Colorado Rockies: An open letter to Rockies manager Bud Black

The Colorado Rockies have been reeling in the month of June with a record of 4-11 in the month and on Sunday, they may have hit rock bottom.

What are you doing?

I realize that the front office has handcuffed you on some decisions, like their atrocious free agent signings and the players, specifically the bullpen, have put you between a rock and a hard place.

But why do you keep putting them in spots to lose?

On Sunday, you decided to bring in Bryan Shaw into a game in a high leverage spot. Bottom of the seventh inning, Jake McGee hits a batter, walks a batter, and has a wild pitch. McGee gets a groundout and a runner scores which makes it 10-7 Rockies with a runner on third and one out.

Who would you bring in? None other than Bryan Shaw, who goes on to walk the first batter he faced on four pitches, a groundout (which allows the runner on third to score), and a RBI double before being yanked.

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Last Tuesday? 4-1 Rockies trail in the 8th inning against the Phillies. You bring in Shaw, who allows a baserunner on a wild pitch for a strikeout. Three batters later, a walk. Next batter, a RBI single and the trailing gets thrown out at third but it’s 5-1 now. The next half inning, the Rockies score three, which would have tied the game but since you brought in Shaw, they lose 5-4.

June 8 against the Diamondbacks. 7-6 Rockies lead heading to the 8th…and Shaw wets the bed in more ways than one. He allows six runs in the inning but only one was earned. Why? He commits two errors, on the same play no less. Brooks Pounders has to come to put out the fire (I didn’t expect to type that this season) but the Rockies come out of the inning down 12-7.

Right now, bring him into situations like you did on June 5 against the Reds. The Rockies are up six, 9-3, in the ninth inning. He’d give up three runs but you can get him out before he can give up the game. The Rockies still won 9-6. If they are down by 6, who cares if they lose 10-4 or 14-4.

Do it so he can, potentially, build some confidence. Same with Chris Rusin, who, believe it or not, has a higher ERA than Shaw. Honestly, the same should be with Pounders too.

Harrison Musgrave and Adam Ottavino should be the guys in the high leverage situations.

While we are talking the bullpen, if Wade Davis continues his struggles, don’t be afraid to yank him from the closer’s role.

You have stuck with guys through hardships before, much to the chagrin of many fans, but you have seen Ian Desmond break out as in his last 19 games, he has 6 home runs, 17 RBI, and a .308/.400/.600 slash line. You have also seen Gerardo Parra (.367/.415/.429) and Carlos Gonzalez (.365/.420/.556 since May 27) break out in the month of June, after bad starts to the season.

The starting rotation and bullpen obviously have to pull their weight too but you need to put them in situations so that they can gain confidence and put the guys who are doing well in higher leverage spots.

After the team meeting (that you should get very fired up in after Sunday’s loss), show them how much winning means to you. Don’t be afraid to get canned by the umpires and go nuts either. It might fire them up.

Next: Rockies Podcast: Maybe the worst loss in franchise history

The team won’t win unless they step up but you can help them out. Don’t throw them into the fire because, right now, they are a fire. They don’t need to be setting the game ablaze and out of control.

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