On the Rox - Latest Comments

Re: Ep. 13 — 2017 Here We Come

discojoe — Fri, 13 Jan 2017 23:37:57 -0000

This story strikes fear in the hearts of Coloradans. With Monfort's ownerhship and Bridich's management, it will be business as usual for the Rockies.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Mike321 — Thu, 14 Jul 2016 11:20:04 -0000

Nick has a short memory if he thinks the only big names that came up under Walt was Gray and Story....did he forget all the fanfare that came with Butler? Both him and Gray were tied together as the saviors of the franchise's pitching woes.

Last I looked, he has fizzled out pretty quickly so if he are giving WW praise for the other 2, then you gotta give him thumbs down for Butler. Also don't forget a guy like Friedrich who they tossed back and forth between the pen and as a starter but could never successfully develop...

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Rickfromthesticks — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:43:34 -0000

Yes O'Dowd was terrible and then what do they do is promote his assistant Jeff Brodic who was in on all those bad decisions and had no Major League experience other than as O'Dowd's assistant. Also he was in his thirties with absolutely no life. He will never get a decent manager to work for him being so young and totally inexperienced at the major league level.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Rickfromthesticks — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 21:37:15 -0000

Jeff Brodic the General Manager only has college baseball experience and has spent all of his administrative major league baseball experience with the Rockes. He should have been terminated when the last GM was fired , he was in on all those bad decisions At 39 y.o. with only Rockies experience has proven he is not the man for the job. Walt Weiss was not major league coaching material when they hired him from Regis H.S. , he is like a robot with no imagination, both Jeff and Walt need to be replaced with competent management.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

sportsfan365 — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 20:51:02 -0000

Weiss is perhaps the worst on-the-field manager in baseball - but he works for peanuts, thus don't be surprised if the Rockies ultimately re-sign him.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Colosprings Northsider — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 16:17:51 -0000

This is almost as absurd as when Monfort said that o'dowd was the best GM in baseball.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Northsider — Wed, 13 Jul 2016 14:48:28 -0000

Dear Nick Groke:

Unless you truly believe that Andy Green is just as capable of a manager as Terry Francona, or that it's really just a coin flip between Bryan Price and Mike Matheny, I'll take your "Bochy, Maddon, Showalter... and everybody else" comment as just another empty platitude people trot out when rationalizing why Walt Weiss should keep his job.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Northsider — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 21:29:43 -0000

I also love the rationalization that there's really just Bochy, Maddon and Showalter, and after that all MLB managers are pretty much the same. What a complete load of BS. I despise the Giants, but there is not a single member of their big league coaching staff I would not welcome with open arms to replace Weiss. There's hardly a bench coach or 3rd base coach in all of MLB that would not get hired ahead of Weiss, should the Rockies ever cut him loose.

It's amazing how even Weiss's supporters never argue that he's any good whatsoever at the job. The arguments for keeping him all center around the idea that managers just don't really matter - or that gee whiz, his contract's almost up anyway, so why no just let him stay around?

Thirty MLB manager jobs on planet Earth, and the Rockies are content to keep Walt Weiss as one of them. That says a lot about the performance standards of this organization.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Colosprings Northsider — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 18:25:08 -0000

When they interviewed Hochman it was just like reading his DP columns, I really disliked his writing style but always thought he had a lot of insight. He interviews the same way he writes kind of annoying but a lot of good content.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Colosprings Northsider — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 12:49:43 -0000

I find it ironic that they mentioned that they dislike fans dinging WW as a high school coach yet they turn around and mention all his shortcomings which are due primarily to his lack of experience managing, motivating and holding accountable professionals. Additionally when they listed potential players to trade they missed probably the most valuable trade asset and that is Logan his expiring contract is much less then DLR and as a left handed specialist he is having a great season (the lowest ERA and WHIP of his career). For a contender he is worth a mid level prospect.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

Vincent Wolf — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 11:21:35 -0000

He should be fired. He stinks.

Re: Ep. 7 – On the Hot Seat

wgb — Tue, 12 Jul 2016 09:01:36 -0000

I am sure that Weiss thinks he makes good decisions but when the majority of his decisions back fire, he does not learn. Weiss only knows baseball up to the level of his experience as a player. That is why you normally hire experienced people. Weiss was hired because he was cheap and it has cost the team dearly. If he were managing any other MLB team, he would have been fired long ago but with the Monfort's, it is all about the income from the stadium, not about winning baseball games. That is unfortunate for people like me who love baseball. I now watch the Grand Junction Rockies.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

wgb — Thu, 12 May 2016 23:07:47 -0000

Weiss knows very little about baseball. Yes, he played for 14 years but all he knows is what he experienced, he cannot think on his own. Everything is by the book and nothing else is tried. Baseball is a game of situations and Weiss follows the situation rules. Example: for a specific count on a batter, baseball standards say that the pitcher should throw a certain pitch. All ball players know about the standard. According to a former Rockies player, Weiss calls the pitch that the standards book call for in that situation. Do you think the other teams have figured that out about Weiss' pitch calling?

Re: Charlie Blackmon back in Rockies lineup; Barnes sent to AAA

Northsider — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:31:09 -0000

Some people have proposed a 27-man roster, but with only 25 players activiated for each game. I kind of like that idea, because it would give teams some flexibility but still force the manager to use his roster wisely each night.

Re: Charlie Blackmon back in Rockies lineup; Barnes sent to AAA

Northsider — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 21:31:07 -0000

This is the perfect place for the Rockies to park Barnes. He's still available if one of the top four OFs gets hurt, but opens up the roster spot for an extra reliever.

Re: Charlie Blackmon back in Rockies lineup; Barnes sent to AAA

Voice of Sanity — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:40:09 -0000

Patrick, what's the history behind the MLB 25-man limit? Might have once made sense; don't believe it does today. In this era of specialists, platooning, fragile pitchers, 162 games, followed by playoffs that go on and on, etc., that limit seems too low. And, of course, is seems arbitrary. I realize expanding it would cost some payroll money, but so what? And you would think the players association would like the idea. It would be very helpful to the Rockies if they could carry 26 or 27 men at the major league level. Don't ya think? Might be a topic for you to explore.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

Jimbotronn — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 20:35:56 -0000

Honestly, the four man piggy back thing isn't the worst idea ever, but they may have implemented it in the worst way possible. Try that in the minors, work the kinks out, and then bring it to the bigs.

Re: WATCH: Trevor Story blasts NL rookie-record 9th homer in April

Chris — Thu, 28 Apr 2016 17:02:22 -0000

I've heard those around the Rockies repeatedly say that the Bridich Barrier effect will eventually even out between the teams, but I hope notes such as those included here continue to get repeated. Hopefully the experiment will be reevaluated at the end of the season, especially if the Rockies ended up getting the short end of their own straw.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

pukface — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 13:24:54 -0000

If Weiss thinks it will not work then it should be implemented immediately!

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

Reg42 — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 11:32:03 -0000

Remember that this is the same organization that went to a four man rotation with 75-pitch counts and were laughed at throughout baseball--not to mention driving their manager to quit. I'm not saying it was a good idea (in fact, I hated it) but at least that was Dan O'Dowd & Co. trying to think outside the box and then getting undermined by their own coaches and players. A lot of ideas are great in a vacuum but you need people throughout the organization to get on the same page to execute it and THAT is where the Rockies have been most woeful over the last seven or eight years.

Re: Trevor Story’s high strikeout rate doesn’t concern Rockies’ Weiss

blade3colorado — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 10:01:47 -0000

Weiss keeps confirming to me that he is overwhelmed by managing at this level. Ignoring his SO rate illustrates this (as well as pooh poohing your suggestion of 4 outfielders, which I felt is at least thinking outside the box). This is my comment regarding Paige's recent column which essentially crowned him as an adequate replacement for Tulo (hilarious).

"You're kidding, right Paige? Buzz nick is right, because like a short buzz, this dude is already heading south. How? Let me count the ways . . . 1. He can't hit right handers. 2. Chase Field, Coors Field, and Great American Parkway - First 2 are hitters parks and the second is a band box (again, a hitters park). 3. Putrid road splits, e.g., BA of .216 versus .275 at Coors, which isn't anything to write home about either. 4. Terrible OBP .306 . . . ugh. 5. Already a SO machine. I can easily see 200 plus this season. and 6. Evidence of the aforementioned at all his minor league stops.

In short, I wouldn't be so quick to crown his *ss as the next Tulo."

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

Colosprings Northsider — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:57:27 -0000

Remember Weiss was slow to adopt situational infield shifts so he is not exactly on top of unorthodox or out of the box thinking. I would love to see what a Joe Maddon type of free thinker would do with the Rockies. Not that this ownership/GM would ever consider someone like that and if Maddon or someone like that was available they most likely would have the good sense to avoid walking into the executive echo chamber that is the Rockies front office.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

The_KIMN_Chicken — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:46:21 -0000

Haven't you learned, Rockies never try anything new... most prominently, winning.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

willcommentforfood — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 06:04:00 -0000

The entire management is to blame, not just Weiss. He's nothin' special, but the front office, I think, is much worse. I agree with you 100% about baseball at a mile high being different. The problem is the Rockies, from the owners down to perhaps the batboys and ball girls, try to erase that difference instead of making it an advantage. The stupidity virus in the franchise is system wide, and not confined to Weiss, and if they were to make him the fall guy & fire him, no one they could hire would make any difference, sadly. But they got him on the cheap, so they're getting what they paid for, combo of nobody serious wanting the job and them not wanting to pay for a quality hire.

And, as for gimmickry, the Rockies have the humidor, and the dumb pitching order trick they tried a year or two ago that never worked. The Rockies have tried trick after trick, instead of actually doing things that work. If they hired somebody from a winning franchise to institute things that work, they might get results. Even without spending much more. Instead, they train from within, hire from within mostly, and lose and lose and lose.

Re: Rockies’ Weiss: 4-man outfield idea “ridiculous”

blade3colorado — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 02:40:37 -0000

Saunders is at least thinking outside the box. Weiss has been a complete failure since being named manager. Consequently, he should have a bit more humility, especially for someone who was a high school baseball manager prior to being elevated to his current position. Name one team that would keep this imbecile after compiling his putrid managing record? Exactly . . . No team would.

Oh, one other thing Weiss . . . BASEBALL AT ONE MILE HIGH IS DIFFERENT. Burying your head in the sand and saying it isn't different, is similar to saying Climate Change is a hoax.