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.”