Author Archive

21
Mar/11

Seattle Mariners’ Middle Infield: Previewing the 2011 Season

by under MLB

As the persistent Arizona sun beats down on the backs of the 2011 Seattle Mariners, the biggest question in the minds of fans—besides “when oh when will we be relevant again­?”—is when Dustin Ackley will be ready for the Show. 

The Mariners’ offseason middle infield moves say a great deal about the timetable for their biggest prospect since King Felix matriculated.

With Jack and Josh Wilson already on the roster and able to man any of the infield spots, the Mariners were able to compensate for the loss of Jose Lopez—albeit with a pair of bats that would fit in better in Everett than Seattle. 

Chone Figgins is set to slide back to the hot corner, where he is not only a better fielder, but also a drastically better hitter. (That is, assuming he is not traded). The Mariners also traded for Brendan Ryan, one of the best defensive shortstops in baseball, and signed World Series-winning second baseman Adam Kennedy to a minor league contract.

Five serviceable infielders are more than enough for a 25-man opening day roster, and spring training has shown how creative new manager Eric Wedge is willing to be to get the bats into his lineup. Kennedy recently received his first spring start in left field, a first in his twelve-year career. 

Meanwhile Jack Wilson—former sabermetrics-anointed best defensive shortstop in baseball—and Brendan Ryan—reigning best defensive shortstop in baseball—are flipping between second base and shortstop. Josh Wilson has spent time at all three skill positions in the infield and will presumably fill the utility backup role he played last year.

The best guess going in to the season is that Jack Wilson will man the shortstop position with Ryan playing second base—a waste of Ryan’s relative youth and his defensive prime. Figgins will hit in the two hole and play third base, and Josh Wilson will back the three of them up. 

A week ago, I would have projected Kennedy to start the season in Tacoma, but as he displays his defensive versatility in March he may end up with the 25th spot on the roster.

Selfishly, I’d love to see Ack start April 1 at second base, but leaving him in AAA until roster expansion is the right thing to do. As athletic as he is, he is still below average defensively at second base (though he did roll a nice double play earlier this week). 

His bat came around in a big way following his promotion to AAA last year, and he continues to hit well this spring. He had a pinch-hit RBI double late in a 2-0 win over the Angels. On Monday morning he followed up with a home run in the “B Game” and capped that off with a pinch-hit, two-strike single up the middle on an off-speed pitch that had him fooled. So yes, it appears the kid is seeing the ball well.

The issue is that his bat likely won’t be the difference between contention or not (Maybe if the Mariners had four or five of him, and he could pitch…). If Nick Franklin, who has shown flashes of brilliance as the Mariners shortstop of the future, can put it all together in the next few years (he’s only 20), he and Ackley will be a formidable top-of-the-lineup duo. But that’s in 2014, not 2011.

So as much as I hate to admit it, Ack will most likely have to wait until September.  There’s an outside chance the Mariners contend, in which case they would have to consider seeing what Ackley can do at a major league level. It is not as if Ryan, Wilson, Wilson and Kennedy are going to tear the cover off the ball at the middle infield positions.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , , Leave a Comment more...

27
Feb/11

Colorado Rockies Open Salt River Fields With A Win

by under MLB

For years, the California-Anaheim-Los Angeles Angels were said to be cursed because their stadium was built on an ancient Indian burial ground.

Before the first at-bat at the new Salt River Fields at Talking Stick, it appeared that the field (the first ever opened on Native American land) may be cursed as well.
When the Diamondbacks’ Kelly Johnson hit a soft fly ball into foul territory down the third base line, nothing seemed out of sorts.
Not until the trio of Ian Stewart, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki continued running full-steam at the pop-up, all three with their heads looking up.
Rockies fans excited to see the new stomping grounds on TV quickly felt their hearts sink as Stewart, who is the size of a middle linebacker, knocked Gonzalez on the shoulder with his knee before flipping over.
Clearly the collision hurt, but replays showed that Stewart’s knee missed the Rockies $80 million man’s head by two inches. Two more inches, and Scott Boras’ clients everywhere might reconsider waiting until their free-agent years to sign a big deal.
In all, the day ended well for the Rockies. Their biggest victory was the health of their three starters in the collision, but they also came away with a victory on the field.
The victory was christened by a 10th inning home run off of the bat of Rockies prospect Charlie Blackmon, who bailed out Adam Jorgenson, who gave up five runs in the ninth inning to tie the game.
The victory was exciting because of the circumstances. For whatever reason, spring training or not, it seems as if the Rockies picking up victory No. 1 on Opening Day of their new complex was important.
One encouraging fact about the game came early. Ubaldo Jimenez’s fastball was sitting around 89 to 90. He did fire a couple of bullets at 95, but mostly stayed in the lower 90s.
Why is this encouraging when the guy normally flirts with triple digits? It shows the maturity of the best pitcher to ever don a Rockies uniform.
He understands that he is going to be asked to carry the load for the club once again in 2011. He knows that 200 innings will be a benchmark that he most likely hits in late August or early September.
It does not mean that his arm is slowing down; it means that he fully understands that getting his arm into shape early in spring training is more important than lighting up the radar gun.
It is also clear how deep the Rockies are. When Mike Jacobs, a guy who can still hit the ball far, figures to only see the big league roster if three injuries happen in the same 15 days, it means the team is deep.
No longer will the Rockies have to hope a 5’9″ Melvin Mora can learn first base on the fly while the team tries to contend. If Todd Helton goes down, the Rox have plenty of capable first basemen at their disposal.
When the sun set on Scottsdale, the Rockies sat at 1-0 in Cactus League play. What that means is essentially nothing.
It means that there are still 33 more practice games to go before the team suits up on April Fools Day at Coors Field for the first game that really matters.
For Rockies fans, that should be the second most exciting thing of the day. Right behind both Gonzalez, Tulowitzki and Stewart staying out of the trainer’s room before the first at-bat was done.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , Leave a Comment more...

14
Feb/11

Colorado Rockies: Did They Do Enough in the Offseason?

by under MLB

Baseball fans have their own version of Christmas. It is called Opening Day. However, Christmas wouldn’t be the same without the holiday season. That is called Spring Training for the baseball fan.

On Monday, Colorado Rockies pitchers and catchers are scheduled to report to their new Scottsdale home. As far as baseball action, that doesn’t mean much. As far as excitement levels, it means everything.
The Rockies are coming off of a shocking offseason. One in which they defied the stereotypical viewpoint of the team by signing Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to long-term deals, something that nearly everyone thought would be impossible. Especially in the case of Gonzalez, who is represented by Scott Boras.
The club also was able to re-sign lefty starter Jorge De La Rosa, lure free agent infielder Ty Wiggington to Denver, and trade for second baseman Jose Lopez.
Most fans in Denver are ecstatic with the club’s offseason. They believe that with the core of the team intact for years to come, the club will gel and play a high caliber of baseball.
As always, however, there are skeptics.
The skeptics say that this club is, for the most part, the same club that could only muster 83 wins in 2010. This is the same club that looked lost at the plate with runners in scoring position.
This is the same team that could really use more quality starters in the rotation. This is the team that lost Miguel Olivo and will start a catcher who seems to be watching his career in a tail-spin.
While the skeptics have valid points, there are things about the 2010 season that they are forgetting.
The Rockies finished nine games behind the Giants in the NL West race, but cashed it in during the final two weeks, losing 13-of-14 to end the season.
Skeptics are also quick to forget how badly the Rockies were bitten by the injury bug in 2010. De La Rosa missed nearly eight weeks with a finger injury. Tulowitzki missed 33 games with a broken wrist.
Injuries are an easy excuse to point to, and could easily happen again, but how much different would things have looked had those two players been with the team the whole year?
In addition to injuries, the Rockies also had a rash of players underwhelming with their performance. Ian Stewart, Seth Smith and Chris Iannetta, Todd Helton and Dexter Fowler had years that they hope will end up as the worst of their careers.
Stewart forgot how to hit the opposite way, and forgot how to swing the bat at all in many cases. Iannetta looked too frustrated to think straight.
Smith often looked tired, and admitted that he lost his focus when he felt that he should be playing more; Helton struggled through nagging injuries; and Fowler showed growing pains, perhaps because the club rushed his development.
Will all of those players have better seasons? There is no guarantee of that. However, will a couple of them have bounce-back years? Odds would say that they should.
Couple that with the development of Jhoulys Chacin on the mound and the Rockies suddenly look like a far better team than the one who was looking to sneak into the playoffs as late as Sept. 20.
While all of that happening seems far-fetched, and it is very possible that the club will deal with many key injuries again, it shows why the Rockies still have a very good chance at winning their first-ever division crown.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com

This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, Leave a Comment more...

11
Feb/11

Colorado Rockies: Time for Fans To Step Up To the Plate

by under MLB

The Colorado Rockies hold nearly every attendance record in Major League Baseball. For the first five years of their existence, scalping Rockies tickets may have been the most lucrative business in the state.

The honeymoon ended, and reality set in. Instead of fans packing the seats at Coors Field, season after season of losing 90 games or more started to wear on the fans. Management had a plan, but many in Rockies nation didn’t have the patience to wait out a generation of minor leaguers that the front office insisted would propel the club to contention.
The Rockies were an afterthought in Denver. The town’s darling, the Denver Broncos, were still the most important news topic. Fans crammed into Invesco Field regardless of the fact that the team was largely mediocre.
Even a surprise appearance in the World Series couldn’t sway fans to spend their summer nights at 20th and Blake. The team was labeled a fluke and, frankly, most fans in the city couldn’t list off too many more players than Todd Helton.
After a disappointing 2008 season, fans felt justified in labeling the club a fluke and continued complaining that the Rockies were simply a farm system for the other 29 clubs. Especially when Matt Holliday was shipped to the Oakland Athletics early in the offseason for three players that no one in Denver had ever heard of.
Then the 2009 Rockies stormed back from 12 games under .500 in June to a playoff appearance, even coming within a weekend of winning the National League West title.
That effort, however, did little to change the perception in Denver. Attendance went up, but getting a ticket was only tough when the Boston Red Sox or Chicago Cubs came to town. In those situations, the stadium was not packed in order to root the Rockies past an opponent, it was packed full of people wearing the visiting club’s apparel.
The Rockies came up short in 2010 after a valiant effort to climb back into contention, but the offseason was filled with surprises. Re-signing Jorge De La Rosa seemed like a lost cause, until the team did it. That alone would have been a good enough signing for most fans to be happy, but the Rockies continued on to lock up Troy Tulowitzki and the Scott Boras-represented Carlos Gonzalez to long-term deals.
If there were ever a time when fans complained about the cheapness of the Rockies’ owners, Dick and Charlie Monfort, those complaints were muted with those signings. It has become clear that the team’s plan to contend was working, and working well. They had built a club that was competitive, and not one year at a time but for years to come. They had also built a club where free agents were picking the Rockies over other offers, as evidenced by the Ty Wigginton deal.
The plan has come full circle—with one part remaining to be complete. The Rockies have put a winner on the field, they have put together a team that is fun to watch and fun to be a fan of. They have done their part. Now it is the fans turn to respond and show that they will come back.
It’s time for Colorado residents to embrace their baseball team. Everything that they complained about in the team’s struggling years has been fulfilled. It is time for the fans to fulfill their end of the deal.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com

This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

Leave a Comment more...

5
Feb/11

Michael Young Trade Talks Swirl Again Between Colorado Rockies and Texas Rangers

by under MLB

The winter meetings are usually a pretty dull period of time for the Colorado Rockies. They are not the type of team that is going to throw around huge money to big-name free agents.

That’s why it was such a big surprise when the Rockies name was linked to reports that the team might be interested in the Texas Rangers’ Michael Young.

The rumors were quickly dispelled when experts suggested the Rockies wouldn’t be very interested in taking on a three-year deal with $48 million left on it. Especially considering Young is 34 years old.

However, it seems that those rumors had legs. Reports said that the talks were far enough along that the Rockies had Eric Young Jr. take a physical in order to complete the deal. The Rangers backed out from concerns over a stress fracture Eric Young suffered in May.

If Colorado could find a way to get Michael Young in a Rockies uniform, it would be a huge boost to the lineup. The lifetime Ranger is a career .300 hitter, with 158 home runs and 811 RBI with an OPS of .795. The numbers should be slightly below his career averages due to his age, but he would be a great addition to the 2-hole in the Rockies lineup.

With Michael Young owed $16 million over the next three seasons, the deal will certainly have to include the Rangers eating a large portion of his contract. Of course, the Rangers would be willing to eat more of his salary if the Rockies include better players.

But what would be smart for the Rockies to give up in order to acquire him?

Michael Young would be the Rockies’ second baseman. All of the talk of a four-man battle for the position going into spring training would be done. So, realistically, moving Eric Young might not be a bad decision. While he is already a fan favorite, his playing time is still a concern, and it would certainly be diminished with Michael Young on the roster. So having EY stuck in Colorado Springs for another year is not advantageous for the Rockies or EY.

The Rockies might be able to sweeten their side of the deal, and make taking on Young’s salary far more reasonable, if they throw Aaron Cook into the deal. Cook is entering the final year of his three-year extension that will pay him just over $10 million with a $500,000 buyout for 2012. That would rid the Rockies of Cook’s deal, making Young more affordable for the 2011 season. If the Rangers were willing to pay half of Young’s salary for the next two years, it might be worth it for the Rockies.

Getting the Rangers to pay $16 million for a player who won’t be suiting up for them might be hard for them to swallow, especially considering that Michael Young is essentially the Rangers’ version of Todd Helton.

If the asking price goes too much over that, the Rockies should forget the deal. It simply isn’t worth giving up multiple prospects, plus established major league players, to acquire a 34-year-old 2-hole hitter, even if that makes the Rockies a much better team this season.

However, if they are able to pull off the deal, the Rockies lineup will be tough to pitch around in 2011.

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , , Leave a Comment more...

16
Jan/11

Rockies Say Goodbye to Jeff Francis

by under MLB

Most Colorado Rockies fans have heard the news. Jeff Francis signed a one-year deal with the Kansas City Royals. He will receive $2 million guaranteed, with incentives that can double his earnings.

It was inevitable.

The Rockies turned down the lefties option early in the offseason, but said that they would like to have him back. The only problem was that they never offered him more than a minor league contract.

While very few fans would argue that having Francis back makes the Rockies a better team in 2011, the news shouldn’t be easy to take for any fan of the team.

Keep in mind, this is the same Jeff Francis whose domination of the minor leagues helped Rockies fans through the 2003 and 2004 seasons in which the only debate at Coors Field was whether the Rockies would keep their loss total below 95. This is the same Francis who stepped into the ace role down the stretch in 2007 when the Rockies needed him most.

The fact that the Rockies were not willing to offer Francis a Major League deal speaks volumes about how they believe his surgically repaired shoulder is. After missing most of 2008, all of 2009 and a great deal of 2010, Francis still isn’t healthy enough to be depended on.

The harsh reality is, Francis’ days of being an ace are long behind him.

While his shoulder injury will mar what could have been a really good career, losing Francis is just another departure from the team that proved it was possible to win while playing 81 games at Coors Field.

He was the ace on a team that gave Rockies fans hope after spending years being mathematically eliminated by the first week of June. After all, Francis is the first pitcher in Rockies history to have two postseason wins. Until Ubaldo Jimenez dominated the mound in 2010, Francis’ 17 wins in 2007 were tied for the most in club history, but were by far the most important 17 wins.

No one will deny that Francis’ passion for the game was there. Even though his season was wiped out in ’08, the crafty lefty was seen in the home dugout during every single home game. He desperately wanted to be a part of the team. The name Jeff Francis will long be intertwined with the Rockies’ launch back to respectability.

Without Francis, the Rockies have no World Series run. They have no magical comeback story. So even though Francis’ best days were behind him, the Rockies and their fans are sad to see someone who made such a huge impact go.


For more on the Rockies, visit RockiesReview.com

This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , Leave a Comment more...

15
Jan/11

Colorado Rockies: Big Contracts Baffle Those Outside Of Denver

by under MLB

The Colorado Rockies have played baseball for 18 seasons.

There were the honeymoon years, when crowds filled up Mile High Stadium or Coors Field, simply because baseball had arrived.
There were the early successes that saw the likes of Larry Walker, Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla and Andres Galarraga bash their way into the playoffs.
There were the big-spending years, in which the Rockies pretended they were a large-market team and signed big-name free agents. First it was Darryl Kile, then came the real debacles, the Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle deals.
It seemed the product on the field couldn’t get any worse, but it did. The Rockies finally understood that they were not cut out for spending big money on the cream of the free agent crop every year. They needed to build from within.
Many Rockies fans who packed the seats in the ’90s jumped off of the bandwagon. Fans simply couldn’t look to the future. They saw the 72-win seasons as unacceptable.
They longed for the old, failed strategy to be re-enacted. They didn’t understand why the Rockies were not willing to shell out big money to free agents.
The local media pundits, the likes of Mark Kiszla and Woody Paige, ripped the Rockies ownership for years, claiming that they were greedy penny-pinchers. Most of the fan base bought in.
The Rockies front office, despite constant calls for their heads, held strong in their belief that they were doing the right thing.
They were vindicated in 2007 when a young Rockies team suddenly put it all together and surprised everyone in the baseball world with a wild ride to the National League pennant.
That offseason, plan “B” kicked in for the club. They inked their soon-to-be second year shortstop to a deal that took him through his arbitration years and would keep him in a Rockies uniform through 2014.
After failing to live up to the hype in 2008, most Rockies fans dubbed the pennant run a fluke. The plan was being called into question again.
Once again, the front office held strong. They dealt Matt Holliday to the A’s after it became clear that he did not believe in the plan to win and thought he could do better on the free agent market.
The move was ridiculed by Rockies fans as proof that ownership was cheap and would never pay their big-name players, that they would simply deal them away when the time came to pay them.
After an incredible offseason in which the Rockies have locked up both Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez to 10-year and seven-year deals respectively, fans have finally started to see the big picture that the Rockies front office has seen the whole time.
The two deals were lauded by fans in Denver. Finally, they knew who their stars were going to be for years to come.
Finally, they had a guarantee that their favorite players would be with the team long-term. No longer is the team viewed as a farm team for the rest of the league.
While the teams were applauded in Denver, the rest of baseball seems to have a different opinion. Jayson Stark of ESPN wrote an article about the big deals in this offseason.
He mentions the Rockies signings not in a way that praises the Rockies for signing their stars when they had the chance, but talking about the risk the the club took and how it might not have been the smartest move.
Craig Calterra, the lead blogger for NBC Sports, ridiculed the Rockies on Twitter, mocking the club for signing players that were already under their control for the foreseeable future.
The comments and articles show exactly how little it takes to be an “expert.” While both writers have an expansive knowledge of baseball, and are well respected, their statements make it clear how little they understand about baseball in Colorado.
What these “experts” do not seem to understand, is that the Rockies did not make these deals prematurely, but rather, they signed both players in just the nick of time.
Here is what the naysayers don’t seem to understand. If the Rockies had decided to wait one more year to make a deal happen with Gonzalez, and say he hits .300 with 25 home runs and 90 RBIs, a year that is below his production level of 2010, then their 7-year, $80 million deal just turned into a 7-year, $125 million deal.
If that happens, the Rockies are essentially priced out of the Gonzalez sweepstakes, and are forced into a Matt Holliday situation.
The same thing goes for Tulowitzki. While the Rockies negotiated a team-friendly deal through 2014, another year like Tulowitzki had, or even slightly less, and the shortstop goes from being a top-5 shortstop in baseball, to one of the premier players in the game.
Considering Jayson Werth received a $120+ million deal over seven years after never being the best player on his team, one can only imagine how much Tulo would be worth.
Yes, the Rockies are taking a risk. These deals could set the Rockies back for years if injuries creep in, or in Gonzalez proves to be a fluke. However, if the club has any intention of keeping their young superstars, these are the risks that they will have to take.
The other option for the Rockies is to never take these types of risks and resolve themselves to be the National League’s version of the Cleveland Indians, or Kansas City Royals: teams that always seem to have a good farm system, but when those players get near free agency, they are dealt in order to get some value, instead of simply a compensation pick when that player signs with a team that can afford a huge risk.
The Rockies are taking a huge risk, but it is a risk that every medium-market team is envious of. The fact is, to be competitive for more than one or two years out of every decade, the Rockies must take risks like these two deals.
They must lock their young players in for money that is enticing to the player in the early years and enticing to the team in the later years if the player performs.
Time will tell how good these deals are, but one year from now, these same “experts” could be talking about what a bargain the Rockies got with both of these players.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , , Leave a Comment more...

8
Jan/11

Baseball Hall of Fame: Why Larry Walker Does Not Belong in Cooperstown

by under MLB

On Wednesday, the Baseball Writers Association of America announced the 2011 class of Hall of Famers.

After spending 14 years of being denied, Bert Blyleven made it in, along with perhaps the best second baseman of all time, Roberto Alomar. Both, in my mind, are worthy candidates.
However, much of the talk around Colorado was about how first-time-eligible Larry Walker received close to 20 percent of the vote, a number that suggests he might be able to sneak in somewhere before his eligibility is up.
If Walker eventually gets in, the Rockies will celebrate their first hall of famer. However, perhaps the most talented man to don purple pinstripes does not belong in Cooperstown.
There is no denying that Walker had the talent. He hit for average, he hit for power, he had a great arm, and he did all of the little things nearly perfectly. Walker ran the bases better than anyone in the game. He played smart. He was a five-time All-Star and a six-time Gold Glove winner. He won three batting titles over the course of four years. He was the first—and only—Rockie to take home an MVP award.
So why does he not belong in the Hall of Fame? It sounds crazy, but what should keep the Canadian out Cooperstown is his lack of passion for the game.
That sounds crazy for a guy who played as hard as he did. However, for Walker, when things started going downhill for the team, he seemed to always find a way to having a nagging injury. In 1998 and 1999 when the Rockies went 77-85 and 72-90 respectively, Walker missed over 30 games. In fact, he played just enough to qualify for the batting title.
Those were rough years to be a Rockies fan. It must have been rough being a superstar player on such average teams. For Walker, winning was the most important thing, so when his team was out of the race, he focused on winning individual awards, like batting titles. If taking days off hurt the team, but helped his prospects of staying fresh to win that title, that is what he did.
In 2007, when the Rockies went on their historic run in which the won 13-of-14 to squeeze into the wild card slot, I wondered on several occasions whether that would have been possible when Walker was in the clubhouse.

With the club 6.5 games back on September 13, he most likely would have packed it in and given up on the season. Instead, a new group of younger Rockies focused on winning each game and found their way into the playoffs.

A Hall of Famer, in my mind, goes beyond someone who put up phenomenal statistics, as Walker did. A player worthy of the hall not only possessed the talents and abilities, but also possessed the intangibles and passion that it takes to lead a team. Walker was missing the second half of the equation.
Do you disagree? Let me know why.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , , , Leave a Comment more...

4
Jan/11

Carlos Gonzalez Deal Puts To Rest Colorado Rockies Naysayers

by under MLB

Who would have thought that the best thing Matt Holliday could have done for the Colorado Rockies would be to leave?

One of the guys who came over in that deal just so happened to be Carlos Gonzalez. At the time of the deal, Gonzalez was a 22-year-old player who had lost his prospect status after being given up on by the Diamondbacks and written off by the Athletics.
To say that Gonzalez blossomed in a Rockies uniform would be a huge understatement.
On Monday, Gonzalez’s publicist confirmed that the five-tool player is on the brink of signing a seven-year, $80 million extension with the Rockies.
The move completes an offseason in which the Rockies locked up All-Star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki through 2020, re-signed Jorge De La Rosa for at least two more seasons, and now signed perhaps the most talented player to wear purple pinstripes well into his free-agent years.
For years, fans, experts and writers have been crying about the Rockies front office not caring about winning. They were accused of being cheap, they were begged to sell the team and they were crucified for not going after big-name free agents.
Even after signing their young stars to deals that kept them in Colorado for the greater part of their young years, the Rockies front office was criticized for hanging on to prospects when they could have been dealt for proven major league talent.
Rockies’ fans are certainly happy that Rockies’ owners Dick and Charlie Monfort didn’t read the newspapers or listen to the crying fans.
If nothing else, fans of the team at Coors Field have learned one thing in this offseason. The Rockies front office not only cares about winning, but they are actively pursuing putting a winning team on the field not just for one year but for years to come.
It is a good time to be a Rockies fan. The club has ignored what many medium-market teams have embraced. Instead of rolling over and trading away their young players when it comes time to pay them, Colorado has put together a model that gives fans the best shot possible of seeing their heroes in a Rockies uniform for as long as possible.
Don’t be surprised to see the likes of Mark Kiszla and Woody Paige lauding the owners for finally listening to them and their thoughts for what the team should do. Of course, those who have followed this team and those writers will know that this was far from their game plan. Those writers were the most critical towards the owners, driving the majority of the rage towards the front office, who clearly had their long-term plan into place.
In a sports world where it seems that every single player is seeking top dollar, the Rockies have proven that there are a few exceptions.
The thought of signing Gonzalez long-term was essentially something that was written off long ago. Gonzalez is represented by super-agent Scott Boras. Everyone who follows the sport knows that Boras simply does not negotiate deals that take his clients, especially his superstar clients, into their free-agency years. It was widely accepted that Gonzalez was essentially a rental player that the Rockies would have for three, maybe four more years until he would be used as bait for what would hopefully be the next Gonzalez.
Instead, Gonzalez proved common sense incorrect. He most likely spurned the advice of his agent and made a decision on his own to stay in a place where he is comfortable and in a clubhouse that he enjoys. In the process, he potentially cost himself millions upon millions of dollars.
It is a good time to be a fan of the Colorado Rockies. Not only has the front office proved that they are not just interested in winning, but intent on winning, but players are recognizing Coors Field as a place to call home, not a place that is a launching pad for their career in a bigger market.
The plan that was put into place years ago was painful to watch unfold, but the pain of losing for all of those years makes the other side of the plan that much more fun to be a part of.
For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com


Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, Leave a Comment more...

3
Jan/11

Colorado Rockies Sign Carlos Gonzalez to Seven-year Extension

by under MLB

Colorado Rockies fans everywhere are currently pinching themselves.

According to multiple reports, including from his own publicist, the Rockies have signed five-tool player Carlos Gonzalez to a seven-year, $80 million deal.
There has been noise out of Venezuela throughout the offseason that the Rockies were in talks with Gonzalez about signing a long-term deal. However, excitement about signing any deal that took the 24-year-old beyond his arbitration years was tempered due to the fact the center fielder is represented by super-agent Scott Boras.
Boras is well known for waiting until his clients have hit the free-agent market, allowing them to maximize their dollar amount when every team can compete for their services.
However, it appears that the appeal of the Rockies commitment to winning, despite playing in a medium-market, won Gonzalez over.
The deal is pending a physical that Gonzalez will reportedly take on Wednesday in Denver.
With Troy Tulowitzki signed through 2020, the Rockies have now locked up their two best hitters for the foreseeable future. It also officially ends the pessimists saying that the Rockies ownership group is cheap and doesn’t care about winning.

For more on the Rockies visit RockiesReview.com
This article is also featured on INDenverTimes.com

Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com

, , , Leave a Comment more...

Copyright © 1996-2010 Kuzul. All rights reserved.
iDream theme by Templates Next | Powered by WordPress