Sunday, May 24, 2020

State of the Rockies


The Rockies are reeling.  They are coming off an extremely disappointing 91 loss season in which their pitching staff had a near universal meltdown.  They then made no significant moves over the offseason while their GM ignored the public concerns of their best and highest paid player.  Yikes!

Ownership:  The principle owners are the Monfort brothers who made their stash by selling the family meatpacking business to ConAgra foods.  The Monforts have had a prickly relationship with the fanbase and don't seem to understand who they need to hire to run the baseball end of the business.  They allowed a disgruntled Nolan Arenado, who happens to be the best player on the team by far and by far the highest paid, to remain disgruntled through the offseason while retaining a GM who appears to not have a plan and made no effort to make the team better.  On top of all that, one of these Monfort boys declared that he expects the team to win 94 games in 2020(this was before the shutdown).

Grade D

Management:  Jeff Bridich has been GM for 5 seasons now and the organization appears to be regressing.  You would think a team that lost 91 games would be due for a shakeup, but Bridich made no significant moves over the offseason much to the disgust of Nolan Arenado who took his frustrations public.  He then completely failed to address Arenado's concerns and let the situation fester into spring training.

Bud Black returns for the umpteenth season as Manager.  Black seems to know his baseball but when your team underachieves to the extent of the Rockies, especially on the pitching side which is supposed to be Black's forte, you figure it might be time for a new approach.

Grade D.

Roster:

Starting Eight:  C Tony Wolters, 1B Daniel Murphy, 2B Ryan McMahon, 3B Nolan Arenado, SS Trevor Story LF Raimel Tapia, CF David Dahl, RF Charlie Blackmon.

Bench:  Dom Nunez C, Garrett Hampson IF, Brendan Rogers IF, Ian Desmond UT, Sam 
Hilliard OF.

 Starting Rotation:  German Marquez RHP, Jon Gray RHP, Kyle Freeland LHP, Antonio Senzatela RHP, Jeff Hoffman RHP.

 Bullpen:  Scott Oberg RHP(Closer?), Wade Davis RHP(Closer?), Jairo Diaz RHP, Carlos Estevez RHP, Bryan Shaw RHP, Jake McGee LHP.

 There is definitely some talent here but the Rockies can't seem to find the right combination at 2B, 1B and at least 2 OF positions.  A large contract commitment to Ian Desmond who is not their best player at any position continues to be a barrier to good roster construction. The pitching, after Marquez and Gray, is a disaster with no help on the way.

Grade D+

Farm System:  The top prospect for how many years now is Brendan Rodgers who looks like a utility player unless he can beat out Ryan McMahon and Garrett Hampson for the starting 2B role.  A bit more seasoning in the minors might help but now that is probably not going to happen. The #2 and #3 prospects per MLB are Ryan Rolison LHP and Michael Toglia 1B.  I don't recognize any other names until I get to Sam Hilliard at #9.  The only other pitcher in the top 10 is someone named Ben Bowden at #10.  Not a very promising bunch.

Grade D.

Rockies fans find themselves without a lot of hope for the forseeable future here.
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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMay 24, 2020 at 9:50 AM

    Bud Black has to be paying off someone to keep his job.
    Perhaps he was good in 2018 with 91 wins but that's his only over 90-win in 12 years as manager. He has never finished 1st in his division, overall record in 12 years of managing is 898-951, and he has more years below finishing 3rd (4) than above (2).
    His successful challenge rate for the Rockies is below 50% - he might as well flip a coin!
    OTOH, in the Rockies' 27-year history, in his 3 years managing Colorado, he "owns" 2 of the 4 best records ever!
    So maybe he's not so bad, just last year and 2010: thanks for that, Bud!
    To be fair, he probably did well in 2010, just handed the cigar to SF!

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