Sunday Rockpile: Rockies might stop interviews at Giambi? Can this team ever stop shooting itself in the feet?

Troy Renck writes more about Jason Giambi's status as a managerial candidate (it's in good shape,) but gives an ominous thought that the Rockies might not extend their search to the outside at this point, which might save money and time for the organization, but would be another public relations miscue for an organization that seems to have too many to begin with. As I wrote Thursday, I can buy Giambi being the ideal candidate for this Rockies front office as long as they've satisfied themselves that he's solid on those aspects of the job I can't know about, but there's enough fan frustration and cynicism toward the front office at this point to make any crony hire without even an effort to look beyond the Coors Field gates a big issue. It would further erode fan trust in the product, which will impact the bottom line, impairing the team's ability to compete in a division that's already tough to begin with.

That said, there also seems to be some sort of mythical managerial candidate out there among certain fans that will instantly transform everything that's wrong with a nearly 100 loss team by the virtues of his magical box of elixirs he'll bring from the Fountain of Good Baseball he discovered in the swamps outside Tampa Bay. Or maybe his time spent in the mountains of Albuquerque has imbued him with mystical altitude curing powers. It's a grass is always greener idea, and while in the macro sense, the grass was very much greener outside Coors Field in 2012, at the individual level, we should be careful to not ascribe too much to these swamis.

Still, Rockies, seriously interview others, please. Come back to Giambi then if you still want, but you'll do yourselves a favor by looking a bit to the outside.

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Jhoulys Chacin will start getting some winter ball action today in the Venzuelan League's most storied rivalry as his Caracas Leones take on the Navigators from Magallanes.

In other off season league action, the Jim Gintonio at the Rockies official site talks with Kent Matthes about his disappointing year statistically at Tulsa and how the slugger hopes to put things back together in the AFL. The D-backs' Matt Williams, who's Matthes' manager at the moment, praises his arm and his pull power.

Williams' Diamondbacks pulled off a three team trade yesterday with the A's and Marlins, acquiring Heath Bell and Cliff Pennington while giving up centerfielder Chris Young. Young had become expendable with the emergence of Adam Eaton and to a lesser extent A.J. Pollock this past season in AZ. At the moment, this makes Pennington the frontrunner for the Diamondbacks' shortstop vacancy and what had been Young's salary instead gets shifted to the bullpen with the acquisition of Bell. The move distributes Arizona's talent a little more evenly, which makes it a positive for them, and therefore a negative for the Rockies and the rest of the division.

Renck sees rumored Rockies managerial candidate of interest Sandy Alomar Jr. as the favorite to land the Blue Jays vacancy now that the Red Sox are getting John Farrell.