Walt Weiss: Expect changes if Rockies don't turn things around in 2015

The Colorado Rockies have reached a crossroads, a fact evident to just about every single one of the team's fans (although most might have said that crossroads came a couple of years ago). The old front office regime never seemed to have a sense of urgency regarding the team's situation, but it appears not to be lost on manager Walt Weiss.

"We are at a point where we've got to turn it around," Weiss recently told Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post. "The reality of it is, if it doesn't happen this year, yeah, you're probably looking at going a different way at that point."

Weiss will be more involved with the day-to-day decision-making process and now has a larger input on roster construction, but that increased participation has yet to result in anything too fruitful for the Rockies this offseason. Other than shipping Josh Rutledge for a potential power bullpen arm, which is a good move by the way, Colorado hasn't taken advantage of opportunities to improve its big league club. It seems another one of those opportunities -- a chance at swapping Justin Morneau for a quality starting pitcher -- has gone by the wayside with the Marlins reportedly closing in on signing Michael Morse.

Even the lower tiers of free-agent hurlers are beginning to fly off the market, making it imperative for the Rockies to make improvements via trade. Hopefully Weiss and new Colorado general manager Jeff Bridich have a plan, and that their bond soon begins to produce results. Otherwise, those changes to which Weiss alluded will certainly be on the way.

Maybe that's a good thing. So, what the hell ... stand pat, Rockies!

Links

Source: Dodgers land lefty Anderson with $10 million deal | dodgers.com
Brett Anderson is on his way to Los Angeles, and that potentially spells bad news for the rest of the National League West, not that the non-Dodgers part of the division wasn't already in trouble anyway. A healthy Anderson is a near lock to be very good, so the Rockies and the rest of their division rivals need to hope history repeats itself. As far as Colorado itself is concerned, maybe picking up that $12 million option might not have been such a bad thing after all.

Ten cool statistics from the 2014 season - SweetSpot Blog - ESPN
Nolan Arenado hit only two home runs on the road compared to 16 at home, but that's none of my business. In all seriousness, I'm not concerned with Arenado's home/road splits. Those can take a few years to normalize, as we've seen with Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, among others. Arenado's contact skills are good enough for him to have success no matter where he plays.

Baseball Prospectus | Pitching Backward: Curveballs and Changes
Drew Pomeranz boasts one of the best curveballs in the league. The thing is, we didn't know it until last year, when his hard curve finally started generating the movement he expected it to. Weird how that happened with a move from Coors Field to O.co Coliseum (yes, I know there have been studies saying fastballs are affected more, but players themselves still believe their breaking pitches aren't usable in Denver, and what they think is probably more important than what is actually right).

OOTP 15: An Alternative History of the 2014 Rockies | Rockies Zingers Colorado Rockies Baseball
The Rockies had the benefit of great health and long-awaited true breakout seasons from Rex Brothers and Juan Nicasio in the OOTP '15 version of their 2014 season and rode that fortune all the way to the NLCS, as chronicled by Adam Peterson. If the real Rockies got full seasons from Troy Tulowitzki, good Jhoulys Chacin, good Wilin Rosario, Nolan Areando, etc., maybe they'd be contenders like they were in the simulation.