Colorado Rockies: 5 reasons for fans to be thankful this Thanksgiving

Bud Black is in charge

A lot was made of the Rockies offseason additions of Ian Desmond and Greg Holland, but the biggest move General Manager Jeff Bridich made before the 2017 season was bringing in veteran manager Bud Black to helm the wheel of his club.

Black is a baseball man, simply put.

His long career includes pitching 15 years for the Seattle Mariners, Kansas City Royals, Toronto Blue Jays, Cleveland Indians, and San Fransisco Giants.

It was with the Royals in 1985 that Black won his first World Series.

Colorado Rockies

He won another ring in 2002 with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim as Mike Scioscia’s pitching coach.

Anything about Black’s tenure jump out at you?

Black has decades of pitching experience.

Because of that, he brings an irreplaceable wealth of knowledge to a team that has historically struggled to put together a decent pitching staff.

There is no doubt that this played heavily into Jeff Bridich’s decision to bring Black to Colorado.

Rockies fans are certainly thankful for that decision.

In his first season, Black led a young team that had four (yes, four!) rookies in its starting rotation for much of the year.  Not to mention, starters Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson were in only their second years.

Black’s pitching experience ended up being all it was made out to be and more as he guided these young arms (and the team) through the ups and downs of a 162-game season.

Black’s first year with Colorado was good enough that many made an argument for him to win the NL Manager of the Year award.