"You can talk all you want about intangibles, I just don't know what that means." Sandy Koufax

Three quotes from today’s Post article by Renck;

Tulo - ” We all know we need our main focus to be on baseball. On our World Series team, that was the case - and last year it wasn't."

Tracy - "The biggest threat is that we get in our own way, we start taking the intangibles for granted. We have to get back to showing up that day to win the game and not caring how or who does it."

DOD - "They can't have their own little cliques, and they have to get outside of their own little boxes. They need to understand that the foundation and framework needs to be put in place this season. We have to do that or we will never accomplish what we want to accomplish. And you know what? I have been a failed leader in many ways because of that. As strange as this sounds, because we live in an industry based on wins and losses, the more you focus on wins and losses, the less you get. ... I don't care if it sounds corny or not, we are going to do this."

The funny thing is that sportswriters will tell you in great detail about a player’s statistical failings. Has anyone not covered Dexter Fowler’s inability to turn his speed into steals? Yet they rarely call out a player directly on attitude, effort, dedication or any of the other intangibles that killed the Rockies last season. Talking intangibles after the jump.

Reading the usual sources I get that Ian Stewart did not live up to his athletic potential. Some injury issues may have had an impact and there were questions about how the Rockies brought him back and when. So he is gone to Chicago. Was it a mercy trade to give him a change to start with a clean slate and a clear head? Or was the issue greater?

I fully understand that no one on the team wants to throw an ex-teammate under the bus. So as a fan all we get are nebulous talk of ‘intangibles’ and ‘little cliques’. I want to harness the full power of the internet (without character assassination, if possible) to talk about why the Rockies were a soap opera instead of a team in 2011.

Not just the guys who are gone. For instance, to say Tulo is a little wound up and needs to find a more even keeled approach doesn’t mean he is a bad guy. The human condition is that everyone can work on getting better at something. The Rockies phrase for this is that they are a young core growing together.

But last year sucked. Management shot the intangibles. The Rockies shipped out roughly 53% of their 2011 starts, 31% of their innings pitched and 45% of position player innings.

Jimenez, Cook, Romero, Millwood, Ellis, Kouzmanoff, Iannetta, Wigginton, Garner, Spilborghs, Weathers, Stewart, Street, Mortensen, Smith, Reynolds, Hammel and Lindstrom (almost half a 40 man roster) are gone. Whose departure will help the intangibles the most and why? Among the returning players who needs to mature?

By the way, the gist of the full Koufax quote is that intangibles don't win games, talent does.