is that the Rockies are one of the two or three franchises that have a pretty good idea what a 10 year contract to a franchise player means, because they’ve done it with Helton. So where as Passan sees a team that didn’t learn from a mistake, I’m seeing a team that probably ended up getting their money’s worth and then some the first time around, despite the handcuff it meant on the rest of the budget, and therefore are willing to do it again. This contract will likely pay for itself.

DOD may be one of the best GM’s around. And I think the fact that he was kept on board despite the years of struggle may have helped tremendously. There has to be a huge learning curve for a position such as general manager, and if you think about it, you’re only allowed to show what you’ve learned on a year by year basis. For instance if someone worked in marketing and worked on 4 three-month long projects in a year, those each represent 4 opportunities to display what you’ve learned and to make adjustments and improvements. For a GM, each project in a way, is a season – meaning it takes a long time to learn, and a longer time to adjust and improve.

Given the recent string of shrewd contracts, awesome trades, and high-quality (at least on the surface) drafts, we really seem to be evolving quite rapidly, and awesomely…