I gotta toot my own horn here a little

I was going through some old emails today and came across one I wrote to Mark Kizla on July 13, 2007.  Why I am wasting time writing to Kizla in the first place is a very good question, but a question for my therapy sessions and not this blog.  I think I was responding to a piece he wrote about the Rockies ownership not stepping up to the plate as the trade deadline approached.  

Anyway, it struck me first of all how prophetic my statements were, and also how wrong Kizla ended up being.  Anyway, I thought I would share.

My email and Kizla's response after the jump.

Mark,

Just so you know, calling Jason Jennings rock steady strains your credibility with knowledgeable baseball fans.  He of the 59-60 lifetime record, 4.7 lifetime ERA, 1.54 lifetime WHIP.  Not exactly steady in my book.

If you were actually a close observer of the Rockies you would know that O'Dowd isn't the problem, and has actually done a good job to build the team we have now given his constraints.  To wit: the development and maintenance of budding stars like Francis, Holliday, Hawpe, Tulowitzki and Atkins.  The addition of complementary pieces such as Lopez, Affeldt, Matsui, Carroll, Torrealba and Julio from nothing but MLB refuse.  The restraint in not reaching for budget-busting flops like Schmidt, Pierre, Matthews Jr, and Dave Roberts.  The coup that was the Jennings trade, acknowledged as a huge win for the Rockies by most baseball people.

And the last thing that true Rockies fans would want O'Dowd to do would be to mortgage the future in order to save his job by trading prospects for the mediocre talent that is available by trade right now.  I for one am glad he got the extension.  (Hurdle is another matter entirely).

Anyone who has watched the Rockies closely this year knows that they are starting to show incredible progress that we haven't seen in the last 5 years, but are simply inconsistent as can be expected of a young team.

Oh, and Oakland also gave up on Eric Byrnes in 2005 as well so Billy Beane must be a moron as well, right?

Your next article should be about all the season-saving stars that are available via trade right now and how they would make the team better.
Let's see some analysis and research to back up all that rhetoric.

Thanks for the article.
--------------------

And Kizla's response:

Thanks for writing.
The No. 1 thing true Rockies fans want is a playoff team more than once every dozen years.
I've heard excuses from O'Dowd for eight years.
And I've written many times he is not this franchise's worst problem. Holliday is a star, Tulo looks to be a budding one. But Francis, Hawpe and Atkins are in their primes, and certainly aren't stars by any reasonable definition. More like rock-steady.
If you've bought this is a great young team propoganda, maybe your future detailed baseball analysis might start with reading birth dates.
Peace,
Mark Kiszla