Hurdle and O'Dowd: Time to Move On

[BigRapidsJackass]

So many things have gone wrong this year that Hurdle and O'Dowd have basically been given a pass. But every so often you get a game like tonight to remind us why they need to be fired.

O'Dowd: Last year, he brought us Ramon Ortiz as a waiver deal for the stretch run. Yeah, that helped. The Rox run was despite Ortiz's total noncontribution, not because of it. This year? Livan Hernandez. I understand Livan gets about $1.5 million from the Rox for what is bound to be 7 stellar weeks of work. Acquisitions who will be taking less of their new club's money than Livan:

-- Manny Ramirez
-- Greg Maddux (which raises a question: if the Monforts and O'Dowd really thought we were still in the race, why wouldn't we have claimed Maddux, at least to prevent the Dodgers from getting him? Hmmm ...)

And the big question: we waived Kip Wells to make room for him. We all knew Kip Wells was crap even before the season started (Danno: what part of 3 consecutive seasons of 6.00+ ERAs don't you understand?) We really know he's crap now. But he's certainly no crappier than the 35, err, 40 year old Livan Hernandez. Really, look at their performances over the last couple years and make me a compelling case that Livan is an upgrade over Kip and I'll buy you a beer. Or six. So the 5th starter role has now cost Charlie, Dickie and the boys about 6 million bucks. That got O'Dowd an aggregate ERA of (I'm guesstimating here) about 7.00. Really. Someone please crunch the numbers of our 5th starter performances. Add up Redman and Wells as starters, + Valerio de los Santos + Livan as a Rockie. I swear you'll hit 7.00. If you think I'm being unfair, throw in Glendon Rusch's starts to bring it down to 6.50. So you spend $6.5 million and get really, really sub-replacement level performance.

EDIT: I'm not that lazy. Let's actually look at the numbers.

Redman as a starter: 43.2 IP, 38 ER, 7.83 ERA
Wells as a starter: 5.2 IP, 8 ER, 12.71 ERA
de los Santos as a starter: 8 IP, 5 ER, 5.63 ERA

Add it up: 57.1 IP, 54 ER, 9.52 ERA. I misunderestimated the magnitude of the horror!

Rusch as a starter: 42.1 IP, 23 ER, 5.46 ERA

Add it up included Rusch: 99.2 IP, 77 ER, 6.99 ERA. Oooh, so tantalizingly close to the magic ERA of 7.00! It's almost got me rooting for a Josh Towers spot start to push it over the top!

OK, let's be scrupulously fair. Maybe we ought to throw Jorge de la Rosa in there, too. I guess he's the #4 now, but he started as the 5.

JdlR as a starter (I think some of this is as a Royal, but it hardly matters; he's been the same): 85.2 IP, 59 ER, 6.20 ERA

Add it up including all of the Magnificent 5: 185.1 IP, 136 ER, 6.61 ERA. That should save Danno's job!

But really ...

... How does that not get you fired? Why would you ship out Kip and bring in Livan, wasting another 1.5 million you could spend to, say, draft and sign a really good player? Idiocy.

If that's not enough, how 'bout Heltonfan's favorite item: for this crap we needed to clear roster space by moving Ramon Ramirez, still averaging more than one strikeout per inning? To make room for Mark Redman and the right to waste 3.5 million bucks on Kip Wells we had to dump a perfectly good minimum salary pitcher? How does that not get you fired?

My Lord, my Savior, why have you abandoned my righteous team? Could somebody get a prayer meeting going around here?

Now for the bigger idiot, the Jackass from Big Rapids, the Sage of Lodo, the Cooler himself. I give you the latest innovation: Clint Barmes, Leadoff Idol. And yet, somehow the Rox got the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th tonight. Runners on 2nd and 3rd with Tulo -- hitting what, .360/.400/.500 since the All Star Break? -- due up. Hey, it's Coors Field, let me grab and cold one real quick and watch ... who knows, it could happen!

Except I get back to see that The Cooler, in his wisdom, has deemed that the last 2 outs should be made by Seth Smith and Scott Podsednik instead of Tulo and Smith, or for that matter Tulo and just about anyone else in baseball other than Pods. 2 up, 2 down, go home. I barely started "venting" the Coors. Not that I really drink that frozen pisswater. Fat Tire. No stupid color changing mountains on the label. No idiot vented can. Just an old fashioned bottle with actual beer in it. You no-taste morons can enjoy your vented Coors with you Monfort Double E-Coli Pre-Shaped Pads with Pasteurized Process Cheese Food.

[Roxpert]

I guess you wanted to rant after a few too many Fat Tires?

[BigRapidsJackass]

Do my eyes deceive me? Is there an imposter to the noble screen name of "Roxpert?"

No! I think it's the real deal ... welcome back! Had I known that an honest-to-goodness rant was all I needed to summon you back, I would've done it a long, long time ago.

Which reminds me: after ripping on Coors, I started to think (believe it or not, for the first time really) about that "cold-brewed" or "frost-brewed" thing. I've toured a bunch of breweries, and, well, I was pretty sure there's no such thing. Now I'm really sure:

http://www.swartzfeger.com/index.php?p=7

Repeat after me: Beer will not brew at 33 degrees F! Beer will not brew at 33 degrees F! I actually like the Miller (Coors new parent company) commercials with the fat deliveryman mocking hoity-toity restaurants that don't sell blue collar beers. They're funny! They're saying: you, Mr. Beer Drinker, are immune to the marketing of "elite" items. Just give me a beer, and leave all that gourmet stuff to some idiot who'll pay twenty bucks for a burger. I'm smarter than that!

Coors, on the other hand, is saying: You, our consumer, are a rank idiot. A total moron. To use the newly-minted none-dare-say-it word ... retarded. You really think beer can be brewed at freezing temperatures, and you really think that even if it could be it would somehow taste "colder" than beer brewed at the temperature all beers must be brewed at, then bottled (umm, canned) and put in the fridge. Unlike the target Miller High Life audience, the Coors target audience isn't the regular guy who's proud of being a regular guy and who isn't interested in what's trendy and expensive. No, it's an idiot who thinks the fact that he drinks the "world's coldest beer" actually makes him a beer gourmet.

Why the Coors rant? It's Coors Field, isn't it?

[I did this last one just to see if it would keep Roxpert around for a bit.]

[TheIncredibleRox]

Good to have you back, Roxpert.

[TestSubjekt]

Didn't one or both of them recently get extensions?

My thought process is if the Rockies are really as tight with money as it seems, then what are the chances they'd be willing to pay four people to do the jobs of two? Add to that there would be no guarantees for ownership that the next guys hired could actually turn the team around.

[Roxpert]

Just a cameo appearance to let you know I am still reading here. Whether I decide to write again is an open question. To be truthful, in recent weeks I've paid less attention to the Rockies than at any point in franchise history. They just aren't that compelling to me given all of the other things going on around here.

And I certainly wouldn't want to write if it brings back the former hecklers.

[rockieprogress]

Roxpert, what's your take on Stewart?

[BigRapidsJackass]

Yeah, Roxpert. Let's hear it. Optimistic about '09? Pessimistic? Why?

My take (not that anyone's asking). Stewart is for real. But he's not this good.

Coming into today's game, he had a .433 Batting Average on balls in play. A more realitic number would bring the BA way down. But you still gotta like what we're seeing, including the power and the strikeout numbers dwindling fast.

[RMF]

I wish I could say that I've been following this team. I'm so dissapointed that O'dowd wasn't willing to do what it took with our pitching staff to get this team in a position where we could win the NL West.

I'm still pretty pissed about the Ramon Ramirez thing. All in all I'm amazed by O'dowd he really does a great job of getting together these pieces and then he doesn't know what to do about it.

That is just mind boggling.

[TheIncredibleRox]

RMF! Thought u had run away with Roxpert... this thread is just bringing everyone back...

[RMF]

I checked in because I know nothing about the Rockies draft. I was hoping to read some good commentary. I don't even know the name of the guy we took in the first round.

When I saw that Roxpert had posted naturally I had to post in the same thread.

Things have been very busy this year. O'dowd and Hurdle have done nothing to change my opinions of them. IMO this organization is only about winning enough to put $ in the Owners pockets. That's a shame because we have a nice amount of talent and haven't done anything with it.

The Rotation looked horrible to me at the beginning of the season, relative to what it could have been. They could have paid one SP and added another SP through trade. We could have and should have started this season favored in this division.

It seems this was the year to go for it. Then we could have unloaded Holliday and Atkins in the offseason. Or a second winning season might have allowed us to retain Holliday.

I can't give management any credit for the talent we've got because if they really felt lilke they had talent for contention they should have committed to moving Helton back when he had suitors.

So they either can't evaluate their talent of they're bad with strategy. Either obstacle is difficult to overcome.

I also don't understand not trading Fuentes. Yes he's on waivers and for all I know he's actually been traded before I type this. But O'dowds bluff doesn't make any sense. You don't need compensation picks to sign talent in the MLB draft you just have to make a financial commitment. There are always plenty of guys who fall.

Fuentes could have netted prospects that wouldn't cost the Rockies anything financially. If they were going to put up the money in the draft anyway then they'd have netted the players in a Fuentes trade and they could still use their $$$ from the cost savings of Fuentes to sign additional talent in the draft or from the International pool.

[BigRapidsJackass]

Purn, I didn't think you were one of Roxpert's antagonists. Maybe I'm wrong.

Purple Row is the majors in the way that Tracy the Hat Ringolsby is the majors: toe the company line, don't ruffle feathers, get a little RMN blog going to make a buck or two, etc., etc. Don't get me wrong. I check in there frequently. It's well-organized and a fine source of information. But nobody there can hold a candle to Heltonfan, Incredible Rox, and yes, Roxpert, and the Hi Aspire of old (in analyzing the draft, Rule 5ers, etc) in terms of real thinking-man's baseball. In other words: they're minor league mainstream wannabees.

[wolf213]

Eh, I wouldn't go that far jackass,

David Oh No seems to know his stuff fairly well, as does Russ and the guy that used to run the up in the rockies blog.... Its probably the best place to go on the internet for Rockies Prospect information as well. However, I enjoy very much the analytical thought that comes from this board, and find it much more enjoyable to read... however post here are few and far between at times.

[BigRapidsJackass]

True, Wolf. There are some good posters there. By the way, I used to like the prospect stuff SG used to post here ... is he somewhere on Purple Row?

My point is more narrow: we've had more insightful comments -- and more criticism, both of the ranting/entertaining sort AND of the stat-heavy/objective sort -- on this board than what Purple Row could ever hope to have. Part of that is the quality of the baseball fan here, but part of it is simply that Purple Row and a board like this serve different purposes.

[Newman]

Why should Monfort do anything about Hurdle and O'Dowd? 33,000 fans go to Coors every night, win or lose. Matters not to the base. Why try to win? It takes more effort, costs more money. Probably lowers the profit margin.

I agree with Roxpert. There are just other more important things to think and write about. Palin?

With Helton clogging up the works for still years to come, and Holliday attaching himself to that money monger Scott Boros, where is the hope for the small market fan? I know, I know...Tampa Bay...they signed Longoria as I recall...