Rockies Preparing to Waste Money
Posted by Adam Graham in : BaseballWell, it’s getting about that time again in Baseball. No, not just the post-season, but the off-season’s coming after a much Improved in 2006, the Rockies appear ready to spend millions on an underperforming outfielder.
I was happy when I read this:
A summer swoon not only spoiled the Rockies’ season, but shaped their offseason wish list. Colorado will attempt to add an everyday center fielder, an eighth-inning reliever and a bat off the bench. More important, manager Clint Hurdle said Wednesday he believes the Rockies will have money to address those needs.
“That’s my understanding,” Hurdle said.
This isn’t to suggest that Vernon Wells, Gary Matthews Jr. or Alan Embree will fit into the budget, but at least there will be some money earmarked for holes in the Rockies’ lineup. With Matthews and Juan Pierre likely to seek around $8 million per season, that means Colorado may be looking at lower-cost options such as Coco Crisp, Darin Erstad or Steve Finley.
Darin Erstad? What is this? 1995?
In 2000, Erstad had a great season, a career year, he hit .355, 25 Homers, 100 RBI, and a .950 OPS. Great career year. But it stands out like a sore thumb from the rest of his career where he hasn’t hit above .300. He’s hit a total of 37 homers since 2000. 37 homers. His OPS has been under .750 each of the last 6 seasons and under .700 four times! The guy has nothing left and Rockies GM Dan O’Dowd has interest in bringing him to Colorado? Why?
My reaction to Steve Finley was, “He’s still playing?” The guy is, though not very well. He’s .246 with 6 homers and 40 RBIs for the Giants. At 41, his career’s definitely about over. Is there something about the thin Air of Coors Field that makes GMs go nutty and think that signing old veterans is a winning combination. I remember 1993, the Rockies traded Brad Ausmus and Andy Ashby to the Padres for Veteran Starters Bruce Hurst and Greg W. Harris.
Hurst: Pitched 8 2/3 Innings for Colorado before being shutdown by inujuries
Harris: Went 4-20 over a season and a half with the Rockies with an ERA of 6.59.
Now to be fair, Harris was only 29, but there was really no reason to trade for him. He hadn’t won 10 games in a season prior to 1993.
Meanwhile, Ashby was 2-time All-Star who had a run of 3 years with 200 innings pitched. He’ll not be in the Hall of Fame for that, but given the players the Rockies pitched instead (Jamey Wright, Bryan Rekar, and a host of others.) let Ashby go looks silly.
Brad Ausmus made an all-star game and won a couple gold gloves and also was involved in 3 trades involving the Tigers and Astros, being traded from the Tigers to the Astros in 1996, than from the Astros to the Tigers in 1999, and and then from the Tigers to the Astros in 2000.
Regardless, I’d rather Ausmus than guys like Kirk Manwaring. The organization has made some bad organizational decision.
So if the organization blows money on Finley or Erstad, it’s another in a long line of mistakes. Coco Crisp may make sense or may not, but I’d bet on a 26 year old rather than either Erstad or Finley.
Comment by Eli_Blake [Member]
This is a product of the former era of rapid expansion combined with the decline in interest in baseball among young people.
There are many players in the major leagues today who would twenty, thirty or certainly forty years ago have been minor league material, or in the case of Finley have long since been retired. But the fact that teams like the Rockies even exist (or– let’s be fair about this– the Diamondbacks) has opened up several dozen new jobs for these subpar players. Bench players become starters, minor league players become major league, and against the horrible pitching (augmented by five and six man rotations with frequent pitching changes that keeps the good pitcher’s innings down) and a juicy ball the players who would once have just been role players become stars.
The expansion from 8 to 10 teams that occurred in 1960 and perhaps the expansion to 12 teams per league that occurred in 1969 might have been justified by the demise of the Negro leagues (so that there was an actual expansion in the talent pool) but the new era of expansion that occurred in the 1990′s has seriously hurt the game.
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
I think you’re right in the general sense of dilluting the talent pool , but I believe in the case of the Rockies they really have Minor League talent that would probably do better than Finley and Erstad adn cheaper too.
Comment by michael [Member]
You can have Crisp . I like his attitude but be prepared to cringe when runners score from third on shallow fly balls .
Comment by Adam Graham [Member]
I’m not huge on Crips, but he’s the greater of 3 mediocre players.