Rockies fans have had a complicated relationship with their team’s General Manager, Dan O’Dowd. At times he has presented himself as a shrewd and tactical GM, while at other times he has made decisions that have made fans want to bang their head into the nearest hard surface. This dichotomy has bred a certain amount of ambivalence where my own feelings about O’Dowd are concerned. I don’t really know for certain how I feel about O’Dowd, because his negative and positive impacts on the organization almost seem to balance out. As the team prepares to begin the 2012 season, though, it would appear that his ultimate legacy is about to be decided.
Let’s start with the good things that O’Dowd has done for the Rockies. First and foremost, he brought us Troy Tulowitzki, who almost single handedly revitalized the franchise and is destined to become the greatest player in team history. What’s more, O’Dowd smartly locked up Tulowitzki with a long term contract extension. We have every reason to believe that Tulowitzki will be in a Rockies uniform for his entire career, and that is an extremely comforting thought to hold on to.
Perhaps the biggest challenge that O’Dowd has faced since becoming GM of the Rockies was having to figure out what to do with Matt Holliday following the 2007 season. He was stuck with the unenviable task of trying to figure out how to trade a player that everyone knew was leaving in the off season anyway. Baseball history is littered with teams that bumble these type of situations and end up trading their star player away for peanuts (Remember the haul of players that the Twins got for Johan Santana? *shudder*). O’Dowd swung a trade that brought the team Carlos Gonzalez, who has essentially replaced Holliday’s production in the Rockie’s lineup, and is also locked into a long term contract.
Following the Holliday trade, O’Dowd proved to be a competent decision maker once again when he cut ties with Garret Atkins and Brad Hawpe at just the right time. It would have been very easy to throw money at two players who were so instrumental to the team’s 2007 World Series, and yet O’Dowd did the smart thing and let them walk.
Finally, O’Dowd was the first Rockies GM to establish any kind of scouting presence in Latin America, which has brought some desperately needed talent to the team.
Unfortunately, O’Dowd has also done a lot of damage to the Rockies organization. Other than Tulowitzki, he has not produced one meaningful draft pick in the last 10 years, his most egregious error being the decision to draft Greg Reynolds with the #2 overall pick in 2006. Reynolds was chosen in lieu of Evan Longoria, Tim Lincecum, and Clayton Kershaw (this is where you bang your head into something hard).
Even when O’Dowd has brought young talent to the team, he has handled their development in ways that leave much to be desired. Players like Chris Iannetta and Seth Smith were locked into frustrating platoon situations instead of being allowed to flourish, and then were hastily cut loose in the off season. Ian Stewart and Dexter Fowler had their confidence visibly shaken when they were repeatedly sent down to the minors and recalled throughout the years.
So what are we supposed to make of Dan O’Dowd? I don’t think we’ll really know until the end of this season, as the true ramifications of some of his most drastic decisions are not yet known. Last season was a disaster, and we’ve been led to believe that he has been making decisions since last July that will return the team to a state of prominence in the N.L. West. At the moment it’s easy to wail about Jimenez being unceremoniously shipped out of town and O’Dowd’s seemingly new found obsession with intangibles and “character,” and yet we don’t really know how those decisions will pay off. It’s entirely possible that Ubaldo Jimenez will continue his slide in the A.L. Central, while Drew Pomeranz and Alex White develop into top flight starters. Wilin Rosario may very well burst onto the scene and make us all feel silly for ever thinking that Chris Iannetta was the answer. Even O’Dowd’s “Old Dudes With Character 2012” campaign has the potential to pay off with a meaningful uptick in the team’s win column.
It’s these unknowns that make this upcoming season so intriguing as far as O’Dowd’s legacy is concerned. What he truly means to the Rockies organization is about to snap into much clearer focus. Whether he will fall or fly isn’t clear right now, but finding out sure will be interesting.
Follow Tom Ley on Twitter.
Loading ...
Loading tweets...
11 comments
CodenameDuchess
March 5, 2012 at 11:18 AM (UTC -6)
Knowing when to exit an investment is a very rare and valuable commodity. Many an investor has thrown good money after bad or held on far too long hoping for a rebound to previous highs. For this I think Mr. O’Dowd should be commended. However, IMO his failures in free agency (Jose Lopez!) the draft (Greg Reynolds!) and in player development (Ian Stewart!) cast a pretty gloomy shadow over his good decisions.
Gentlemen of BSB what do think is behind the Rockies draft day failures? Is it bad scouting? A refusal to pay big signing bonuses? Player development? I can’t help but be jealous of all the young talent that Tampa Bay has. It seems like every damn guy they draft ends up as a productive major league player.
Tampa – http://thebaseballcube.com/draft/teamsdraft.asp?T=28
Colorado – http://thebaseballcube.com/draft/teamsDraft.asp?T=10
Logan Burdine
March 5, 2012 at 11:21 AM (UTC -6)
For a team and GM that have been preaching building from within for over a decade, this is absolutely inexcusable. If it weren’t for Tulo, they’d be the worst in baseball at drafting and developing players. It’s by far my biggest problem with O’Dowd and why I think he should’ve been fired last year. Has to get better. They haven’t drafted a big league starter in a decade — Jeff Francis in 2002.
CodenameDuchess
March 5, 2012 at 11:43 AM (UTC -6)
This is the 2006 draft…… http://thebaseballcube.com/draft/draftYears.asp?Y=2006
Look how many major league pitchers went in the first few rounds! It’s not that they just passed on Lincecum and Kershaw. They also ignored Ian Kennedy, Max Scherzer, Andrew Miller, Kyle Drabek, Daniel Bard, Joba, Trevor Cahill. Ugh.
I know not all of these guys are stars but how do you pass on all of them for a soft thrower that most scouts projected as a #4 or #5 starter at best? Somebody should have lost his job over that pick. I understand a GM having concerns with Lincecum, the guy is teeny and has an unorthodox motion. It is pretty damn hard to project a one of a kind talent. However, Kershaw? A Texas lefty throwing in the high 90′s with a + curveball? If you’re concerned with HS kids you could have gone with Miller. I know he hasn’t really produced but I’d rather see the Rockies take a chance on the 6’7″ hard throwing lefty then the soft tosser they selected.
Logan Burdine
March 5, 2012 at 11:46 AM (UTC -6)
And then there is Matzek and that whole debacle. Changed their philosophy on high school kids, gave him the biggest signing bonus in franchise history, and then tried to change the way he pitched. Absolutely dumb.
John Randall
March 5, 2012 at 2:05 PM (UTC -6)
Legacy? Dan O’Dowd is an incompetent, self-serving, unsavory hypocrital sleazeball to a degree unequaled in Major League Baseball today. THAT is his legacy.
All one needs to know about Dan O’Dowd can be seen by simply examining the sleazy way he treated Ubaldo jimenez in last year’s trade. Putting aside the fact that these two “phenoms” (White and Pomeranz) look like no more than overrated journeymen who each have had questionable “character” issues since the trade; the insulting, disrespectful manner in which O’Dowd treated Ubaldo tells you all you need to know about “Deacon” Dan O’Dowd. First he humiliated Jimenez by dangling him out on the market and publicly offering him to everyone but Fidel Castro.(Sleazy) Then,can anyone point to a more bungled handling of a high profile trade more than the fiasco of running Ubaldo out on the mound for the Rox with Jimenez knowing he had been traded? (incompetent)I have no idea why he wasn’t reprimanded by MLB for that. And then, having the unmitigated gall to go on the MLB network and disparage Jimenez,personally, who by all accounts had been a class act , by sneeringly referring to him as an overrated #3 starter at the end of his career! (self-serving)
This isn’t the first time that O’Dowd has thrown players under the bus. A lot of people forget that Mike Hampton was as ALL STAR selection during his second year with Colorado, only to have O’Dowd literally give away Hampton’s catcher (Brett Mayne) and spend the rest of the season insulting Hampton in every way he could. This is a typical M.O. of Dan O’Dowd.
The best thing for the Colorado Rockies would be for the Monforts to give O’Dowd the EXACT OPPOSITE of the contract extension O’Dowd recently gave Jim Tracy. We will remember the O’Dowd Era as one dominated by losing and mediocrity with a few miraculous “rays of light.”
Logan Burdine
March 5, 2012 at 2:35 PM (UTC -6)
I’ve come to believe that the Monforts will never fire Dan O’Dowd. How else can you explain him still having a job despite being 100 games under .500 since he’s been in Colorado? However, if it is going to happen, it’s going to take a pretty big failure this year. Even then, as long as fans are turning out at the gates, he will still have a job. It’s an endless cycle of fan abuse.
Travis Lay
March 5, 2012 at 3:25 PM (UTC -6)
Why all the negativity in here??! The guy is a genius who signs guys with slow heartbeats!
Forsythe P Jones
March 5, 2012 at 6:03 PM (UTC -6)
I do think the consistent first-round drafting failures are a real problem, and there has definitely been a lack of accountability as to a myriad of poor signings, but I’m not sure that it’s all that different than any number of GMs in the league. I’m not using that as an excuse, it’s just the way it is. He has made some good moves in the past (the Holliday trade was a steal, picked up some useful bullpen pieces for very little, took some chances on guys who have paid off like De la Rosa), and some miserable ones. He has been a bit too shy on pulling the trigger on some players (hung on to Atkins too long, Hawpe, too), but wisely got rid of Hampton for whatever he could get ( I have no idea what one of the commenters is railing about with that one, but as with most things in this space I learn to ignore them ), and I still think that the Jimenez deal will prove to be a decent one ( time will tell, of course, but, while I wish the Chief well, and hope he succeeds, I won’t be surprised if he’s a journeyman from here on out ). I’m not his biggest fan, but hardly see him as the reason so many players (Ian Stewart!) failed to pan out. The minor leagues are full of high-prospect washouts; hell, we’ve got Brandon Wood now, and he was supposed to be the next Mike Schmidt. It happens. Curveballs have ruined many a career.
I put a lot of the blame on Tracy, who I find to be a dreadful manager; his indecisiveness, randomly yanking guys in and out of the lineup, seeming reliance on ‘grizzled vets’ over everything else, refusing to see that, say, Huston Street was killing this team in the bullpen but continuing to push him out there every night. I would like to see a housecleaning in the organization, but if O’Dowd must go, then so must Tracy. Who the magician is that is supposed to make everybody happy I can’t imagine. But I’m sure people will keep griping about it till the next guy fails, too.
Dennis
March 5, 2012 at 9:36 PM (UTC -6)
I’m wondering when the press lapdogs are going to shine the light on the performances of Tracy and Apodaca. I can’t remember any pitcher actually being developed once making it to the big leagues, and, once there, decline seems to be commonplace. Tracy screws around with lineups seemingly indiscriminately and yet, ironically, he treats bullpens like an inviolable batting order ( Oh, oh ! Must be the x inning, I have to put in such and such or the world as we know it will end.) And his love of “scrappy, bring you lunchbox to work” second basemen needs to stop. If E.Y. Junior ever shows his face in the major leagues again, except as a pinch runner after the 40-man roster expansion, the Rockies will be doomed. But as long as Troy Renck writes about the clubhouse now having mature leadership (what? Giambi and Helton are chopped liver,?) and continues to worry about whether or not Dexter Fowler can finally learn to bunt, no one is calling these guys on the carpet. Over and out.
JD
March 6, 2012 at 12:05 AM (UTC -6)
The article completely ignores drafting, which is where O’Dowd has been a disaster. Name all the players O’Dowd has drafted in 13 years who are still MLB regulars past age 31. Why 31? Because that’s an age where a player gets paid substantial money and only plays if he’s clearly better than the young prospects a team would like to replace him with so it can evaluate them. Players who get serious time after age 31 are good players. So here’s O’Dowd’s list:
Matt Holliday
Clint Barmes
Troy Tulowitzki (in time)
Any more? I don’t think so. O’Dowd has drafted horribly. Recent first round picks have been particularly disastrous with the exception of Tulo. A team with our payroll can’t win with such lousy drafting.
Oh, and the author credits O’Dowd with knowing when to bail on investments, but I was screaming for us to move Atkins in 2007 and 2008 and Hawpe after his AS appearance in 2009, and both times we sat and eventually gave up both players for nothing at all.
Tom Ley
March 6, 2012 at 9:30 AM (UTC -6)
Hey JD,
I did indeed mention O’Dowd’s drafting record in the 6th paragraph, which I agree has been horrible.