I haven't weighed in yet on Tuesday's "shake-up" of the coaching staff. The bottom line for me is that I don't know what more we could have expected. Had the team decided to fire Apodaca, it would have been a clear signal to Clint Hurdle to watch his back, but I'm pretty sure Clint has to be aware that his situation is shaky heading into 2009 anyway. Also, I think a message firing of Doc may have made Hurdle a little too conservative heading into next season and I believe the team needs him to take risks with a couple of young players (namely trusting Ian Stewart and Jorge de la Rosa). The pitching of this team was only on a par with the hitting woes brought on by declines of Tulo, Helton, Atkins and a couple of others. Were those hitting woes the result of bad coaching though? I don't think that answer is clear, I'm leaning to no, but what was clear was that the fanbase needed to see some action if the team didn't want an exodus of season ticket holders.
According to Baseball Reference, the Rockies park adjusted ERA+ and our OPS+ were each at 97, meaning just below average for the league. Last season, both were well over average. I think the only reason Apodaca got the pass for now was cronyism, but he and Hurdle will have to be on an extremely short leash in 2009 with the level of fan discontent once again making a significant threat to team revenues. So Alan Cockrell, Mike Gallego and Jamie Quirk are the latest to take the fall for failures that may be systemic, sort of the like the American economy, however, I don't know if the Rockies can keep up the guise of coaching solvency for long without real fixes.