trout to third.
6.
Kendrys Morales hits a short fly ball
to right field, fielded by Nelson Cruz, who throws the ball low and
short of the plate causing the catcher, Yorvit Torrealba, to move in
front instead of blocking the base, allowing Trout a clear path.
Torrealba catches the ball and spins to tag Trout, but too late
according to the umpire. Mistake number 5.
After Trout scored, former Rockie Torrealba
lost it, throwing his mask down, waving his arms, jumping up and
down and screaming. He was promptly ejected and will most likely be
fined. Yorvit obviously thought he had blocked the plate (as he said
later) and figured incorrectly that Trout could not have touched
home. Replays appear to show that Trout was safe, but it is not
possible to tell exactly when he was tagged. In any case, no
objective person could claim any obvious result of the play.
Torrealba may have actually blocked the umpire’s view of the tag,
making it impossible to call Trout out.
After the play was over, Torrealba resumed his
position behind home, prompting home plate umpire John McClelland
and Rangers’ manager Ron Washington to tell him he had to leave,
prompting another tantrum. “I’m an emotional player, and I went
off,” said the stocky catcher.
As Ex-Rockies fans know, Torrealba has
exhibited a short temper in the past, particularly where umpires are
concerned. During the last offseason, Yorvit was suspended for 66
games in the Venezuelan league for hitting an umpire in the face
during an argument.
Many Texas fans seem to be aligned with
Torrealba’s version of the play and have vented their wrath in
particularly disagreeable manners. One fan on Twitter, claiming to
be a “red headed baseball mom” wrote to Angel pitcher and former
Texas Ranger C.J. Wilson: “that was terrible call last night. Mind
ur own business u effing douchebag. & thank us for bailing u out
over&over”. When Wilson, tweeting as @StraightEdgeRacer responded
that he did not think a mom should be calling people names, @tabor16
replied “don't worry. My kids are old enough to know u are a dbag.
They remember #cardiaccloser #giveupmostoftheleadbeforemanagingasave"
No wonder most athletes and celebrities avoid
social media.
Lame Quote of the Day
April 7, 2012 - Twenty
years ago, in the Rockies' first home game, dad Eric Young Sr.
provided a moment that lives in snapshots forever.
by Troy E. Renck (in this case, the E is for error) in the Denver
Post. The Eric Young Sr. moment occured on April 9th, 1993. You do
the math. This may be the Rockies' 20th season, but that day was
still less than 19 years ago.
Rockies Win First Game of 2012
April 6, 2012. Eric Young Jr. scored the winning run on an errant
throw from Astros' catcher Jason Castro as the Rockies moved to 1-0
on the 2012 season. Colorado is now 12-8 on opening days with a
818-947 (.463) record and one playoff appearance when starting the
season with a win. Conversely, the 8 times they have fallen in the
opener, their record is 620-632 (.495) with two playoff appearances
(2007 and 2009) including their only trip to the World Series in
2007. (Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com)
It Looks Like 2012 Will Be Another Year of Disappointment for Rockies Fans
By the BaseballObserver, Sunday, February 26, 2012
2011 ended badly, with the Rockies racing off to a 12-3 start and ending up 73-89, just two games ahead of the last place Padres. This was especially ironic as the town's Rox Pundits, lead by their King, Troy E. Renck (the "E" stands for "Electric", we're told) gushed that the 2011 version of the Rockies could be the best ever, and that a fast start would be their key to success.
They weren't, and it wasn't.
At the end of last season, many of the local sports commentators were calling for the heads of manager Jim "Dick" Tracy and GM "Deal-less" Danny O'Dowd, but the Monfort Twins showed their contempt for both the media and fans (and all reason) by retaining them both and even promising Tracy he could manage indefinately.
This, once again, demonstrates the Rockies' front office lack of any kind of business acumen, similar to the deal in which they gave Coors Brewery naming rights to the stadium forever, which is now widely recognized as the worst deal in sports history (or the best for an advertiser). In that deal, only the financially strapped cities in the stadium district, and their citizens suffered. By keeping Tracy and O'Dowd indefinitely, all Rockies fans suffer, as well as the aforementioned cities and their citizens, because the team has little chance of success, which will result in reduced revenues for all stakeholders, except the Monforts.
Contrary to last year, most of the local sports mouths are not predicting great things for Colorado in 2012, possibly due to the “once-burned” theory or the following observations:
• The Las Vegas odds makers have predicted that the team will finish in fourth place in their division again, though possibly with a slightly better record.
• They have lost their starting catcher, third baseman, second baseman, right fielder and several contributing bench players from last season, and with the possible exception of right field, replaced them with players of uncertain quality.
• Virtually all of their pitchers are unproven at the Major League level, and at Denver’s altitude, including their closer.
• Historically, Tracy has only had one good season which each team he has managed. He had his good season with the Rockies in 2009. He is not likely to have another one unless it is with another team.
• He may be the best Rockies manager yet, according to Woody Paige and others, but it should be mentioned that his record has gotten steadily worse each year and the 2011 Rockies only finished one game better than the lowly Pittsburgh Pirates managed by the man he replaced, Clint Hurdle. Hurdle’s Pirates may be better than the Rockies in 2012.
• The owners don’t really care if the Rockies win. They are wealthy and enjoy the unquestioning support of all of the fanboy politicians and sports media in the surrounding communities. They will have
corporate and fan support no matter how the team fares and will keep on getting richer by following their policy of putting the cheapest product on the field and charging all the market will bear. After all, it is cheaper and easier than building a championship franchise. It may even be more profitable.
But Rockies fans should not give up all hope. The team made it to the World Series in 2009 with essentially the same bunch of boobs in the front office, so who is to say it won’t happen again?
The BaseballObserver does not recomment that fans put any money on it, however.
2011 Major League Baseball Playoffs Ex-Rockies Factor
There are scant few ex-Rockies in the playoffs this
year and they are evenly distributed between the teams, but, as it has gone
for almost a decade, it will be an accurate predictor of the outcome of the
playoffs. Actually, it may make the Baseball Observer work a little harder
in order to determine the rules in play and the actual percentage of
Rockies-ness held by each player. So, since there are two matchups where
each team has two ex-Rockies (Phillies-Cardinals, Brewers-Diamondbacks) the
degree of Rockiesness, which equals the actual time spent on the Colorado
team must be used to weight the matchup, although it is apparently only
applicable when an XR is in the same role with his new team as he was with
the Rocks. Those teams with no ex-Rockies players, namely the Yankees and
Tigers, must be rated on coaches, so one would think that the Yankees would
clearly win because Joe Girardi spent several years on the team while Jim
Leyland was only in Denver for 1 (2005). However, it turns out that Girardi
was a catcher with the Rockies, and is now a manager with the Yankees, so
his years of service clearly did not weigh into the decision, as the Tigers
won.
For ease in viewing the inevitable results, the
Baseball Observer has concocted a rating system, whereby an ex-Rockie is
awarded one point for being an active participant in the playoffs, or a half
point for being on the roster, but inactive. An additional tenth of a point
is awarded for each year of service. In the case of the manager, a full
point is awarded for being an ex-Rockies manager in the playoffs, along with
a tenth of a point for each year. A manager participating in the playoffs
who is an ex-Rockies player, but did not manager the Rockies, gets a point
for managing, but no credit for years of service.
| Player Name |
Team |
Rockies Years |
Position |
Roster Status |
Score |
|
Henry Blanco
|
Arizona
|
1
|
Catcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Jason Marquis
|
Arizona
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Inactive (DL)
|
0.6
|
|
Craig
Counsell
|
Milwaukee
|
2
|
Infielder
|
Active
|
1.2
|
|
LaTroy
Hawkins
|
Milwaukee
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Jose
Contreras
|
Philadelphia
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Ross Gload
|
Philadelphia
|
1
|
Infielder
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Matt Holliday
|
St. Louis
|
5
|
Outfielder
|
Active
|
1.5
|
|
Octavio Dotel
|
St. Louis
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Joel Peralta
|
Tampa Bay
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Darren Oliver
|
Texas
|
1
|
Pitcher
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Yorvit
Torrealba
|
Texas
|
4
|
Catcher
|
Active
|
1.4
|
|
Jim Leyland
|
Detroit
|
1 year
|
Manager
|
Active
|
1.1
|
|
Joe Girardi
|
New York (AL)
|
3
|
Catcher
|
Active
|
1.0
|
Division Championship Series
Texas (2.5) beats Tampa Bay (1.1)
Detroit (1.1) beats New York (1.0)
St. Louis (2.6) beats Philadelphia (2.2)
Milwaukee (2.3) beats Arizona (1.7)
League Championship Series
Texas (2.5) beats Detroit (1.1)
St. Louis (2.6) beats Milwaukee (2.3)
World Series
St. Louis (2.6) beats Texas (2.5)
What's Next For The 2012 Rockies?
After the second disappointing year in a row (and 18th of 19), what can loyal fans of the Rockies expect in the future?
We can expect more of the same, because the Monfort brothers are unwilling and incapable of doing any better.
Yes fans, your team owners are running your team more as a pleasant diversion, a hobby if you will, rather than a serious enterprise. They just want to keep it going, making as much money as possible and avoiding using any of their personal funds, so they can enjoy it until they die, then can pass it on to their kids for their amusement.
The only time Colorado went to the World Series was a total fluke, ended quickly by a serious team, the Boston Red Sox. You see, Boston, like most other baseball teams, is owned and run by professional sports managers who intend to use all of their resources to win or know the reason why.
On the other hand, our Rockies are just a fun pastime for a couple of accidental millionaires who made their money the old fashioned way - by inheriting it. They got control of the Rockies the old fashioned way, too - through political hijinks and criminal activity by others.
The Monforts benefitted from the illegal activities of one of the original owners, Mickey "Mouse" Monus. After Mr. Monus’ problems became public, in order to keep the franchise in Colorado somebody whose reputation was at least not totally sullied had to step forward and take his place in the ownership group. Thus, the Monforts and Jerry McMorris were recruited and practically given the team because they weren't convicted criminals and appeared to have a lot of money.
Jerry later had his own financial problems and was rousted by the Monforts who took total control over the team in 2005 - the rest is history.
Dick and Charlie Monfort have been very consistent in the way they operate the Rockies. They might tell you they are following the “Moneyball” blueprint made famous by Billy Bean and immortalized in the book and movie. “Moneyball” is based on using scientific and statistical methods to devise a playing strategy and then getting players that fit into that system.
“Moneyball” was successful for the Oakland A’s, and later for other teams using the same philosophy, mainly because it involved getting players that other teams using conventional scouting methods were not recruiting, making those players cheaper and more effective.
The Rockies are not using the “Moneyball” philosophy, which is obvious from their draft record, coaching decisions, and style of play.
The Monfort brothers are outspoken proponents of developing talent through their farm system only because it is cheaper. If you look at the trades they have made, notably the most recent blockbuster involving Ubaldo Jimenez, they are usually dumps of highly paid stars, with questionable players in return.
For years they have stuck with Dan O’Dowd as the General Manager in spite of his lack of performance. They only seem to hire mediocre (Tracy, Bell) or totally inexperienced (Baylor, Hurdle) managers, with the notable exception of Jim Leyland who has had spectacular success everywhere else he has been. Makes you wonder what the brothers did to make sure he did not succeed in Colorado, doesn’t it?
The Baseball Observer even suspects that the Monforts only put the humidor in to save money on lost baseballs on homeruns by the Blake Street Bombers. If the fans had a vote, they would probably want to junk the ball moisturizer and go back to the days when the Rockies were unbeatable at home and thrilling to watch. How many times these days do you hear a spontaneous, deafening roar of “GO! Rockies!” as you did in the early years at Mile High Stadium and Coors Field?
If the Monforts have any interest in building a championship team, they would send Tracy and his coaches packing, fire O’Dowd, get some experienced executives, hire Tony Reagins (recent Los Angeles Angels GM) and get Terry Francona or Ryne Sandberg to manage the team. To pay the extra salaries, they should quit giving Coors/Miller a free ride and sell the naming rights to the stadium to someone who is willing to pay for them. Maybe Sports Authority would like their name on two stadiums, particularly if they know that ownership is willing to commit to winning after all of these years by hiring some good people.
Opening Day 2011 - Bright Start, Foul Finish
The weather was perfect, and hopes were high when the Rocks raced out to a 3-1 lead, only to fall behind 6-3. Then, thanks
to some clown-like throwing errors by Arizona, the game was tied at 6-6 and the fans were high again. It all came crashing down in the thirteeth after Arizona scored and some
Putz closed the Rockies out 1-2-3. Well, there is always tomorrow.
On Saturday, April 2, the fool's joke was over, as the Rockies, behind Jorge De La Rosa slammed the door on the desert visitors, 3-1.
April 3, 2011. The Rockies and DiamondBacks were snowed out!
