Colorado Rockies: Our exclusive conversation with GM Jeff Bridich

One of the things Bridich said in his introductory press conference with the Rockies is “winning begets winning.” You could say he’s championed that to the point of a motto. It’s a message that’s reverberated through the minor leagues as an important part of the developmental process.

“There comes a point in professional players’, coaches’ and managers’ careers where, in the minor leagues, you need to find a way to win games,” Bridich said. “There’s so much consistency in baseball in how games play out and what happens during games during a long season. You have to master those moments as a player, coach and manager. And that tips the scale from a loss to a win.

“There are lessons there and things are learned over time. Those things have to be real experiences and part of a professional career also. It’s easier to do at the minor league level and more difficult to do at the ultimate level where the spotlight is brighter and there is more at stake. But, ultimately, it comes down to the core. The most basic element of that is there needs to be some sort of belief that, ‘We should be winning, we should be this, look around we are as good or better than everyone we play’ and that is something that has grown into a reality with this group the past few years and that’s really fundamental and counting winning and winning and winning.”

But the Rockies need the talent to match the mindset.

Coming off arguably their best season in terms of pitching in club history — recording a 4.17 ERA from their starters, the second-best in franchise — Bridich’s run-prevention-centric plan seems to have paid off.

This has been carried out by pitchers drafted and developed by Bridich either in his role as general manager or working in player development. A renaissance in pitching has been covered throughly but has also been part of the plan for Bridich since day one.

“I think we’re always going to be searching for as much good pitching as we can get,” the general manager said. “We’re always going to be in search of that. Pitching can be challenging at our ballpark at times and in our division at times, Arizona plays offensively too. It’s important for us to be able to pitch when we need to pitch and turn batted balls into outs — playing good defense behind our pitching — I think those two keys have helped us become a playoff team.

“That’s not say that offense isn’t important. A lot of different pieces have to fit together but, as rosters change and players fit together, and they come to go or get traded, so do your needs. Sometimes players get hurt and you’re not expecting that or they get cancer and you have to make adjustment.”

Part of that for Bridich was brining in a 15-year Major League veteran pitcher and nine-year manager. Bud Black has given the team essentially three pitching coaches between himself, Steve Foster and Darren Holmes. Coupled with a former catcher in Mike Redmond, who also has managerial experience, and the mission is clear. Control the battery and all else will follow.

Colorado Rockies

“I think we can all say it’s worked out very well,” Bridich said on Black. “There’s a lot that goes on in the clubhouse behind closed doors. There’s a lot in the conversation and the thought and preparation and all the things that aren’t necessarily front and center to the things people see all the time. He’s got mastery of so much of that and he’s got ways of communicating with people and to people and having people hear him. There’s just a lot of experience there and to this point it’s worked out spectacularly for us. It’s been a really good fit. He and the coaches work well together, he and Mike Redmond work very well together in terms of what goes on in game and in the dugout. To this point, it’s been great.”

It’s fair to say with Black in his second season as manger — taking the Rockies to two straight October appearances — the Rockies would not have seen this success. It’s also fair to say that both German Marquez, who has the looking of something special, and Kyle Freeland, who now owns the single-season ERA mark for a Rockie, owe some of their success to the investment made in them from the top down.

“Buddy (Black) would be the first to tell you that he sees the game through the pitcher’s eyes, I think he has so much experience and so much respect in there that our pitchers realize that and they’ve drawn on that over time,” Bridch entailed. “To have a guy that really truly has gotten to know these pitchers — starters and relievers — and believe in them and know how to push them when they need that and pull back when they need that, there’s a lot of nuance there and there’s a lot of feel that goes into those sort of things. Buddy has those abilities and it helps the overall growth process with the pitchers. We have absolutely benefited form that over the last couple of years.”

What the Rockies have in Bridich is still unclear. His fate may be determined by the moves he does and does not make this offseason. Based on everything he’s said both to us and in the past, it’s clear what the goals are for the Colorado Rockies. Now it will just be up to Jeff Bridich to continue to implement his system and make adjustments where needed.

To hear Bridch’s thoughts on the offense and more they’ll be on an upcoming edition of the Rockie Road Podcast.