Two keys to Rockies revival

Back in July of 1990, I started a game in Oakland against the World Champion Athletics and their ace, Dave Stewart. My team, the Milwaukee Brewers, held a narrow 2-0 lead late into the game. I was pitching well, but I wasn’t simply mowing down Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and company or anything. I had base runners and tight spots more than once in the latter innings, but still, our manager, Tom Trebelhorn, left me in the game. When the final out was made, I’d thrown 142 pitches and had my first major league shut-out.

If you took that game and dropped it into 2009, I would have been in the showers before the seventh inning stretch. Shut-out or not, it’s very likely that the manager, whoever he was, would have pulled me because of my high pitch count, and opted to insert his “seventh inning guy” to be followed by his “eighth inning guy” and finally his closer to try to finish the game off. That’s what the current version of “the book” says to do, and the vast majority of major league managers, including Clint Hurdle, follow the book religiously.

Thankfully for Colorado Rockies fans, new manager Jim Tracy – like Trebelhorn – doesn’t always go by the current version of the book. Tracy’s willingness to stick with his starting pitchers deeper into games is a huge reason for the revival of the Rockies and will be key to their play-off chances.

Hurdle always had his bullpen set up and was comfortable having his starter go six innings before turning to the ‘pen. It’s the formula most big league managers now use. But it’s a recipe for trouble mainly because it leads to a worn out relief corp. Expecting more from your starting pitcher is a legitimate request. These guys make big money to pitch once every five days. Expecting seven innings or more is not too much to ask. I never felt like I was doing my job if I went five or six innings and then expected the bullpen to pitch one third of the game or more. Putting the fate of the game into the hands of the bullpen every single night not only wears them out, but diminishes the starter’s chances of earning a victory. Too much is left to chance when all three guys have to have their best stuff that night. If one of them is off, the game gets lost.

Had Tracy not felt the need to get a couple relievers a little bit of work, Jorge De La Rosa could have thrown the team’s third straight complete game in the opener of the first home stand of July. That doesn’t sound like much, but it’s never happened in team history.

By contrast, when Aaron Cook struggled and then left the game with a slight injury after only going five plus innings the next night, the bullpen could not hold a one run lead and things got ugly for the home team.

It’s obvious that the starting pitchers have to continue to perform well for Tracy’s new found faith in them to be justified, and it still wouldn’t hurt to go out and trade for an established starter like Roy Halladay or Roy Oswalt. But as long as the starters are pitching seven or even eight innings and not overworking the bullpen, “the book” in Tracy’s office can sit on the desk and collect dust while the team keeps on winning.

A second important reason for the resurgence of the Rockies is Tracy’s willingness to go with a set line-up much more than Hurdle did. It’s not an easy decision to bench a player like Garrett Atkins, but the move to play Ian Stewart at third base and Clint Barmes at second base everyday, and make Dexter Fowler your regular centerfielder, makes the Rockies a much MUCH better team both offensively and defensively. Remember, the one time the Rockies did have big time success under Hurdle, it was the defense that was a key element of “Rocktober.” Great defense make the pitching that much better as well.

I have to admit, I didn’t think changing from Hurdle to Tracy would make that much of a difference in the play of what was an underachieving club. But subtle changes, like a calmer demeanor from the manager to go along with higher expectations of the starting pitchers and a set line-up, have made all the difference in the world. The Rockies are now a play-off team.
 

(AP Photo of Jorge De La Rosa by David Zalubowski.)

For more info: Colorado Rockies Examiner Travis Lay.