Should O'Dowd be fired?

by DesertTurtle on Sep 27, 2011 5:48 PM MDT

Just curious, but how can anyone honestly say that O'Dowd shouldn't be fired? I agree that Tracy probably needs to go, but he was dealing with the team that O'Dowd put together.

Signing Tulo and Cargo in the long-term is great. However, what did O'Dowd do to help the Rockies win in 2011? We brought in a bunch of scrubs in FA and made a couple trades for pitchers that weren't anything special. The only deal that looks good is getting Matt Lindstrom.

Ty Wigginton basically replaced Melvin Mora, and Mora was much more productive in 2010 than Wigginton was this year. They basically replaced Olivo with Iannetta... I know Olivo dropped off in the second half, but the dude was hitting over .300 for much of the season.

No significant off-season acquisitions were made. If anything, the roster was weakened because of what I said above, and that too much faith was placed on Stewart, Fowler, and Smith.

Furthermore, trading Jimenez (while it looks to be a good move) to "reload the farm system" is an admittance of failure to develop talent. That falls right onto the GM and the scouts being to evaluate talent... He's essentially failed. That alone should be grounds for firing. Not to mention that he's been on the job for what, ten years?

On the flipside, I suppose the O'Dowd apologists would note that the Monforts really don't care all that much about winning when they draw 3 million fans a year... But that's another issue altogether.

Thoughts?

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Thoughts?

So let me get this straight. We start off a post by saying he locked up two all-star caliber players to great contracts, and then we decide write off DOD by saying:

Ty Wigginton basically replaced Melvin Mora, and Mora was much more productive in 2010 than Wigginton was this year.

Yea, but a backup infielder is exactly that and not really a major move – and certainly not one to suggest firing someone. Also, how on earth can you say we acquired Wigginton, but let go of a guy who was much more productive a season earlier, when Wigginton was much more productive than Mora this past season… by a lot. Looks like that was a good way to offer modest improvements for 2011.

They basically replaced Olivo with Iannetta

So….he let a catcher go to replace him with one that was 3-4 times more valuable this season? I guess we could fire him for that…

No significant off-season acquisitions were made. If anything, the roster was weakened because of what I said above, and that too much faith was placed on Stewart, Fowler, and Smith.

So our roster was weakened because we switched to a backup infielder who had a much more productive season than the suggested alternative, we let go of a catcher to replace him with a much more productive alternative, and we relied on 3 youngish players, one of whom (Smith) had a pretty good season but who should have stayed in left field (which was Tracy’s fault), another of whom has had one of the better second halves in all of baseball and who gets on base at a rate that is excellent for a #1 or #2 hitter, and Stewart who had the type of poor season that no one could have foreseen? Not sure I understand where the whole ‘weakened roster’ thing is coming from…

Furthermore, trading Jimenez (while it looks to be a good move) to “reload the farm system” is an admittance of failure to develop talent.

No, no it’s not. …………………………………………………………………Still nope.

How is trading a pitcher (that we developed!) when his value is at its highest admiiting failure to develop talent?

Essentially, I read this post as: We didn’t make a huge FA splash before the 2011 season, two key pieces of the rotation suffered massive injuries, and I’m pissed at Stewart’s season (despite him making modest improvements the season before and looking like a lock to at least hit around 20 home runs and play above average defense), and therefore I need to find a scapegoat and am willing to use flawed hindsight bias to justify this conclusion.

I’m not opposed to finding a new GM (though I think doing so would be premature), but really, posts like these are the exact reasons why people feel the need to defend DOD. It’s not because DOD is THAT FRIGGIN’ GREAT, it’s just that this stuff is really weak, is a knee-jerk reaction to a shit season, offers no clear rationale on how to actually improve the team, and really obscures a lot of the issues around our poor season….

"These are thin mints. I put them in the freezer. My favorites. So good."
--Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, on the girl scout cookies he keeps in his locker

by Resolution on Sep 27, 2011 7:40 PM MDT reply actions 8 recs

I won't lie, man, this sounds like a lot of hindsight

It’s totally fair to criticize after a season like we’ve just witnessed, but were you expecting a 70-92 season on April 4?

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by Andrew Martin on Sep 27, 2011 8:03 PM MDT reply actions

No, but they couldn’t make it to the playoffs even with career years from Tulo, Cargo, and Ubaldo. Why did we even think they’d make it to the playoffs without a major roster addition?

by DesertTurtle on Sep 27, 2011 8:31 PM MDT up reply actions

sorry, if my post above came off as harsh (which it undoubtedly did)

but think about it:

We expected a 2-3 win season out of Stewart, we were going to have JDLR for a full season, and we hoped for some improvement out of Chacin. That coupled with anything out of the 2b spot would have provided maybe 9 wins of difference – and that’s all in house moves. Not counting the extra win or two we would have gotten out of Ubaldo this season were he still here, plus expecting Hammel to do what he did the past two seasons (2.5 wins better), a little more than what we got out of Cook, now we’re looking at lets say 4 more wins, that’s 13 wins. Also, we didn’t anticipate losing every friggin’ Sunday. Looking at this, we felt like we were about an 87 win team – and if we could beat up on the division enough,we’d be golden.

The only thing mentioned above that you could convince me of being a mistake was expecting that 2-3 win season out of Stewart, which honestly, I only agree with now after this horrible season.

Not to mention we didn’t expect the DBacks to surge so we didn’t think we’d need to be a 95 win team to have a shot.

This is the type of season that’s 1. worse than bad, and 2. can’t really be pegged on any one person.

I think the takeaway from this is that we have a great core and a lot of talent, but at some point we’ll need to do a bit extra to make this a juggernaut of a team and not just a team that aims to win the division via the mediocrity of the opposition.

2012 doesn’t look like it’s going to be that year (unless the DBacks experience their own unluckyterriblenogood season, and the Giants don’t do something like acquire Fielder). But 2013, with everyone healed (assuming no additional injuries – no small assumption), clarity and hopeful improvement around Pomeranz, White, and Rosario, we should be in a better position…

"These are thin mints. I put them in the freezer. My favorites. So good."
--Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, on the girl scout cookies he keeps in his locker

by Resolution on Sep 27, 2011 9:16 PM MDT up reply actions

Wholeheartedly agree!

by Real Perspective on Oct 3, 2011 7:46 PM MDT up reply actions

Not to be too harsh

But this post reminds me of my answers in calc 2. You may have come to a correct answer, but your work to prove than answer is just gibberish.

Iannetta is better than Olivo, putting faith in Fowler and Smith was a good move, The farm system is actually pretty god damn good. And the Jimenez trade was not motivated entirely by the need to replenish the farm system.

by mkorpal on Sep 27, 2011 9:30 PM MDT reply actions

All good points about what we cannot blame on O'D but...

Not entirely crazy about his drafts. Right now we’re experiencing the black holes that were 2006 and ‘07 and it’s easy enough to write these off as spillt milk and we might as well. However, it seems that even in Dan/s last three drafts, other teams have taken more risks in rounds 2 through five. We’ve just come off a loaded 2011 draft and while I’m OK with Anderson and like Story, it seems Dan left a lot of talent sitting there when he grabbed Carl Thomore and then Peter O’Brien. Meh… Maybe we just need to beef up our scouting? I don’t know, just not entirely comfortable with O’Dowd getting another high pick again (guess I’m not really over 2006-7, am I?)

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by Since1993 on Sep 28, 2011 12:41 AM MDT reply actions

I disagree on O'Brien...

That was a good pick. Had the Rockies been able to sign him, they would have received terrific value relative to the spot in which they chose him.

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by Bryan Kilpatrick on Sep 29, 2011 9:51 AM MDT up reply actions

unfortunately, not only did the Rockies know that

so did O’Brien. boooooooooooooo

"These are thin mints. I put them in the freezer. My favorites. So good."
--Reds outfielder Adam Dunn, on the girl scout cookies he keeps in his locker

by Resolution on Sep 29, 2011 12:47 PM MDT up reply actions

Farm System is NOT pretty good

At least prior to the Ubaldo trade which is a direct reflection of O’Dowds drafting. When your top prospect is a catcher that hit .250 in the hitter freindly TX League…you have issues.

When your top prospect doesnt even crack the top 40 prospects in minors…you have issues. That means EVERY other club, likely has one or even two prospects in that top 40.

Now going in to 2012 Nolan Arendado will likely be the gem of the system. He should (after his stellar AZ Fall League season) be in the top 15-20 prospects in baseball.

by Da1Truth on Oct 28, 2011 7:41 AM MDT reply actions