E-8: The Blake Street Bambini
Anthony Camera
Nathan Bilow/Allsport
Coors Field opened in 1995.
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This year, the Rockies seem to have junked both of the competing theories of baseball at altitude: outslugging the other team, or limiting the visitors’ slugfest with expensive, top-of-the-line pitching. That’s philosophy by default, of course. Having taken their lumps in the Kile-Hampton-Neagle fiascoes, the Rockies now pledge to “build from within” and create a winner from the ground up.
Good luck. The rookies that manager Hurdle will start this year — third baseman Garrett Atkins, shortstop Clint Barmes and catcher J.D. Closser — all have the look of middle-of-the-pack prospects. And his youngish outfielders — Mohr, Wilson and Matt Holliday — have very little resemblance to the Bombers of old, or even to semi-sluggers like Jay Payton and Jeromy Burnitz, who fattened their numbers at 5,280 and promptly signed big contracts elsewhere.
Second baseman Aaron Miles? Who knows. As for the Rockies’ young pitching staff, most of it schooled in Colorado Springs by sinker/change-up guru Bob McClure, there are questions aplenty. Last season, lefty Joe Kennedy became the first Rockie ever to finish with a sub-4.00 ERA, and Jason Jennings looks for a return to the glories of 2002, when he was named NL Rookie of the Year. Shawn Chacon, every Rockies fan’s whipping boy last year because of his awful performances as a closer, returns now to the starting rotation. But does a healthy psyche return with him? As for phenom Jeff Francis, Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca (who holds a job only a masochist could love) says he’s the real thing. Check back in July.
The team’s marketing department chooses to call this bargain-basement aggregation of raw youth and mid-career mediocrity (anchored by the inevitable Helton) “Gen R.” Let’s hope that doesn’t stand for “Generation Ridiculous.” But even the ever-optimistic O’Dowd has his doubts. In recent media interviews, the general manager has openly questioned his own decisions over the past five years, acknowledged that many of them were “ego-driven” and pledged to take a hard new road. Success will take time, he says, maybe more time than the dwindling Rockies faithful are willing to invest, but he will never again try for quick fixes or splashy gestures. He’s relying on the kids to grow up. Eventually.
Bottom line: The Rockies will be lucky to win sixty games in 2005, and they won’t have last year’s miserable Arizona Diamondbacks to break their fall into the basement. The D-Backs are much improved; the Padres figure to win the division.
By all means, go to Coors Field if you love warm sunshine and cold beer, but don’t get your hopes up — even with Barry Bonds absent from the San Francisco lineup and the L.A. Dodgers in their customary disarray. For Hurdle and his class, this will be Baseball 101, and Professor Adair is, once again, sure to be grading on a curve. So let’s not get too upset about it, okay? There’s no crying in baseball.
