For Colorado Rockies fans, 2015 represents hope for respectability

Salt River Field at Talking Stick

The time has arrived.

The Colorado Rockies head back to Scottsdale to train for another season.

For every baseball fan, this is an exciting time of year.

There is reason for every team to hope, and the Rockies are no exception to that. This is a team that has been decimated by injuries in the past few years.

Those injuries have particularly plagued their star players, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. The reality is simple for the Rockies. If those two guys stay healthy, the team is good enough to compete, and even make a run.

Certainly there are still huge questions. After a season in which the Rockies had one of the worst starting rotations in their history, which is saying something, coupled with a bullpen that worked too many innings and simply didn’t have the talent to get it done, the team realistically stood no chance.

Had Tulo and CarGo stayed healthy all year, the team would have won more games, but believing that they would have been a contender is probably a stretch

Rockies fans are optimistic, just like every year in February. However, the offseason was one in particular that may have left fans more cynical than they have been in the past.

While a big step was made by ownership to move on beyond Dan O’Dowd and Bill Geivett, that was about the only real change the club made.

Kyle Kendrick was brought in, and a trade was made for Braves reliever David Hale, along with another arm from the Braves and Josh Rutledge was shipped to the Angels for fireballer Jairo Diaz. Those moves should help the situation, however they seem more like moves for a team that only had a couple of issues, not a club that was on the fast track to losing 100 games at one point in the prior season.

The reality is, with all due respect to Dan O’Dowd and company, letting him leave the organization was addition by subtraction. Despite the fact that the Rockies received much criticism for their lack of willingness to look outside of the organization for a replacement, simply having Jeff Bridich calling the shots should make for a better situation.

O’Dowd had his days in Colorado. He made some incredibly savvy baseball moves. However, fatigue had taken it’s course and it was very apparent. Instead of trying to win, O’Dowd seemed to play every excuse that was available to him. It became a clear sign that he was so frustrated by the losing that he had given in instead of continuing to fight.

The Rockies offseason was certainly quiet, and they definitely didn’t make any moves that put them on the National League West radar. However, they have been put into a hole because of the past three years. It is going to take success from more than just Jorge De La Rosa for a free agent pitcher to come to Colorado when it isn’t his only option. It is going to take a few years of guys staying healthy before a free agent will believe that the altitude isn’t a factor.

The Rockies are in a huge hole. The 2015 season is one that begins the long trek back to respectabilty. For the fans, the idea of competing in 2015 isn’t realistic. Frankly, competing in 2016 is probably a long shot as well. However, the success of the team long term will begin this spring and hopefully fans can bet on baseball again for the Rockies.

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