Friday Rockpile: Dye to Me

Ever in need for a new veteran presence in the clubhouse who would most likely contribute better to an AL team, the Rockies have put out feelers towards 2010 absentee Jermaine Dye, according to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal, along with at least the Rays and Phillies.

I react to this suggestion with amusement, because I made a regular habit last offseason of joking around that we had signed Jermaine Dye. Of course, then we re-signed Jason Giambi, and there went the humor in that.

I don't make a point of piling obsessive ridicule on "positional impersonators" (read: first baseman in name only) like Giambi and Dye just for the sake of doing so. While I did find it hard to give Giambi a lot of credit for contributing anything more than a nice rest for Helton in 2010 (which he eventually ended up giving himself anyway), it could have been worse. These types of players inspire enraged fanbases when they do something sloppy, particularly in the realm of defense in an ever important defensive stronghold like Coors Field, but in general, I have nothing against them for wanting to play baseball outside of four ABs a game for an AL team.

That said, though I am not inherently a devotee to what could be called "standard" 25 man roster construction theory, I do acknowledge the plethora of versatility strangleholds that comes with having someone like Jason Giambi on your NL team. Was he a complete waste? No, but that roster spot could have been accommodating somebody else that gave more. I don't mean more clubhouse presence, or more offensive pop, or even more defensive versatility, but rather that pigeon-holing your roster into a position where one guy does one job well, and the others acceptable to flat terrible does not help your team win.

Off Topic

Now before anyone gets mad at me for "overreacting" about this "news" (goodness, I love my quotes today don't I?), we should ALL do well to remember that the only reason this even qualifies for this much analysis is because news of anything else in the baseball world is sparse. It's like a plain rock on a dusty, empty landscape. When the conditions are like this, any activity will stand out. The Ken Rosenthal types of the media sphere struggle as much as the rest of us to find tangible news for their readers to digest.

So, to put it another way: are we going to sign Jermaine Dye? Yeah, I'm going to go with no. Indeed, I wouldn't be surprised if we never hear his name linked to us again after this. Dye is a right handed 1B/OF, which is exactly what we need, and without making a direct accusation towards anyone, this could very easily be the only reason we're being linked to him right now. Nothing against Mr. Dye, who has shown himself to be a mighty fine baseball player for several years, I don't believe he is what the team needs when they say they need a right handed 1B/OF. And before Orlando Hudson gets on my case, I'll move on to other topics (wouldn't it be an oddity if we signed Hudson and Dye this offseason?)

In other news, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez were awarded their second major national league awards this week in the form of Silver sluggers. Some local media details from Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post, Steve Foster of Inside the Rockies and Thomas Harding of MLB.com. It's funny how awards mean nothing until they go to your guys. While I offer all the congratulations in the world to them, I rather wish we'd do away with all of these meaningless awards in general. It does nothing more for me, the same way the Academy Awards do nothing for me when it comes to my real passion, the cinematic world. Titles like "Gold Glove Winner" or "Academy Award Winner" or some such seem like leftovers from the days when these people needed buzzwords for something like a job application, something Tulowitzki and Gonzalez will never have to do again outside of the baseball world. I don't mean for this Rockpile to be one streamline of Wolf cynicism (which, naturally, is exactly what it has become, great writing here), but we can love the offensive and defensive contributions of our phenom shortstop and outfielder without giving them a pretty trophy and a new professional title.

To end on a more happy note, at least for me, take a peek at this Eric Young Jr. tweet. He kindly asks any of us who miss the purple uniforms to tweet our desire to see them return to the RealRockies twitter. Now I have no idea what influence, if any, the guy they pay to man that post has on making that happen, but as most of you know, I REALLY miss those uniforms. I tend to enjoy diversity when it comes to the visual aesthetic of baseball uniforms. I loved the purple Rockies jerseys, I love the camo Padres uniforms, and I even enjoy the bright orange Giants uniforms, even if it does make them look like sunburned muppets. Even if it means nothing and we'll be going another year or eighty without the purple tops, it's nice to see a player interested in bringing them back too.

For additional reading, in case you missed it yesterday, here is some commentary from Andrew Martin upon the news that the White Sox may be seeking to offload Gordon Beckham. Would he have a future here?