Saturday Rockpile: Rockies' underclassmen ready to step up for seasons to come - thanks to Dan O'Dowd

That headline is totally in honor of the start of the college football season, but it certainly applies to the Rockies for the next few years, so I'm not backing off of it.

Chat: Chat with Keith Law - SportsNation - ESPN

Flexo (The PHX): How screwed are the Rockies? Tracy's a strategy/game management imbecile (and apparently not magic! Who knew?). O'Dowd has now failed to trade 3 players (Baker, Atkins, Hawpe) when their value was high, preferring to allow them to decline to the point where they had zero value. But don't worry...they both got big extensions!

Keith Law: Tracy really killed them over the last two games, between the absurd loyalty to Olivo and lots of bad in-game management (the CS in Tuesday's game comes to mind).

Really, Flexo? Jeff Baker? Also, I won't discuss the Jim Tracy portion of this, but I don't see why people don't consider all of the good things that Dan O'Dowd has done - especially over the past decade. Instead, it's "FUUUUUUHHHHH O'CLOWN CHEAPFARTS DURRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR." Look, regardless of what happens in 2010, this team still has a core in place (Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez, Ubaldo Jimenez, Jhoulys Chacin, etc.) that will almost single-handedly keep it in playoff contention through 2014. Add a couple of pieces here and there, which overall, O'Dowd has done a nice job of doing, and you're looking at a World Series contender. Can O'Dowd do a better job of identifying when to sell high on a player? Sure, but I also don't think you can argue a whole lot against his approach thus far because, barring a complete collapse, the team is about to complete its third winning season in four years - a track record of success this franchise has never seen before. So, give the front office a break, stop trying to play GM, and sit back and enjoy the ride you're about to experience for another 3-4 years.

In addition, I'm not a big Olivo guy, and his awful second half has been a trend throughout his career, but I find myself disagreeing just a tad with Law...

Miguel Olivo Is Happy August Is Over | FanGraphs Baseball
...about Olivo's playing time. Sure, he's been bad lately, but after reading this, I realize that his body of work has been above-average. Iannetta is the better option going forward, but it's not like it should be considered a crime for Olivo to get starts (although walking ONCE in August - and the fact that it was intentional - may be a crime). Man, I keep going back and forth on this issue...stupid catcher wars.

Sinking feeling has Padres fans unnerved - SignOnSanDiego.com
The sky is falling in San Diego. Let's hope the Rockies get out of there (with a sweep, preferably, but two of three would suffice) before it completely comes down.