Five ways to revive the Rockies

Here we are, just past Memorial Day, and 2012 already looks like a lost season for the Colorado Rockies.  We’ve seen this too many times before.  The Rockies show no sign of being able to pull themselves out of this most recent May freefall.  Here are five things that need to happen sooner rather than later:

 

1)      Fire Dan O’Dowd.  NOW.  Under his watch, the Rockies have two playoff appearances (no division titles) in 13 years.  The team caught lightning in a bottle for a month in 2007, and the team has teased its fans with “potential” ever since.  When they made the playoffs in 2009, many fans (including me) thought they had finally turned the corner.  We were wrong.  Years of botched first-round draft picks have left the team in a dead zone where -- except for Nolan Arenado -- the best prospects are years away from the majors.  O’Dowd tried to plug the team’s many holes with 30-something veteran players.  Other than Michael Cuddyer (for whom O’Dowd vastly overpaid), they have all fallen flat.  Casey Blake never made it out of spring training.  Ramon Hernandez and Marco Scutaro have barely qualified as warm bodies thus far.  And Jamie Moyer….well, I’ll get to him in a minute.  O’Dowd is once again preaching patience while the team’s youngsters develop.  Sorry, Dan.  Time’s up.  No other franchise in baseball (even the Pirates and Royals) has shown such patience with a GM with such meager results.  It’s time for a change.

2)      Don’t fire Jim Tracy – yet.  This doesn’t mean I’m a Tracy fan – far from it, actually.  His inability to construct a productive batting order is stupefying.  He also has a LaRussa-like tendency to over manage.  Remember the game a couple weeks ago where the Rockies loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the 9^th and he had to send Alex White – a pitcher – to pinch-hit because he ran out of position players?  Embarrassing.  That said, I can’t think of any manager who could make chicken salad out of the chicken dung O’Dowd put together this year. 

3)      Release Jamie Moyer.  It’s been a nice human interest story, having him become the oldest player to win a major-league game and all that.  Baseball writers like Jon Heyman fell all over themselves telling us what a great story it was, while ignoring the medical miracle that is Juan Nicasio.  By all accounts, Moyer is a wonderful guy who uses his fame and wealth to help others.  But it’s a disservice to the team to keep him in the rotation at the expense of younger arms like Drew Pomeranz or Alex White.  Jorge DeLaRosa is on his way back too.

4)      Trade Jeremy Guthrie and Rafael Betancourt.  Guthrie has been an abject disaster.  The team would have been better off keeping Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom.  At least trading Ubaldo Jimenez, Ian Stewart, Chris Iannetta and Seth Smith brought some potential talent to the team.  Guthrie was supposed to be a reliable innings-eater who would keep his team in games and keep the bullpen fresh to back up the younger starters.  He’s done neither.   This would definitely be a case of selling low, but keeping him in the rotation at the expense of a younger pitcher is a mistake.  A team in need of a starter (hello, Phillies?) might part with a prospect for Guthrie.  If this is going to be a crummy year, put the youngsters in and let them sink or swim.  Meanwhile, Betancourt is a luxury.  His value could be maximized by moving him to a contending team in need of bullpen help at the trade deadline (Cardinals? Rays?).  Besides, he’s agonizing to watch on the mound.  Any pitcher who takes 90 seconds between pitches deserves to be shut in a dark room and forced to listen to Tim McCarver for four straight hours.  Throw the damn ball already!

5)      The time has finally come to bench Todd Helton.  Yes, he’s driven in 25 runs, but his OPS is .719 with a 22/18 K/BB ratio.  Among teammates with at least 90 plate appearances, only Scutaro and Hernandez are worse.  The saddest part is that he appears to be healthy.  Assuming that is the case, Helton no longer is an effective everyday player.  With the pitching staff in tatters, the Rockies need to get as many productive bats in the lineup as possible.  Move Cuddyer to first base and play Tyler Colvin in RF.  Or swap roles with Jason Giambi, who has an OPS of .840.  Helton has been the face of the franchise since 1998.  The man’s done enough.

Will any of these moves happen?  With the exception of Moyer’s release, probably not.  Rockies ownership would have to become bold, forward-thinking owners who care more about winning than they do PR clippings and gate receipts.  The Brothers Monfort have shown no such inclination.  As a result, the Rockies will continue to waste the career primes of Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez while fans count the days until Broncos training camp starts.

Next Man Up

Next Man Up

When you think of the phrase “next man up,” what comes to mind?  Right, football.  Offensive lineman goes down, next man up.  Running back limps off the field, next man up.  Nature of the beast.  Not generally used in baseball.  But “next man up” perfectly summarizes the St. Louis Cardinals’ season thus far.  In football, you have a 53-man roster; in baseball, it’s a 25-man roster.  A football team uses 20% (11 players) of its roster at a given time.  A baseball team uses 36% of its roster (9 players) at a given time.  All teams in sports have critical, virtually irreplaceable players, but football teams generally are able to assemble more depth than a baseball team.  So when a baseball team (like the Cardinals) suffers a sudden rash of injuries, it’s usually more noticeable. 

The injury problems started in spring training, subsided for most of April, and then really smacked the team in May.  To review:

• Pitcher:  Chris CarpenterI
• Injury:  nerve problem in his throwing shoulder*.
• Next man up:  Lance Lynn
• Result:  Lynn has gone 7-1 with a sterling 1.09 WHIP and a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 1.2. 

*Aside: I can’t be the only one who, given his injury history, worried about Carpenter’s health this year after throwing 273 innings in 2011 at age 36. Last October was a brilliant, gutsy, career-defining month for Carp, but it comes at the expense of not having him for at least half this season, if not longer.

• Player:  Allen Craig
• Injury:  knee, hamstring
• Next man up:  Matt Carpenter
• Result:  MattCarp was a revelation for the Cards in April, helping pick up the offense in the absence of Lance Berkman and Craig.  Craig was tearing the cover off the ball up until he pulled his hammy last week.  It’s a double whammy because his return was going to make it much easier to rest Carlos Beltran and his creaky knees.

• Player: Lance Berkman
• Injury:  knee
• Next man up:  Matt Adams
• Result:  too soon to tell.  Adams is a highly-regarded slugger who some experts (such as Keith Law) believe will fill in at first base without much drop-off.  Replacing Puma’s personality and influence in the clubhouse will be much tougher*.

*If this turns out to be the end for Berkman, my enduring memory of him will be two-fold: 1) that two-out, two-strike single that tied the game at 9 in Game 6 of the 2011 World Series; 2) this kind of candor: http://blog.chron.com/ultimateastros/2011/10/28/berkman-having-incredible-experience/.  Guys like Berkman deserve to go out on their terms, not because of a broken-down body.

• Player:  Jon Jay
• Injury:  shoulder
• Next man up:  Shane Robinson, Adron Chambers, Skip Schumaker
• Result:  Robinson and Chambers are perfectly capable 5^th outfielders.  The three combined have hit .276 with 16 RBI.  Not bad.  Except for Schumaker, the defense is solid.

 

• Pitcher:  Kyle McClellan
• Injury:  elbow
• Next man up:  Brandon Dickson
• Result:  Minimal effect.  Relievers are a fungible commodity in baseball, especially righties.

• Player:  Matt Carpenter
• Injury:  oblique
• Next man up:  Steven Hill
• Result:  Too soon to tell.  With Craig eligible to come off the DL on May 30, Hill’s stay is likely to be short.  Unless someone else gets hurt.

This list doesn’t even take Skip Schumaker or Scott Linebrink into account.

The fact that the Cardinals remain in first place speaks volumes of their depth.  In 2007, when the wheels fell off, there wasn’t much help available from the farm.  It’s reassuring to know reinforcements are available now.  It should also give fans some confidence in rookie manager Mike Matheny.  He’s handled it all like he’s done this for years.  Both the depth and leadership are critical in 2012 and beyond as St. Louis moves on from the Pujols/LaRussa era.