Dan O’Dowd

That’s what Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said the team lacked in 2011 in this article by Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci: an “all-for-one” mentality. So what is the big takeaway from this offseason for O’Dowd? “We will play better as a team.” From a young age we learn to value playing well as a team. Don’t be selfish. Pick up your teammates. Always remember what is best for the team. But what exactly does that mean in baseball? There is no questioning the importance of team chemistry. Among the problems from last year, O’Dowd notes that players did not hold each other [...]

I’m back and so is the Morning Dump. Where have I been? Don’t worry about that. Just know that my absence may or may not have been directly related to the firing of the Fiesta Bowl president. Death to the BCS!! The good news is that after a month of asking the same questions over and over again, we are just a couple of days away from getting some answers. Opening Day is so close I can taste it and it’s delicious. I haven’t been this excited since they announced season four of The Jersey Shore. Optimism is felt by [...]

Yesterday, Felipe Paulino started a split squad game against the White Sox. He was the favorite to win the fifth spot in the rotation, but it sounds like he lost some footing yesterday. After the game, Jim Tracy announced that the competition remains wide open. The good news is that Jorge De La Rosa looked fantastic in his outing. Clipped from: www.denverpost.com (share this clip) “It’s open season. I am looking for someone to make a consistent statement. No one has done that.” — Jim Tracy So far this spring, my favorite player has been Seth Smith. Smith came into [...]

For Rox Pile, it was a flippin’ fantastic February. We broke traffic records, introduced new columns, discussed news, and got all sorts of fired up about Spring Training. It was a dominating display — one worth a recap. So, let’s recap: It’s hard to believe that Michael Young-to-Colorado was a hot topic at the beginning of the month. It seems like a million years ago. Here is where I got all excited about the trade rumor, and here is where finally I got all fed up with it. When something is a rumor for as long as Mike Young-to-Colorado has [...]

Major League Baseball’s draft is very different from the NFL’s. The NFL has a much shorter, but far more expensive version. Top baseball draftees aren’t signing for chump change, but the money involved is nowhere close to that extended in the enormous contracts given to first-round draft picks in the NFL. In an effort to prevent the MLB draft from becoming like the NFL’s draft, baseball’s feeble commissioner’s office instituted a money slot system. Every year prior to the draft, they provide guidelines on how much they think each pick should make per their draft position. However, the guidelines are [...]

Jefe, aka Marc Gustafson, Senior Director, Player Development: We have many beautiful outfielders in the organization, each of them filled with little surprises. El Guapo, aka Dan O’Dowd, GM: Many outfielders? Jefe: Oh yes, many! El Guapo: Would you say we have a plethora of outfielders? Jefe: A what? El Guapo: A “plethora”. Jefe: Oh yes, we have a plethora. El Guapo: Jefe, what is a plethora? Jefe: Why, El Guapo? El Guapo: Well, you told me we have a plethora. And I just would like to know if you know what a plethora is. I would not like to [...]

Imagine that you are trying to purchase a home. You and the seller are on the verge of a contract for $300K. Just before the seller signs, he decides that he doesn’t like your lender and walks away from the deal. A month later, the house falls into a sink-hole and the seller comes back to you offering to sell again. Except this time, he is asking for $450K. That’s ridiculous, right? Well, it’s pretty much what the Rangers did to the Rockies with Michael Young. During the Winter Meetings, the Rangers and Rockies were very close on a trade [...]

The Rockies’ number one off-season priority appears to be the re-signing of Jorge De La Rosa. The organization is in love with the lefty’s potential and thinks that his best years still lie ahead. They also just witnessed division rival San Francisco win the World Series with top-notch starting pitching and are hoping to match what the Giants have done. That is a very tall order. Tim Lincecum, Jonathan Sanchez, Madison Bumgarner, and Matt Cain are outstanding, homegrown products. To think that any Rockies pitcher, other than Ubaldo Jiminez, can match up with those guys is unrealistic.

The Rockies have a different identity. This team wins games with their depth and a pitching staff that eats up innings. For the last four or five years, the organization has done an excellent job of filling the roster with a solid mix of homegrown talent and affordable veterans. The club seems to have learned a valuable fiscal lesson from previously overpaying Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton. They resisted the urge to overpay Matt Holliday, shrewdly trading him for Carlos Gonzalez and Huston Street. After just two seasons, Gonzalez is a better player than Holliday. Plus, he costs about sixteen million less per season and is locked up until 2014. It is imperative that they keep this lesson in mind while negotiating with De La Rosa.

In the past few days the Rockies have signed Paul LoDuca and Jay Payton to minor league deals.  They are reportedly going to watch Eric Gagne work out as well. Rockies nation is up in arms.  Comments on newspaper websites and popular Rockies blogs are full of confused fans.  Why would the Rockies sign another catcher when they have two on the roster, one waiting in the wings in the form of Paul Phillips and two more top prospects on the farm named Mike McKenry and Wilin Rosario? Why would the Rockies sign another outfielder when they already have a [...]

The Monfort brothers, majority owners of the Colorado Rockies, have been called frugal, cheap, selfish and many other names.  On Tuesday they continued their march of proving people wrong. The Rockies have reportedly locked up closer Huston Street to a three year deal worth around $21 million, and set-up man Rafael Betancourt for two years and $7.55 million. The moves are proving that the Rockies are not simply a farm team for the rest of the league like so many have accused them of being. The Rockies embarked on a painful rebuilding process starting in 2002 when it became clear [...]