Colorado Rockies: Looking at some of the trades from the Dan O’Dowd era

Before Jeff Bridich became the general manager for the Colorado Rockies, their general manager from 1999 through 2014 was Dan O’Dowd.

The Colorado Rockies have been in existence for 26 seasons and, for parts of 16 of those seasons, Dan O’Dowd was the team’s general manager, as he was the team’s general manager from September 1999 through October 2014. During his tenure, the Rockies made some good (and bad) moves both in free agency and on the trade front. Today, we will look at some of the most significant trades that O’Dowd made.

10/30/99–Traded Dante Bichette and cash to the Cincinnati Reds. Received Stan Belinda and Jeffrey Hammonds.

Dante Bichette was one of the Blake Street Bombers but he was on the downturn of his career as he was going to turn 36 years old in less than 3 weeks. O’Dowd, himself, had only been the job for a little over a month so this trade was his first.

In 1999, Bichette hit 34 homers and 133 RBI with the Rockies. He only played 125 games with the Reds in 2000 before they traded him to the Red Sox. Bichette retired after the 2001 season.

The Rockies got reliever Stan Belinda and outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds in return. Belinda, who’s best known for giving up a walk-off single to Francisco Cabrera to score Sid Bream to win Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS and propel the Braves to the World Series, had a 7.07 ERA in 46 games with the Rockies before being released in July.

Hammonds only spent one year in a Rockies uniform but it was his best season in his 13 year career. In 122 games, he had 20 home runs, 106 RBI, a .335/.395/.529 slash line, and a 111 OPS+. He was also an All-Star, the only time he was nominated in his career. He left the Rockies after 2000 via free agency and signed with the Milwaukee Brewers.