Jim Tracy is night-and-day from Clint Hurdle. Not saying he's a great manager or even average. However, he's clearly the best manager the ROCKIES have ever had (which is a low "hurdle", no pun intended). Last night's game was won totally because of Tracy. He did things that Hurdle would never think of.  Some examples follow....

1. Behind 4-3 in the 6th inning with runners on 1st and 2nd, he left Jimenez in the game to hit for himself. Hurdle would have pinch-hit him. Instead of having Ubaldo try to bunt the runners to 2nd and 3rd, as the bunt-happy Hurdle would have done, Tracy faked a bunt and had Jimenez instead try a slug-bunt, which was perfectly executed and hit past the drawn in 1st baseman into right field for a game-tying single.

2. Then, with runners on 1st and 3rd, Tracy had Dexter Fowler lay down a suicide squeeze bunt. Now, Clint bunted with frequency unseen in MLB in this era (led MLB in bunt attempts or was #2 every season he was here), but he almost never tried a squeeze play for some reason. Tracy did it and succeeded, with Ian Stewart scoring from 3rd base in a close play. His slide into homeplate would have made Larry Walker proud.

3. With a 6-4 lead heading into the 9th inning and only Manny Corpas available to close (Street had saves the last four consecutive days and was unavailable), Tracy leaves Jimenez in the game to try for the CG. That's right. He hadn't even taken Ubaldo out after 7 innings even though he was at 104 pitches through 7! Think Clint would ever have thought of that? Jimenez gets the 1st out on a line drive to Hawpe. The second batter walks on a 3-2 pitch that was almost thrown to the backstop (high and away). Here comes Tracy to the mound with Corpas still warming up in the 'pen. Everyone assumed that he had called on Manny at that point. Instead, Tracy asks Ubaldo to be honest with him and tell him if he has gas left in the tank! He told his manager "yes", and Tracy believes him and leaves him in. Jimenez gets the final two outs of the inning and gets the CG win. HUGE confidence boost for Jimenez and the team thanks to Tracy's belief in his player. Yes, he threw 127 pitches (a career high for Ubaldo), but he has an extra day off before his next start and should be fine.

Clint would have never had the desire to do that, and I never saw him do that (as a matter of fact) in 7 years of managing here with any starting pitcher.

I should point out one other thing. The REASON we had Huston Street able to come into 4 straight games for the 4 saves was because Tracy didn't waste him for an appearance in last Sunday's game, a blowout victory in St. Louis. You see, Street hadn't pitched since the prior Tuesday, and Hurdle had a policy that relievers get into games "to get work" and "stay sharp" if they haven't pitched in over 3 days. Tracy obviously doesn't believe in that silly rule, and so he used Corpas in the 9th inning of last Sunday's victory instead of wasting Street when he might be needed the next day for a save. In fact, this wise decision allowed Tracy to use Street the next four days!

Yeah, it's a small sample at only 15 games, and I know reports on Tracy were mediocre at best from what I read when he was picked to replace Hurdle. But, there's no doubt in my mind that I like him better than Clint, Buddy Bell, Leyland, or Baylor as an in-game manager from the bench. He's pushing all the right buttons now, is 11-4, and has won 9 in a row. After that horrendous start, the Rox are 29-32 and only 3 1/2 out in the wild-card standings. The Rox this season have gone from almost unwatchable under Hurdle to entertaining in the span of 2 weeks! 

The confidence level of the players indivdually, and the team collectively, has skyrocketed.  WInning baseball IS confidence (as Yogi said, the game is "90% half-mental"), and a manager's #1 job is to instil confidence in his players and get them to produce.  Tracy has done that in short order.   Amazing.