Strike 2: Dear Walker Monfort (continued),
For starters, it would be in everyone’s best interest to place your existing front office people in the jobs they’re better/best suited for. For example, current general manager Bill Schmidt was a long time successful scouting guy. He took on the GM gig after former Jeff Bridich screwed things up by overspending on several free agents that flopped here. The knee-jerk reaction after Schmidt took over was to go to the opposite extreme (the failed Kris Bryant free agent signing notwithstanding) and be solely a “draft and develop” outfit.
Neither extreme has worked, right? So perhaps the answer lies somewhere in the middle?
Go ahead and put Schmidt back in charge of the scouting department. He’s done a good job with the draft. The Rockies have selected and signed a lot of talented young prospects. Hopefully he could keep doing that.
After you’ve placed your people in the appropriate jobs, hire a new GM/baseball operations person – Thad Levine comes to mind – and let him bring in the right front office staff to run the baseball stuff. That includes more focus on getting the best people/instructors into minor league player development. That area is lacking, presumably because not enough resources have been allocated in that direction. One reason so many of Schmidt’s solid draft picks haven’t panned out is because they haven’t been coached up and/or developed properly from the moment they first joined the organization.
Hire Jason Hirsh (a member of the only Rockies World Series team) to oversee pitching development. His pitching development methods are solid and would help curb the cascade of pitching arm injuries that your organization deals with every year. It’s one thing to draft Gabriel Hughes (as all the rest of the MLB clubs picking after Colorado would have) it’s another to develop him properly and keep him from needing elbow surgery after just 14 pro starts. That’s not just bad luck.
Moving forward, don’t be so entirely draft focused. There are two other methods of successful player acquisition. You know that all the other clubs in MLB build their teams with a combination of the draft, trades, and quality free agent acquisitions. You know that taking input from outside the organization, the way the late Keli McGregor did, yields the best results on the field.
Keep in mind that the Rockies didn’t draft Andres Galarraga, or Vinny Castilla, or Dante Bichette. Other teams drafted Ellis Burks, Larry Walker and Carlos Gonzalez. These guys and dozens of other quality players ended up in purple pinstripes because good baseball men with years of experience in other places were working in the Colorado front office at the time and brought them here. You can’t be afraid to part with a talented player or prospect in an effort to get a more impactful player or players back in return. Trades have to work both ways. The Rockies ended up with Gonzalez because that front office was willing to part with Matt Holiday.
And the Kris Bryant mess aside, some free agent signings do work, when the right baseball people are making that decision. Walker, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Mark Reynolds jump to mind.
A solid and experienced baseball ops person (who could also build a quality analytics department as long as you give them the resources) could utilize all three methods to build a contending team on a consistent basis. You know that Rockies fans don’t want to hear that the team can only be competitive every few seasons.
Whomever your new baseball ops person is, he or she would need ownership to step aside and step away from making baseball decisions. Ownership and the business people could focus on what they/you do best: kicking butt on the business side. Like I said earlier, successful business and successful baseball do not have to be mutually exclusive.
Strike 2: Dear Walker Monfort, start putting the right people in the right spots Mile High Sports.
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