A couple of stories from Troy Renck at the Denver Post today: First, Bob McClure joins Fred Kendall as Rockies organizational coaches moving onto better opportunities elsewhere. McClure joins Buddy Bell in KC as a pitching coach. Given the results of each at their respective levels, obviously I along with many others wonder if the Rockies made a mistake sticking with Hurdle's man Apodaca instead of promoting McClure earlier. Of course Apodaca's results ar emore measurable empirically as there's a wealth of statistical evaluation available at the Major League level that you just don't find in the minors, to show some 2005 examples from Baseball Prospectus:
Shawn Chacon's VORP w/Apodaca: 12.2
Shawn Chacon's VORP post-Apodaca: 25.1
Joe Kennedy's VORP w/ Apodaca: -23.7
Joe Kennedy's VORP post-Apodaca: 6.2
Jay Witasick's VORP w/Apodaca: 10.8
Jay Witasick's VORP post-Apodaca: 2.8
Each of these three had roughly the same amount of games in Colorado and then elsewhere, and overall the picture they paint is kind of bleak as VORP is supposedly adjusted for park effects. Would McClure be much better? I don't know, but I can't imagine him being much worse.
In the same article, Mike DeJean appears close to resigning, and as the Witasick numbers above indicate, Apodaca does seem to be able to get something out of the pen -although that might be more a result of pitchers' work with Rick Matthews- and DeJean was a steady performer for us there this past year. It's a much better move than taking a flyer on Jamie Cerda, and it should be a benefit come 2006.
Finally, as noted in the title, Dustan Mohr spoke out and said that he didn't choose free agency when the club declined his option, yet at the same time confesses:
I'm sorry, call me old fashioned, but if I don't perform according to the expectations of my job and salary, I wouldn't expect to keep the same compensation, particularly if my employer has an option to turn me away. At any rate, "Those things could have been fixed," is not something I would volunteer in an exit interview.