Oh what a difference one year makes.
The Rockies played the Dodgers exactly one year ago today. Looking at the roster is like looking at old photographs. “Remember him?” “He played for us?” “Is that mustard on your hot dog???”
2011 Rockies Lineup vs Dodgers
CF Dexter Fowler
2B Mark Ellis
1B Todd Helton
SS Troy Tulowitzki
RF Seth Smith
LF Ty Wigginton
3B Ian Stewart
C Chris Iannetta
SP Juan Nicasio
By contrast, tonight’s lineup includes exactly ONE player from last year’s lineup. Dexter Fowler.
Everyone else is either injured (Helton, Tulo and Nicasio) or traded (Ellis, Smith, Wiggington, Stewart and Iannetta).
So, what was the result a year ago?
The Rockies produced only five hits and dropped to seven games under .500 (the lowest of the season that far).
And some of the comments?
Instead of blaming individual players like we have on previous posts we must look at the problem as a team. Nearly everyone on this team, both hitting and pitching, (except for Helton) has regressed. Even our best players; Tulo, Cargo, and Jiminez, have regressed. In my eyes a team wide regression should be attributed to the coaching. Tracy may be a nice guy but he does not belong as a manager. Get rid of Tracy, get rid of the problem. We may still have a hot streak in this team, but it will not come under Jim Tracy. Some players, like Ian Stewart, need a chance under a new manager as stated by Doc. As long as Tracy is manager, and this is only my opinion, the team will continue to put up zero effort. I do not want to see this the rest of the season nor do I want to see it continue into next season before management realizes this. He must be let go asap.
ColRox your Sox
And some pretty spot-on prophetic insight:
The Rockies need to go into semi-rebuilding phase. Keep a core of Tulo, Cargo, Helton, Blackmon, Fowler, Chacin, Nicasio, DLR, Brothers, Belisle, and Reynolds. Fill the roster with guys like Wheeler, Rosario, Paulsen, Pacheco, Freidreich, Weathers, and the players they get from trading Street, Betancourt, Smith, Ianetta, etc. Aim to finish .500 this year, stay in the race until the last month next year, and go for it in 2013. I just don’t get how people can defend keeping Giambi, EY, Stewart, and Ianetta. Some folks feel like Ianetta is actually a great catcher and in the Top 10 in the league. I think I could find at least 20 other catchers either in the majors now or in the minors who are better. Heck, when you read about the rumors regading trading Ubaldo the top player mentioned getting back is a catcher. I would also keep Ellis as I think he is a bulldog/Jamey Carroll type. I think Hammel is a decent #5 starter. And, I think Lindstrom is good as a 7th inning guy.
Robb
another thought during the game:
No drive. You don’t see it from Tracy and the players are following suit. Nobody cares if they win or lose. We need a manager who actually SHOWS that they want to win.
ColRox your Sox
and what would a bunch of ITR quotes be without one from Prog 
The culture of losing has returned for the Rockies. If the GM, the manager and many of these players are not shuffled dramatically during the offseason it will show just how complacent the Monforts are with losing…3 game losing streaks are becoming far too routine for this team. Seems like every week we have one. I won’t be surprised if we lose 90 games. Its sad that I actually still care what happens.
progmatinee
With the only player from the 2011 team on the field tonight being Dexter Fowler, the constants in the stadium would be the coaching staff (with the exception of Dac). At least we have our best pitcher on the mound…Mr. 2010 Jeff Francis!
ROCKIES LINEUP
Fowler [CF]
Scutaro [2B]
Cuddyer [1B]
Brown [LF]
Colvin [RF]
Pacheco [3B]
Rosario [C]
Rutledge [SS]
Francis [P]
Off topic: I saw that with the trade for Wandy Rodriguez the Pirates may want to trade a pitcher like Karstens. I also saw that the Pirates might want another outfielder or first baseman, and they might want to upgrade offensively from Clint Barmes. Would Karstens be an upgrade for us? (Almost anybody would be.) Would the Pirates want Scutaro? Would they want Cuddyer and give us real prospects in return? The Pirates haven’t had a winning team in a generation, so they might be willing to overpay for short term upgrades.
Hey, doing this pre-game got me thinking about some of the peeps from the old site…like Doctor_Christopher – he was on here at the beginning of the season, but haven’t seen him in a while, unless he changed his name like a few did…there were other die-hard posters that didn’t really make a transition…
Today the Dodgers (division rival, Mr. Montfort) traded a few prospects for Hanley Ramirez. Still young, stud infielder, whether at SS or 3B. The Rockies dealt one struggling pitcher for another. That’s the bottom line. It’s why the Rockies consistently finish 4th or 5th and the pre and post McCourt Dodgers consistently compete.
I don’t want to hear the market argument… it rings hollow, considering the revenue this team brings in. You don’t have to be #1, but you shouldn’t be below the top 10 if you have any accountability to a loyal fan base. In baseball terms, you are looking at one organization that wants to and knows how to win, and another that is content letting people enjoy nice summer nights in a nice stadium, with absolutely no overwhelming desire to win.
I hate the Dodgers. Pretty much always have, even when I didn’t give a squat about the NL. But I respect them. Which is more than I can say for my favorite team’s management.
Happy to see the Olympics coming up. A good excuse to not go to bed every night bummed out over another crappy night at the ballpark.
Francis, 97 pitches? What, you gotta be kidding me. Is this the end of the famous pitch limit? Could it be that the Rockies finally realized that a competent/average-ish major league pitcher the 3rd time through the order is still preferable to a sub-replacement level pitcher the first time through the order? Sound the death knell for the Best GM in Baseball’s firm commitment to the 4 man rotation/75 pitch limit …
yeah, it was a very strange feeling to see Francis in there for more than 5 innings…having our starter see the 7th was very strange indeed, although he didn’t see much of it after giving up the lead-off HR…
they said he wouldn’t have a pitch count limit tonight because of the day off tomorrow…of course they say a lot of things and many of them are speculation, so i wasn’t prone to believe it until I saw him come into the 6th and then the 7th…
The day off certainly figured into it,but the Post and Tracy R.last night said that Roeninke is the usual piggyback for Francis but would not be available today.Since Jeff is now our default “Ace” why not go with your best as long as possible.If he is not here next year,than the whole clubhouse culture/professionalism manta is truly horseshit!
I saw in the chat above (i had to leave for a while and watch the rest of the game time-shifted) that there was talk about Francis and him being a pitcher the team “gave up on”…that isn’t quite true as far as i can remember…in 2011 the team had a club option on him, but it was for $9 Million and obviously way more than he was worth. So they decided not to exercise it, but told Jeff they really wanted him if he’d stay for less. He decided to test the waters and eventually came back. I know the team has always really liked Francis and i think most fans do as well…
I’d love to see him do well and stay on for a couple mil…i don’t think they will make the same mistake they did with Millwood, but you never know with this team…
Yep, I thought it was very strange that the Rockies needed a veteran right handed innings eater, so they decided to spend their precious pitching capital (Hammel and Lindstrom) to get Guthrie ($8M). All they really needed to do was pay Millwood $3-4M to give it another go at Coors Field.
Still not great but today the Rockies rotation would be respectable as long as DLR had come back and Chacin had pitched as expected:
1. DLR
2. Chacin
3. Hammel
4. Millwood
5. Pomeranz
Then you could have slotted in a Francis/Sanchez type to cover Chacin’s injury albeit with some drop off. As I have written here before, the Rockies should NEVER give up MLB or MiLB pitching in a trade unless it is to acquire EVEN more pitching. In short the Guthrie trade was never defensible and in large part led to this disasterous season.
It is just too difficult to get free agent pitchers to come to Coors Field, and if you have to trade for pitching such as Guthrie the Rockies always seem to overpay. The Guthrie trade and Cuddyer signing ($10M rounding error) were serious mistakes for a mid-market team.
Just to be clear this is not hind sight as I wrote these things regarding Guthrie and Cuddyer on the ITR when the transactions happened.