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3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?

The Rockies finished off a brutal division road trip, going 2-6 along the Pacific coast.  The overall poor play was typified by a lackadaisical approach rife with errors, both mental and physical.  The apparent lack …

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Who is the first to get the ax?

This evening I had the privilege of being on 104.3 The Fan with Sandy Clough to talk about the Rockies and clearly the discussion among Rockies fans is who should be fired? Or should anyone …

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The Rockies need to hustle

This is going to counter what I wrote a few days ago when I tried to defend Jim Tracy. In that piece I said the guys have to be accountable for their play on the …

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Touching Base With the Fans: Bay Area Tremors, part 1

  Aftershocks in San Francisco With the Rockies playing a mid-week mini-series against the Giants at the moment (Friedrich is dealing in the first game: six strikeouts, one infield hit through four innings), it’s high …

3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?

May 18

3 Up – 3 Down: Replacing Tracy – Who is on deck?

Categories:

Around Baseball, Fire Jim Tracy

by The View from 132

Mountain man look has to give him the edge already.

The Rockies finished off a brutal division road trip, going 2-6 along the Pacific coast.  The overall poor play was typified by a lackadaisical approach rife with errors, both mental and physical.  The apparent lack of accountability was frustrating to watch and intensified calls for Jim Tracy’s removal as manager.  This week, we discuss possible replacements for Tracy, Tyler Colvin’s role, and surprises with the pitching staff.

(Editor’s Note: Kevin is currently globetrotting after a very successful attempt at law school.  So I, the liege lord of Blake Street Bulletin, will be taking his place until he returns.)

Assuming the Rockies eventually grow tired of Jim Tracy, who should be the next manager?

Brendan: Ryne Sandberg.  “Ryno”is currently managing the Phillies’ AAA affiliate after working his way up through the Cubs’ organization.  Sandberg would bring a hall of fame playing career and instant credibility intoa clubhouse in dire need of some new blood (not to mention being a favorite with all those obnoxious Cubs fans in Denver).  He was rumored to be in line for the Chicago job, but Theo Epstein wanted a manager with big league experience and never considered the former Cub.  It is always safer for teams to go with a retread (Bob Brenly is available, ugh), but someone will eventually give Sandberg a shot and hopefully it is the Rockies.

Ned: This is a very difficult question for me because I firmly believe that Jim Tracy is an excellent game manager who puts his players in the best position to succeed.  The ideal manager is a guy who is a baseball chess player—he anticipated the opposition’s moves, and is prepared to parry these moves well in advance.  The ideal manager is also a guy the players respect, and who is not afraid to administer the “tough love” that is occasionally necessary when even the best players dog it.  What we don’t need is a “hunch” manager in the mode of Tony LaRussa.  Other than Don Baylor, the Rockies have always gone for the retread managers.  I suggest changing the retread approach, and consider someone like special assistant coach Vinnie Castilla.

Logan: Any chance Joe Madden will be available?  As much as I’d like to see Tracy hit the road, I’m also terrified about whom the Rockies will tab to replace him.  Based on current organizational track record, it probably won’t be a great choice.  This team could really benefit from a forward thinker that can find the right combination of keeping players relaxed and still holding them accountable.  I’ll throw one out there — with acknowledgement that this will likely never happen – current Tampa Bay bench coach Dave Martinez.  I’d love to see them bring in someone from the Madden school and Joe apparently loves Martinez.  He will be managing somewhere next season.  Also, his beard is awesome.   Read the rest of this entry »

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May 17

Who is the first to get the ax?

Categories:

Dan O'Dowd, Fire Jim Tracy, Monfort brothers, Rockies

by Travis Lay

Is Apodaca to blame for Chacin's troubles? Franklin Morales?

This evening I had the privilege of being on 104.3 The Fan with Sandy Clough to talk about the Rockies and clearly the discussion among Rockies fans is who should be fired? Or should anyone keep their job? Rockies fans are getting so frustrated that they are not just asking for Bob Apodaca or Jim Tracy to lose their job but they want to see Dan O’Dowd, ‘Dac and Tracy ALL get the ax.

Who should get it first?

In years past the Monfort brothers have taken most of the abuse because the perception is that they are tight with their purse strings: not spending the money required to have a contending team. Sure this might be the case but I think they realized (much like the Anaheim Angels just might be finding out with Albert Pujols) that spending a ton of cash in the free agent market isn’t the best use of their financial resources.

But then this last offseason the Monfort’s went and inked not only Troy Tulowitzki to a lengthy and pricey contract but they doubled down by giving an extension to Carlos Gonzalez (which still surprises me considering who represents CarGo).

Hard to pin the blame on the Monfort’s now that they have spent some cash. But the Rockies continue to suck. Someone has to take the fall, right? Read the rest of this entry »

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May 16

The Rockies need to hustle

Categories:

Fire Jim Tracy, Jordan Pacheco, Rockies

by Travis Lay

What is Pacheco looking at? He should have his head down and running hard.

What is Pacheco looking at? He should have his head down and running hard.

This is going to counter what I wrote a few days ago when I tried to defend Jim Tracy. In that piece I said the guys have to be accountable for their play on the field and Tracy cannot be held accountable for poor effort.

As pointed out by many of our astute readers the Manager should hold players accountable for their lack of effort on the field. If Carlos Gonzalez mis-plays two easy fly balls in Pittsburgh he probably should have been sat down the next game. If a player doesn’t hustle down the line he should have his playing time immediately impacted because of his lack of effort. The precedent has been set many times over.

All too often recently it seems the Rockies players are not in the game mentally. They are seen often not hustling with a few exceptions (Michael Cuddyer and Eric Young Jr. jump to mind).

And last night this was evident again when Jordan Pacheco slacked off on the base paths.

In the fifth inning Pacheco doubled off of Tim Lincecum with one out in the inning. I got out my handy Android which happens to have a stop watch app on it to time my workouts and I timed how long it took Pacheco to get from the batter’s box to second base on his double: just under 8 seconds. I timed it at 7.6 seconds from the time contact was made to the time his foot hit the bag and beat the throw from Melky Cabrera from left field. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 16

Touching Base With the Fans: Bay Area Tremors, part 1

Categories:

Around Baseball, News

by Kevin Kroh

 

Aftershocks in San Francisco

With the Rockies playing a mid-week mini-series against the Giants at the moment (Friedrich is dealing in the first game: six strikeouts, one infield hit through four innings), it’s high time we hop on board the Coast Starlight and continue our ongoing recap of the 2012 cross-country stadium tour as it takes us from Seattle to San Francisco (and a bonus trip over the Bay Bridge to Oakland for part 2).

Of all my World Series memories, from the earliest impressions of magical curses (1986) and dramatic thrills (1991 and 1993) to more recent recollections of the Rockies getting crushed (2007), I’d have to say the most impactful ones both derive from San Francisco. The first, and most terrifying, was in 1989 when the Loma Prieta earthquake hit prior to Game 3. The second, and most personally gratifying memory, was seeing The Freak hoisted upon the shoulders of his fellow misfits after they burned through Texas in five games, leaving Nolan Ryan and G.W. Bush looking bilious and bloated in their front-row seats.

The entire city of San Francisco still seems to be surfing on the crest of that wonderful wave of improbable success. And Giants fans still seem to enjoy the kind of benign masochism known as Torture Ball. And nobody seems to care that they still might have the weakest-hitting lineup in the major leagues (with Panda on the DL). Read the rest of this entry »

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May 15

Tuesday Morning Shortstop: We Suck Again

Categories:

News

by Zach Cohn

Remember that famous scene in Adam Sandler’s hilarious comedy The Waterboy, when a hillbilly played by Rob Schneider screams out, “Oh (expletive), we suck again!”

Tulo and the Rox are hurting right now

I kind of felt like screaming that after watching the Rockies for the past few weeks. No matter how you look at it, the Rockies definitely suck right now, and May has once again been a miserable month.

So far in the month of May, the Rockies are 2-10. That’s bad.  Their ERA is just over 6, and they are scoring just over 4 runs per game. You don’t have to be Albert Einstein too realize that those numbers are not going to compute into many victories.  If you are, on average, giving up more runs that you are scoring, victories are going to be hard to come by, and that is the cold, hard truth.

On the Rockies current road trip, they are 1-6. Gross.

On the Rockies most recent home stand, they went 3-6. Even grosser. Coors Field is supposed to be a haven of victories for the Rockies, but they are just 8-10 at home this season.

Remember when the Great Giambino crushed a walk off home run against the Dodgers back on May 2nd? That was awesome, and was supposed to a galvanizing victory that catapulted the Rockies towards a month of winning and prosperity.

Well, somebody forgot to load the catapult, because since that victory, the Rockies are 1-9. That’s not awesome. After that game, which clinched a rare series victory against the front running Dodgers, the Rockies were 4.5 games back, within striking distance. Now, after their recent May swoon, Colorado is 10.5 games back, a much more challenging mountain for the Rockies to climb.  We are only 1/5 of the way through the season, but it’s going to take an epic turnaround for the Rockies to consider even sniffing the top of the NL West standings. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 14

Defending Jim Tracy. Sorta.

Categories:

Carlos Gonzalez, Dan O'Dowd, Fire Jim Tracy, Marco Scutaro, Michael Cuddyer, Rockies, Troy Tulowitzki, Tyler Colvin, Wilin Rosario

by Travis Lay

In many of the professional sports if a team appears unprepared the head coach, manager or whatever the elder leader of the team is called in that sport, is typically held accountable.

If a defensive back is not hustling on a play and completely misses a coverage the onus is on the player, but as soon as the entire defense appears to be missing assignments, reads or coverage then the head coach is on the hot seat. If there is one mental error that is on the player but as soon as those mental errors become more common it is a systemic issue.

In the NBA if players are not hustling back down the court or not playing defense instead of the highly paid professional athletes being held accountable for their lack of effort the lowly paid coach is fired.

Should the same be said about baseball? I don’t think so. Heck, I don’t think it applies to most cases in professional sports. It’s just that the manager or head coach is an easy target.

In football I think the head coach can be held accountable, more so than any other sport because schemes are so important and if players haven’t been coached to be in the right place at the right time it should fall onto the coach(es).

This weekend there were two instances in which it appeared the Rockies were completely unprepared. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 11

3 Up – 3 Down: Shell out some green for a little more gray?

Categories:

News

by The View from 132

The Braves helped the Rockies celebrate their 20th season by coming to town and sweeping the series like it was 1993 again (it took the Rockies 17 games over 2 seasons to finally beat the Braves back in the day).  The poor play continued into San Diego where we got our first look of 2012 at Alex White and Christian Friedrich.  Here, we discuss pursuing veteran pitching help and what happened in the last week of games.

Should the Rockies try to sign one of the veteran free agent pitchers still available (Roy Oswalt, Brandon Webb, Brad Penny, Rich Harden)?

Brendan: Yes.  Any of them.  More age on this roster might not be the best idea, but that is how bad the pitching has been lately.  However, they are all probably looking for a chance at a ring and I doubt that Colorado is a serious option even if the price is right.  I am a supporter of the young arms the Rockies have collected, but throwing them all to the wolves one after another is not going to help in either the short or long term.  A veteran or two to eat some innings (calling Jeremy Guthrie!) takes the pressure off the young arms and prevents us from being subjected to 15 more starts by Guillermo Moscoso.

Kevin: Spending a lot of money on a pitcher is not something that typically fits in with the Rockies “plan.” Oswalt might be able to help, but he has back issues, which have a tendency to linger, and he could require a lot of money.  It might be worth giving Brandon Webb a workout to see how he looks. Webb just turned 33 on Wednesday, so he might still have some left in the tank, but Webb has made just one appearance in the last three seasons, so any help from Webb is unlikely. The Rockies clearly have rotation issues, but I am not convinced signing a veteran free agent pitcher is their answer. This problem seems to be more of a system problem…

Ned: Absolutely not.  These guys are both overpriced and over the hill.  You don’t win in Colorado with old, tired guys.  Let me give six specific reasons why the Rockies should not go after any one of these guys:  Harris, Hurst, Saberhagen, Swift, Neagle and Hampton.  Strong, young arms win in Denver.  The Rockies should stick with the development of the young pitchers and the rehabilitation of De La Rosa, even though it is painful in the short run. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 10

Fantasy rankings update

Categories:

Fantasy Baseball

by Travis Lay

Matt Wieters is starting to live up to the hype

It is about time I get around to updating my fantasy rankings. There is a lot of movement this time around after a month’s worth of play.

Catcher
Matt Wieters is one of the best catchers offensively in baseball this year. We were supposed to be saying that a few years ago when he made his debut. He was a “can’t-miss” hitting prospect. He missed. At least for the first few years in the Bigs, but he is raking now. He already has seven home runs and is slugging .580. He likely will come down some but it isn’t beyond reason that he keeps this up for most of the year based on how good he was projected to be.

Others that move up are Yadier Molina, Jesus Montero, Carlos Ruiz and Jonathan LuCroy. Going the other direction is Joe Mauer and the fact that he plays on one of the worst offenses in baseball does not help. Who else is going to hit in that lineup?

The Rockies Ramon Hernandez falls off of my list due to the fact that his playing time is in question with Wilin Rosario…and the fact that he is battling injuries already. Jarrod Salty takes his place on my rankings. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 08

Baseball’s Worst Defensive Team

Categories:

Carlos Gonzalez, Chris Nelson, Jordan Pacheco, Michael Cuddyer, Nolan Arenado, Troy Tulowitzki

by Logan Burdine

The Rockies starting pitching is terrible.  However, they aren’t the worst in baseball.  That distinguished honor currently belongs to the woeful Twins.  Regardless, being in the same league as the Twins in anything is a really, really bad sign.  The Rockies pitching problems will not be going away any time soon.  Sure, they have some valuable arms in the bullpen, but if this continues, they’ll all be worn out.  And the starters, oh man, those pitiful starters.  They’re all either hurt, ancient, or just flat out terrible.

The mournful starting pitching has been discussed ad naseum though.  It’s by far the largest and most obvious problem with this team.  Anybody that pays attention to the Rockies is well aware of this fact.  However, the starting pitching has been so terrible that it has somewhat overshadowed another giant weakness on the Rockies’ team – defense.  Thus far, their defense has been absolutely awful, arguably the worst in baseball.  That, combined with the sad, sad state of their rotation, adds up to a catastrophic failure in the run prevention department, which leads to four games under .500 despite one of the best lineups in the NL. Read the rest of this entry »

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May 07

Carlos Gonzalez: Patient Hitter?

Categories:

Carlos Gonzalez, News

by Brandon Cloud

In the course of the Rockies season thus far, my naked eye told me that Carlos Gonzalez appeared to take a walk in several situations that profiled as typical aggressive CarGo at bats. Could it be? Is the free swinging Carlos Gonzalez developing plate discipline? Well no. Actually yes. Sort of.

Carlos has 12 walks through 24 games. That is a pace to reach 81 walks for the year. His career high in walks is 48, so sure that does represent added patience. Supporting evidence includes his walk rate, which is on a good trajectory: from a measly 6.3% rate in 2010, up to 8.9% rate in 2011, and currently sitting at 11%. His strikeout rate has remained relatively constant: 21.2% in 2010, down to 19.4% in 2011, and at 20.2% in 2012. These are all good signs. Just imagine: this guy who struck out 135 times while walking only 40 times in 2010 somehow managed a .336 AVG and hit for power… what if he cut down on the free swinging? What could he do then?! Read the rest of this entry »

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