Monfort, Bridich and Black face the press

DENVER – On Tuesday afternoon, approximately 48 hours after the conclusion of game 162, the top brass of the Colorado Rockies – owner Dick Monfort, General Manager Jeff Bridich, and manager Bud Black – spoke with media about what went down with the 2019 season.

Questions came in from the local press about many of the concerns that turned consecutive playoff campaigns into a club that barely avoided last place in the division; answers from the triumvirate illuminate numerous topics from the succession of injuries, the club’s use of analytics, a new television deal, and the as the future of the franchise.

2019 Season

At 71-91, this year’s team was by all accounts one of the most disappointing in franchise history. On the heels of back-to-back NL Wild Cards and securing the cornerstone of the franchise to a lucrative deal, keeping Nolan Arenado in Denver for the next eight years, not to mention a pitching staff that seemed to have beaten the effects of Coors Field, it appeared on paper that this would be the best team ever assembled for Colorado.

“Tough year in a lot of ways,” began Bridich. “Two separate situations or time periods in the season. April, right out of the game, within about eight days we were down a bunch of players. Team battled back from that very well and actually played some good baseball in May and June. Then come August, another implosion of injuries really sidetracked (us). But that’s just part of the story. Injuries are just part of it and they are not the excuse or the explanation for the whole season. Can’t ignore it, though.”

“With all that being said,” Bridich continued, with a nod towards the potential still remaining on the roster, “I’m quite confident that there’s much better baseball to be played by this group. It’s not necessarily going to be the same group that’ll start the 2020 season that ended the 2019 season. Rarely are those groups exactly the same.”

Finishing off the discussion on the impact that injuries had on on the disheartening win-loss record, Bridich acknowledges that any knee-jerk reactions this offseason will be exactly that: impulsive.

“It was a rough year, injury-wise. If we overreact to one year and just one small set of data, probably, shame on us. If there was a pattern of years upon years of being decimated by injuries and we’re blind to that, then shame on us,” he finished.

While veterans like D.J. LeMahieu, Carlos González, Gerardo Parra, and Adam Ottavino moved on to other clubs during the last offseason, their departures created increased playing time for youngster like Ryan McMahon, Raimel Tapia, David Dahl and a heap of relievers in the back of the bullpen.

“We knew with two or three of the guys that left from 2018-to-2019 that there was going to be some growth and development needed by certain guys. Some of that happened this year. Some opportunity was given or earned and made good on, in a lot of ways,” explained the fifth-year GM.

With an eye on 2020, Black was quite optimistic about the current group of Rockies players slated to comprise much of his roster when their season begins in San Diego next March 26.

“To next year,” Black challenged, “can the same group of guys, with the natural turnover of players that happen, be a good group? (It) absolutely can.”

Starting Pitching

After a fourth-place finish in the 2018 National League Cy Young Award for Kyle Freeland, not to mention pseudo staff ace Jon Gray and newly-extended German Márquez atop the rotation, it seemed like the Rockies were poised to have their lowest staff ERA in franchise history.

“We felt, based on the behavior and performance of the pitching staffs that we had in ’17 and ’18, that we had a good foundation for this year,” Bridich said. “A lot of the players from staffs that really helped carry us in a lot of ways in those playoff years… Some of that group struggled, some of it got injured. There was a different complexion to that group as early as May, June… I do believe there’s a solid foundation there to work off of if guys pitch and play to their abilities that they’ve shown.”

After completing the 2018 season with only six starting pitchers – excluding a solitary start by Jeff Hoffman – this year’s squad needed 11 starters, suggesting that both seasons may have been impacted by a bit of luck on both ends of the spectrum.

2019 Trade Deadline

In a somewhat unprompted moment of the Q&A, Monfort confessed that the struggles of this year’s team made it difficult to operate during the July 31 trade deadline, especially as the secondary deadline of August 31 was no longer an option for teams to collaborate.

“The last couple years at the deadline we’ve added a piece. Not a huge piece, but a piece that actually helped us during the last couple of months. This year we didn’t. We weren’t really a buyer, we weren’t really a seller. In hindsight, there may have been an opportunity to be a buyer that long-term might have helped us. Short-term, might not have done much. And that’s on me.”

It’s not clear to what extent Monfort rejected any deals or if Bridich and his staff were simply deterred from moving far along in discussions with another club. While this may have to remain a case of we’ll-never-know, it’s certainly the most intriguing piece of information to surface.

Analytics

We at DNVR inquired about the analytics department within the organization, especially as improvements in technology have greatly impacted player development as well as player evaluations across all levels of the game, from those within the organization and for those outside, like free agents and potential trade acquisitions.

“It’s a very important part of what we do now,” Bridich shared. “Four years ago, six season ago, we didn’t have an organized, in-house analytics department. Over the last five years, it’s really grown into not just, ‘Hey, let’s create the perfect equation to help us analyze.’ It’s really more about information management.

“We’ve moved quickly on things. Comparatively, we have less experience – three, four, five, six-years less of experience than other teams. And we are still learning about what to prioritize and how to do that. And really, the best ways to deliver information to our coaches and our players so they can look at it and utilize it the best way they feel like they can.”

“It’s an embedded part of who we are now, in a lot of different ways…. It’s bleeding down into our system and becoming more ubiquitous as the technology is everywhere now. It’s at the minor league levels at the college levels. It’s in the Dominican (Republic). In our complex is Trackman.”

An increase of resources devoted to bettering their analytics department is one way Colorado could seek to improve, especially considering budgetary restrictions.

TV Deal

Arguably the most significant piece of news from the media gathering dealt with a new agreement between the Rockies and AT&T Sportsnet as announced by Monfort.

“It’s not as lucrative as I wanted it to be, but it is more money. I’ve always said, ‘Everything passes through.’ The revenue is passed right through to the payroll and I think that we’ve proven that over time. It doesn’t start until 2021, so there’s no additional money next year. So, I don’t think there’s going to be any huge splashes; we’ve spent everything we’ve had for 2020. It’s going to help the franchise and help the franchise keep players… We’ll spend the money.”

“It never got to the bidding process,” he explained when pressed about certain details of the contract. “We actually reached out to them about three-four years ago to see if we could start talking about an extension. The time really came to this year. We wanted to stay with AT&T Direct. We like the people. They do as good as a job as anyone in the game. We get distribution. It was a good deal.”

When the Los Angeles Dodgers created their own regional sports network, they did so for a whopping $8.35B, or roughly $300MM per season. Since Denver does not benefit from the same type of market, such a deal would not have been available to them under any circumstances.

It should also be a noted that since that influx of revenue from the TV rights, only a fraction of Dodgers games can be viewed in Southern California due to blackouts relating to a standoff between Time Warner Cable (owner of their marketing rights) and various satellite and cable providers.

Rockies fans in the Front Range and Rocky Mountain Region should be happy to know they’ll be able to enjoy their favorite baseball team in the comfort of their home for several years to come.

If you ask fans of the Nuggets and Avalanche, this sure seems like a mutually beneficial arrangement, even if some money was left on the table.

The Future

“I believe in Jeff. I believe in Buddy,” Monfort said in a vote of confidence to the two most important handlers of his club. “Some of these things just happen… I think you have to be patient, especially when you’re a team that depends on drafting (and) developing your own players. I think you really have to be patient. And you can’t just overreact to a tough situation. I guess it’s tough to be patient but you pretty much have to be patient.”

An overreaction like trading away certain prized pieces – Márquez, Gray and Oberg have all been inquired about by other teams – for a better chance at contention in 2021 or even one that means pushing the payroll past its limitations could result in the current window of contention to slam shut until the next one materializes.

Bridich seconded the idea of patience with 40-man roster, saying, “If we don’t have some sort of patience and belief in these guys as the backbone of who we are, we don’t have any players on the roster. Each one of these guys goes through time periods where you’re like, ‘Is this it?’

“I think a lot of times the easy thing is just to say, ‘Let’s move on… let’s get new faces in here, let’s completely change everything.’ That’s not realistic for us. That’s not who we are. Sometimes that patience actually pays off for us.”

In the cases of Ryan McMahon, Carlos Estévez and Jairo Díaz, or even a player with some injury history like David Dahl, all could have been jettisoned with an impatient approach to player development.

Farm System

Discussing the need for better development at the majors for some of the younger players, while also praising those like Sam Hilliard for making the jump with such aplomb, Bridich and even Monfort noted that not all prospect rankings regard Colorado with much importance.

Considering the entire industry missed on Trevor Story and Hilliard’s exclusion from any top 100 list during his five years in the minors, it’s hard to argue that what others don’t see in purple prospects don’t actually equate to what can happen when they arrive in Denver. Heck, Charlie Blackmon was never a top prospect.

“We try not to get too wrapped up in (prospect) rankings or where we sit. (We) focus very much on the individual players in our system and are they getting better, where are we headed in terms of development and do they fit with us moving forward,” Bridich said.

“Rebuild”

In private conversations between certain members of the press and Nolan Arenado, the star third baseman used the word “rebuild” to describe some of his thoughts on the 2019 season.

“My version of a rebuild doesn’t necessarily include what has gone on here in the last four or five years,” Bridich responded. “If we were truly in a rebuild, Nolan Arenado probably wouldn’t be around here to make comments like that.”

Retorted Monfort, “I would only add that I haven’t seen many rebuilds that start with signing the face of your franchise, your best player, to a $260MM contract.”