Dexter Fowler rolled his ankle in the first inning last night…in the dugout. He caught his cleat on the steps which caused a “slight roll” in his ankle, so that is why he isn’t starting tonight. Herrera, on the other hand, has been placed on the 15-day DL with a right hamstring strain. DJ LeMahieu has been recalled and will be available tonight.
The team faces Zambrano with Alex White (0-3, 5.09) on the mound.
Today seems like the “Dick Monfort Tour” as he visited the MLB Fan Cave today in NY and he will be on the Rockies Root Sports pregame show at 4:30.
For those hoping he will make some sort of announcement about that firings are on the horizon, shouldn’t hold their breath. Patrick Saunders posted an article last night that quoted Monfort as saying:
I have had people get in my face and say, ‘You’ve got to do this and do that.’ And believe me, I understand the fans’ frustration…I know everybody wants a fall guy and everybody wants blood. I just don’t think it’s appropriate to do…If this is anybody’s fault, it’s mine. I will take it right square between the middle of the eyes…He’s a tremendous asset…I can’t think of a general manager in baseball that’s as good as him. Granted, I don’t know all of them. I do get a chance every once in a while to speak with them, but I just think (O’Dowd) is head and shoulders above…[Jim Tracy] hasn’t lost the team. That answers part of the question…I think Jim is grinding it just like anybody else…He wears every loss. We had a long talk about that, and I said, ‘You just have to shower up and go on.
There are more observations and quotes in the article, which is a good read for anyone looking for answers on how this team is being run by the owner.
One observations made, but not fleshed out in the article, would be that the team is 40 games under .500 wince late 2010. Coincidentally that is just after Keli McGregor died suddenly in April of 2010. Perhaps McGregor’s impact on this team, known to be great among owner, management and fans alike, has yet to be filled by anyone competent.
| ROCKIES (15-27) CF Eric Young, Jr. 2B Marco Scutaro LF Carlos Gonzalez SS Troy Tulowitzki 1B Jason Giambi RF Michael Cuddyer 3B Jordan Pacheco C Ramon Hernandez P Alex White (5.09 ERA) |
IN GAME CHAT
[quick-chat room=”roxFish52312″ height=”600″] .
You know, as i was typing this pre-game and made the point about McGregor leaving a void and how it is about the same time the team went into a tailspin, it seems to make a lot of sense…He dies in April 2010 and a few months later the team starts losing WAY more than winning, which brings us to 40 games below .500… Am i right to think this actually might be something worth looking at? HE HASN’T BEEN… Read more »
Unfortunately- you are probably correct. Dick Monfort isn’t qualified to run a baseball team. I no longer mind the amount of $ spent by the owners, but the level of accountability they instill in the organization. As I believe Larry Walker once said (paraphrasing and fuzzy memory) “I couldn’t wait to sign and party with the Monfort’s in Vegas.” And now they have to go from owners to take on the role president of the team. At least they haven’t… Read more »
Yeah, Mike – I’ve never seen it questioned before (them not replacing him being part of our team issues) – it just hit me when i realized his death coincided with our downfall as a team…
We need a president – instead of firing, try hiring someone to fill the BIG void!!!
Yep- hire a true president. And then hopefully he comes in and cleans house. Including the usher at the top of the section where we have a share of season tickets. She never seems happy…
JD, Funny, I was thinking today the same thing you just mentioned concerning McGregor. He was a young, energetic, and competitive person and his death has left a considerable void in the organization. The fact that Monfort admitted that he doesn’t know many of the other GMs in MLB speaks for itself as to the direction of this team. You may recall that a few years ago Charlie Monfort was the defacto spokesman for the Rockies, but after a series… Read more »
Great questioning, and reasoning. Just look at a couple of other teams in this town: The Broncos hire John Elway and go to the playoffs in his first year, and aquire maybe the biggest free agent ever in the NFL in Manning the next. The Nuggets get Masai Ujiri and he patiently waits for a Carmello trade that nets us several fine players and then gets McGee in here during the season. All they lack now is a true finisher.… Read more »
Really think you are on to something here Jaredean.However it may also be emotional loss also.I read that many on the team were really tight with Kelli,including Tulo.Having lost my 92 year old mother about 18 months ago,I know its only been recently that I’ve come out of a depression and deep funk.And I knew Mom was dying,and it was a blessing she went when she did.The sudden,shocking,mind numbing loss of McGregor could still be an underlying emotional issue as… Read more »
And by the way- EY2 in center field=good. EY2 playing second where he doesn’t have the arm strength to really turn the double play=bad. Although Scutaro sucks anyway.
Just heard an interview with Cowboy and D. Monfort. Wow. His cluelessness is so evident he basically admitted that he doesn’t understand the game or how to judge who or what the weaknesses of the organization is. Feel sorry for Tracy R. that he basically doesn’t have the freedom to ask the questions that really should be asked. Pretty much softballs. Wonder if closing down ITR had to do with limitations that the Monforts, via Root, put to him. Funny… Read more »
Maybe he (Monfort) knows the meat processing business and this baseball thing is just a hobby. Actually, that’s OK, so long as as he isn’t so hopeless as to not understand he has to HIRE GOOD PEOPLE who really DO KNOW BASEBALL!! Then stay out of the way. Not even the best CEO can know enough about any business to succeed in running a large organization personally. But he absolutely must know how to hire good people whose expertise can… Read more »
Some quotes from Dick Monfort during pre-game:
“[last night was] just another game that sort of got away from us…I’ve never been in a business where you can point the blame at one person…I have faith in God and the game and I think it will all come out…The courageous thing to do is hang in there and keep supporting your team…Everyone is doing their job…I think I’m the first person to go…”
Not sure if those are word for word quotes (got them from @purpleordie from twitter), but should be the general overview…i missed it (grrrr) cause i didn’t realize what time it was…
Then fire yourself Dick! Faith in god and the game doesn’t equate to wins! Otherwise, wouldn’t Notre Dame always have a pretty good team?
I guess he has never been in a business where you can point blame at one person because he has always owned a business, and doesn’t realize that ultimately he IS the one to blame.
At the end of the 2002 season, three of us (all season-ticket holders) scheduled a brief meeting with Keli McGregor. He didn’t know any of us, and we were somewhat surprised he reponded positively. Regardless, we expected maybe 10 minutes of his time. Instead, we had a two-hour lunch during which we discussed many aspects of the team. It’s true that we were all uncertain about renewing our tickets, but I don’t believe other MLB team presidents meet with disgruntled… Read more »
I and at least a few other people mentioned last year on ITR that the Rockies have been going downhill almost from the minute Kelli MacGregor died. And I believe they do have a president. I think his name is Greg Fedner (may be wrong) and I think that the only thing he has in common with MacGregor is that he’s a former football player. Don’t know if he ever played baseball. MacGregor knew baseball and he knew what winning… Read more »
I recall this as well. Same reaction, except to add I couldn’t recall the name. What does that say?
I saw the pre-game interview and was not impressed. Not a savvy baseball man to say the least. Kind of shocking actually- lots of “I don’t know the answer” and “I’m not smart enough” etc. Thinking about this year going forward, my first best hope is a complete turnaround (highly unlikely of course) but my next choice would be an epic failure of a season. I don’t say that in bitterness – I feel like we need that in order… Read more »
I asked Troy Renck about why Keli wasn’t replaced…his reply, “Job absorbed by Monfort, other departments.”
What a bad bad decision in my mind…
Off-topic, but, following a complete game shut-out against the Rox over the weekend, Kevin Millwood throws six solid innings (3 hits, 0 ER) against a strong Rangers team. No way that we could have made some kind of compromise, salary-wise, to try to bring him back to help out the rotation??
We offered him $1 MIL and another $1 Mil in incentives…he wanted $3 Mil, so didn’t sign…the strange thing is it shows he is making only $1 Mil with Seattle, so unless he is getting $2 mil in incentives then i don’t know why he didn’t resign with the Rockies…Maybe because we didn’t court him right away he was insulted? don’t really know…
He performed “well” on a late-season audition with a club that was tanking. No way that the Rox could have dug in the corporate sofa and figured out some way to make things work out?? He probably wasn’t the end-all “answer”, but would you take his effort every fifth day versus what we have now? If I were him, I would have been insulted, too. To me, Poker Dan may have bluffed a bit too early on that one. I… Read more »
He probably didn’t want to play for the Rockies. Just a few years ago it seemed like this was the best place to come to play ball. Now it seems like everyone wants outta here. I bet Smith, Stewart and Iannetta were happy they were traded to a different team.
Have written this here before, however Mark Ellis and Kevin Millwood could have been decent pieces for the Rockies in 2012, however basically DanO showed both of them the door on the way out by not being competitive in retaining them. Just me but I would have signed both of them (the $s are not huge) and kept both Hammel and Lindstrom. Just my opinion but Millwood + Hammel + Linstrom > than Guthrie, even before Hammel started his Cy… Read more »
Here’s what I’m afraid will happen- Monfort decides to fire himself as club president, promotes DOD to president, Bill Geivett becomes GM, and they hire some recycled manager from the good old boys club. Nothings changes, just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic.
Bill Geivett is a HUGE part of the problem … strictly my opinion of course.
Actually Greg Fedner is a guy I know from Ohio. So whoever the pres is, it’s not him
Greg Feasel is the ex-football player you’re thinking of….Exec VP/CEO.
yeah! good game.
Just another “teaser” game. I refer back to the chat during the Dbacks game 1.
Yesterday we got the teaser. Next game we get the taser.
I would to play that same line up until they lose a game
But you know Tracy won’t!
Alex, thanks. Greg Fessel was the guy I was thinking of. Sounded like my friend Fedner. I guess he’s the closest thing to a president. Not sure exactly what an Exec. VP/CEO does. I think that’s Elway’s position with the Broncos but I don’t know how that translates to baseball. Anyway a win is great. You can’t start a 10 game win streak without the first one. Pooter wants the same line up. I can guarantee you we won’t have… Read more »
What’s killing this club, Part 1, or A Fair Assessment of the Best GM in Baseball: Bad Drafts. O’Dowd took over as GM after the 1999 season, so his first draft was in 2000. Since then, his draft picks that were actually signed by the Rockies (there were a number he was unable to sign) have contributed the following total Wins Above Replacement Player (WARP) in their big league careers (this is total MLB, not just with the Rockies): 2000:… Read more »
Ag,you da man!Hey thanks for answering my question in a previous post about lead off doubles.The stats made the ROX failures even more infuriating!
Ag I am not a big sabermetric guy, but I kinda get the WAR concept and this analysis is very interesting. Knew that sans Tulo the Rockies drafting has not gone well, but this quantifies that in ways that I had only suspected and could never actually prove. Now to sum this up (and I have been an occasional DanO supporter) the Rockies are likely the only team in baseball with a manager approaching three consecutive losing seasons, and a… Read more »
Weren’t Matt Holliday, Garret Atkins, Brad Hawpe home grown? They were not included in your draft history. Omitting them pulls down your WARP ratings.
Gary, Orange: thanks! I’m really trying to be fair about O’Dowd’s draft record (we can talk about his trade record in another thread), so I should point out a couple things. I haven’t looked at the contributions of Latin American signees, but my impressions are that the Rockies have done a pretty good job lately on that front. So it’s “bad at the domestic draft, good at international scouting.” Plus O’Dowd is not the director of scouting or player development,… Read more »
Here’s another college QB the Rockies drafted that will surprise you:
2000, 30th round–Michael Vick, outfielder, Virginia Tech
(He hadn’t even played baseball since he was 14!)
good (and long) write-up Agb…one interesting fact that I heard on 104.3the fan was of the 300 selections at pitcher that the Rox have had (and it may have been during DOD’s tenure) only 5 have made it to the majors. Even those with questionable math skills can tell you not a model for success. Scouting and DOD don’t come out smelling like roses on that stat.
As always, Go ROX
Ag, just to be clear, not questioning the 0.55 runs. Someone had said the leadoff walk scores 75%, which was way off. Really good to see some of these numbers. Like moving the guy on 2nd over w/ none out. Well sometimes you may do it because perhaps your club is having trouble scoring runs on the road (who?!??), + you hope to get them jump-started. Knowing the numbers gives you context within which you then judge whether to play… Read more »
Ag, I had already figured out the 9th inning,tie game,or one run scenario,but was too lazy too post back.Thanks again.MLB talking heads for years have pushed a lead off walk scores 60-70% of the time so I had kind of just accepted that.Thanks for being the stats guy on this site.I don’t always understand it all,but your posts are always interesting.
Ag. One type of player DoD has almost always drafted is QB’s. Michael Vick, somebody else around the same type, Kyle (?) Parker, Russell Wilson probably some others. Most of them wanted to play football first so usually in just a wasted pick although I understand when you start drafting in lower rounds it’s just like throwing darts against the wall. I haven’t been following the minor leaguers this year so don’t know how Parker is doing but I thought… Read more »
Bill, I forgot about the Vick draft. I’ll give him a pass on that since it was a late round flyer. Russell Wilson was more of a problem. I think he went back to football more because he was crap in the minors rather than his dreams of being an NFL QB. The problem with drafting guys like him is that they are great athletes but they just haven’t had time to sharpen their baseball skills. Since they’re already older… Read more »
It will be interesting if someone can do a research on this: Pitchers coming up through the minors and when reaching the majors they tend to have a short life span. Is that because of Apodaca or because of high altitude? or both?
I haven’t read through all the comments yet so if I am restating this please forgive me. I for one am happy with Monfort’s response. Maybe he should take over for Tracy and manage the team. That is the type of answer you hear from a leader. He didn’t try to deflect blame and single out someone from his staff. He said blame me, i’m the one in charge, i’m responsible, it’s all my fault. Wouldn’t it be awesome if… Read more »
The players themselves have been asked if they are happy working for Jim Tracy and for the most part they are. I don’t know if they were conditioned to answer a certain way or if they meant it from their hearts. But I do agree that JT has often called out the younger players more often than the grizzled veterans in the post game pressers. Jim Tracy needs to be tougher on the veterans rather than coddling them. Helton is… Read more »
Meh. I’ve seen teams completely suck and not be called out for it and maybe they have a bunch of smiles on their faces and it makes for a complacent clubhouse, doesn’t make them a better team or better individual players. The answer is someone in the middle: calls out bad play AND admits his own mistakes. My only problem with Tracy’s post game pressers is that he doesn’t do it fairly. Otherwise guys like Tulo and Helton would have… Read more »
Well of course the players are going to say they are happy under Tracy. They are not going to say, Tracy sucks and I have no respect for him. What they really believe, I don’t know. But they have been playing like they don’t care about him. Because sooner or later (probably later) if the Rockies keep playing this way Tracy will eventually be gone. He’ll become an adviser to the Montfert or something like that.
OK on to Great American. Who do we have going? Friedrich or Guthrie? Yikes: fly balls. At least it should be good and soupy wet down by that big river.
Reds hit ten (10) homers in just-concluded four-game sweep of Braves at GABP.
Wonder how many more this weekend, high humidity notwithstanding.
Buck Showalter OR Kirk Gibson would have looked really good in purple – but the Rockies are stuck with Tracy & Sons for the indefinite future. If you want to get really depressed, there is an article about Showalter and what he has done to turn the Orioles around in less than two years. That article talks about making players accountable, attention every specific detail, tough management style, and a no nonsense approach that often rubs the GM/owners the wrong… Read more »
Yet there are some that think Tracy holding players accountable equates to throwing them under the bus. I’d like to know what they would think of a take charge type manager.
Nailed it ProgMatinee.