Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt, left, and owner Dick Monfort, right, watch morning practice at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on March 23, 2022.
Trust a team with Dick Monfort in charge and a pet dinosaur to be accused of being trapped in the Stone Age.
Full disclosure: the kids upstairs in the Grading The Week cubicles are much better at Strat-O-Matic than they have ever been at hitting a curveball. Some of them were even reading Bill James in high school. We were nerds, okay? NERVES. All in capital letters. Sue us.
Although a funny thing happened in baseball at the beginning of the 21st century: those same nerds began to rule America’s pastime.
Yes, of course, the biggest payrolls usually win, just like in major European football. But working smarter, using analytics and sabermetrics, could provide an economical path to the postseason: a different way of looking at rosters and players, of building a team that could be stronger, over a long season, than the sum. of its individual parts.
In other words, the “Moneyball” era. All of which apparently hasn’t made it to 20th & Blake yet. And if it did, it came and went like a summer storm on the Front Range.
The Rocky Mountains are not the last! (Although they are close.) – D.
We mention this because of two quotes that appeared in the news early last week. And a survey. But above all two dates. Here they are, cleaned up for a family post:
“I think it’s better now, but when I was there, it was a horse-(expletive).”
“(I heard from another player that) it’s like going back to the Stone Age.”
They were two anonymous MLB players talking about our beloved Rox. And not in, you know, flattering terms.
It was a small fragment of a survey of 79 current players published a few days ago by The Athletic and The New York Times. When the Rockies were mentioned in the results, I was not surprised, the tone was not kind.
In a poll of the sport’s most overrated players, the oft-injured but well-compensated Kris Bryant got at least one vote. And, most damningly, when players in their 80s were asked which franchises had the “worst” reputation among their peers, Colorado came in fourth from the top.
That’s good for a playoff spot now, right? No? Isn’t that how this works? (We’re kidding.) The Oakland/Sacramento/Vegas/Jenny Cavnar A’s were first, or bottomed out, on that front, followed by the White Sox, Angels, Rox and Mets.
On a related note, Four Rings Sports Solutions published a study last August in which it tracked how many types of full-time analytics MLB teams had under their respective umbrellas.
The Rockies had 11, tied with Miami for second-to-last in baseball. And he was only ahead (ironically, given the franchise’s role in leading the “Moneyball” revolution) to the aforementioned Atlético.
The four largest analytics departments belonged to the Rays (44 employees), the Yankees (43), the Dodgers (35) and the Phillies (35).
If you’re curious, and Team GTW sure was, those franchises since 2015 have a winning percentage of .541 (Tampa Bay), .575 (Yankees), .622 (Dodgers), and .488 (Phillies), respectively. The Rockies were at a .451 pace as of Saturday morning. You don’t need to be an analysis expert to do the math on this.
Colin Prater Week — A.
A month ago, Colin Prater was teaching biology to teenagers and coaching golf at Cheyenne Mountain High School. Last week, he found himself exchanging photos with Wyndham Clark, Sam Burns and Jordan Spieth.
The 29-year-old from Colorado Springs recently beat out more than 9,500 competitors to qualify for the US Open in Pinehurst, North Carolina. He shot a 79 in the first round and a 78 in the second, missing the cut after a +17 for the weekend.
It’s the latest feather in the cap for Prater, who won the Colorado Golf Association Amateur in 2016 and 2020 and lived a dream, if only for a few days. Prater, the Colorado Golf Association’s Les Fowler Player of the Year in 2023, is also scheduled to become a father for the second time next month. So no, it’s not a bad start to summer. Not bad.
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