Dick Monfort: “I think our plan is working”

Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports

To state the obvious, there are many, many reasons to criticize the Colorado Rockies’ owners and front office. Dick Monfort, Dan O’Dowd, and Bill Geivett have all done plenty to be the subject of complaints (this blog included). But I will tell you one thing that you cannot reasonably criticize them for: a lack of transparency.

For better or worse, these guys tell you what they are thinking and what they mean. If O’Dowd thinks Jhoulys Chacin is fat or that Dexter Fowler might not be passionate enough about baseball, he will tell you about it. If Geivett wants to sit down with Jonah Keri of Grantland and deliver a number of confusing theories about why players get hurt at altitude because they exercise too much, he’s going to do it. And most recently, Dick Monfort released his budget to the Denver Post.

Let’s be clear: for all of the things that this front office does wrong, they have no obligation whatsoever to release this kind of information. They could keep things tight to the vest, deliver stock answers, and fib when they need to fib. Frankly, I wish they would do a little more of that.

Even if the answers are frustrating, this front office tries to answer the angry inquiries of its fans. Rockies fans are upset about how the Monforts spend their money; now Dick Monfort is trying to answer that frustration by actually providing his budget. The execution might leave a lot to be desired, but at least give this group credit for their transparency.

Here are some of the interesting quotes from Monfort, as provided in Troy Renck’s article in the Denver Post this morning.

In response to an issue with TV money that might be withheld, Monfort said the following:

"“I don’t know if other clubs are looking at it like that, but we are…We have been told (as owners), and I don’t know if it is scare tactics or not, that (each team) will pay that back this year. The way we are budgeting right now is that not only are we not getting that extra $4 million (like last season) but we will be paying back the $4 million from last year.”"

I’m not business savvy, and maybe I’m just falling for it, but that kind of sounds like Monfort is being smart and planning ahead, no?

This quote might be the upshot though. Monfort said the following about the state of the franchise:

"“I think (our plan) is working. Yes, we got last place. Yes, we were 10 games better. Yes, we had three pitchers, four starting pitchers, whose winning percentage was 61 percent. So if you had a fifth, just like the other four, and you had a bullpen that did its share of the deal, you would win 98 games. That’s a lot of games.”"

I am ever the optimist, but I literally cannot envision a scenario in 2013 where the Rockies could have won 98 games. And so, we have another quote that illustrates why fans get so freaking frustrated with these owners.

To read the full article, follow this link.