Today Rockies season ticket holders had a chance to listen in and participate on a conference call with GM Dan O’Dowd and Owner Dick Monfort. Here are some of the high/low-lights:
- Jorge De La Rosa has been experiencing elbow problems and will be shut down until September.
- It is unlikely the team will see Nolan Arenado this season, barring injury on the team requiring his services. According to O’Dowd, “Arenado’s maturity level has not yet reached his talent level…He will probably finish the season at Double-A, unless there are injuries or other circumstances.”
- O’Dowd, in defending the four-man rotation/75 pitch count limit, described it as a “paired-pitching system using seven starters”.
- Monfort said the team are absolutely not considering trading CarGo or Tulo.
- The conversation turned to how Coors Field has been effecting the team. At first O’Dowd said that the starting pitchers were doing poorly because the filed is playing like retro-Coors, with balls launching all over. But, once he was asked why the relievers were doing so well he stated, “Coors Field is not to blame for our pitching being bad.”
- Drew Pomeranz will most likely be called up soon.
- Scutaro could be moved when Tulo returns from the DL.
- Rutledge might be able to work out at 2nd, but he hasn’t shown he would be better than Chris Nelson.
- Monfort stated that the Dodgers were playing worse, so now that they are back to the pack and “we know we can play with Arizona and San Francisco”, then the team still has a chance this season.
If anyone was on the call and can think of something i missed, please let me know and i’ll update this…
It seems to me that the ownership isn’t in “panic” mode, even though everyone else on the planet has been for weeks…Paired-pitching using seven starters? Really?
Renck tweeted a clarification on what “maturity” meant in the context of Arenado:
“Struggles w failure. His attitude when he fails, etc”
still not pleased O’Dowd would say a general statement like that about a young player in public.
its one thing to call a player out for bad play like MFLJT does, but labeling players as lazy (chacin), disinterested (ian stewart) or immature (arenado) doesn’t do anything for anybody except lower the price tag.
“Maturity” is usually a code word for a guy who’s staying out late partying, etc. So if O’Dowd is sending a message to Arenado about showing more of a commitment to his job, I’m actually o.k. with that.
I have no problem with it privately, but not sure why he would do it in front of the fans and paint a bad portrait of 1 speck of hope the fans still have.
He could have said “Pacheco and Nelson are playing well enough to deserve the playing time” to satisfy the fans. I guess I do like the candor, but worry that it simply pisses the player off, especially so young.
When he publicly criticized the 3 I mentioned above it didn’t have good results.
Yep, I see your point. O’Dowd does enjoy that whole passive aggressive approach with players. I guess I’d prefer either the tight lipped approach (the one you suggest, Prog) or the Ozzie Guillen direct approach, which would be to come right out and say what you think his problem is.
“the team still has chance this season”- really? Was there circus music playing in the background when he said that?
Sure we have a chance.Just think of Moscosco every 3 days.What could go wrong? To me last night should have finished the 4 man experiment.Freiderich wasn’t sharp but should certainly gone another inninng.Same with Francis.I could live with this better at a 85-90 pitch count when starter doing well.
Thanks for the recap!
DOD said that when Tracy pulled Friedrich last night even though he could have continued, it was Dan O’Dowd pulling Christian not JT.
Made me wonder if JT got smacked around a bit for leaving Outman in on Saturday.
So D’OD is a manager now??? Wow, talk about undermining the person in charge…
So, now…DOD is going all Billy Beane in “Moneyball”?? This sounds a lot like the scenario with Art Howe (who, I believe, did a pretty good job managing over the course of his career) and the A’s. Of course, there may have been some liberties taken with the movie.
Jaredean, that’s what I’ve been saying all along — this is O’Dowd’s team. The pivotal decisions are O’Dowd’s, obviously on the player personnel front but also obviously now with on-field decisions like the 4-man rotation thing. So if anyone needs to be fired it’s O’Dowd, not Tracy.
As Cisco mentioned in the other thread, Tracy R. seemed very irritable after the game last night. I think he’s probably close to Apodaca and doesn’t like how he was made the fall guy. (And I don’t buy for a minute that Apodaca “asked to be reassigned.” Yeah, be reassigned or be fired.) When Klatt was giving the company line about Edwar Cabrera leading the minors in strikeouts last year, Tracy replied that his off speed stuff doesn’t translate to the majors. Then he really went off the reservation when he suggested Cabrera is a “Brad Havens type.” I barely recognized the name, so I looked him up: career 4.87 ERA back in the 1980s with the Twins and others. Basically a sub-replacement level guy. Rare for the Cowboy to be so frank/pessimistic, but refreshingly honest. The Cowboy’s made the Hall of Fame by knowing baseball prospects and baseball scouts. Obviously the scouts are not high on Cabrera.
I’ll take the over. As you guys know, I’m more on the stats side of the fence, and I like what I’ve seen from Cabrera. I don’t see a star, but I could see a Wandy Rodriguez type. Let’s hope I beat the Hall of Famer.
Were there any “hardball” q’s, meaning did anyone ask “is there any thought on future changes with coaches, GM’s, etc. Not in “panic” mode, why would you be? With 30k+ plus every night, the only thing to panic about is if the money counter machine faltered! “Panic” why panic this season is history, unless of course we go 62-27 the rest of the way to get to the magical 90 win plateau. “Panic”, why panic, there is always next year, ask the Cubs how that works out. “Panic”?????
DrRockies didn’t mention anything about that konaman.
When O’Dowd talks about accountability, does he ever look in the mirror?
When the Monforts look in the mirror, what do you think that they see?? Probably just dollar signs from the cash “cow”.
“O’Dowd, in defending the four-man rotation/75 pitch count limit, described it as a “paired-pitching system using seven starters”.”
-A moronic idea, and the fact that he’s defending it, tells me it was HIS moronic idea.
“Monfort stated that the Dodgers were playing worse, so now that they are back to the pack and “we know we can play with Arizona and San Francisco”, then the team still has a chance this season.”
-Seriously? Who does he think he’s talking to? (I love the circus music reference Cisco)
-The Rox are 14, count ‘em, 14, games back & only by the grace of God (and the Cubs & Padres) are we not the WORST team in baseball. Embarassing.
-It wouldn’t matter if we could “play with Arizona and San Francisco” (we can’t), because we sure can’t play with anybody else.
What did those two smoke before the call?
Konaman: Go 62-27 the rest of the season?! We’ll be extremely lucky to go 27-62 the rest of the season.
I am grateful that I didn’t have the money at the beginning of the season for a tickets package. I would be even more upset than I am already.
I am now convinced that not only do we have a minimum of 3 more jobs to go, we need someone with a clue to come in & make the Meat Bros. an offer they can’t refuse.
I agree with everything you said. As a season-ticket holder, I’m absolutely disgusted.
But the Monforts want to leave the team to their children, so it’s highly unlikely they would ever sell.
Rich kids of rich kids. Sounds like a winning ownership group.