Final Four For Rockies Manager Job

The Colorado Rockies have narrowed their search for a new manager down to four finalists. The position became available when Jim Tracy resigned on October 7, 2012. Tracy took over the job in 2009, leading the Rockies to the playoffs and winning NL Manager of the Year. Tracy, perhaps tactically impaired, followed up his Rockie debut with a wild card collapse in 2010 losing 13 of his final 14, a 73-89 2011 record, an oddly timed lifetime-ish contract extension and then a franchise worst 64-98 record in 2012. I'm sure Tracy was disappointed to hear about his resignation.

With the Tracy era in the rear view, the Rockies are set to choose their next skipper. Here's a brief look at the candidates.

Tom Runnells, Rockies bench coach

Experience: manager of the Montreal Expos for part of 1991 and 1992, various minor league managing

Why I'd hire him: For spring training 1992, Runnells showed up dressed in marine fatigues so he's clearly a bit of a crazy person. He has professional experience and eight major league career hits.

Why I'd pass on him: He has the lingering stench of Tracy on him. His wife is the lead news anchor for the CBS affiliate in Toldeo, Ohio. CBS airs Two and a Half Men.

Matt Williams, Diamondbacks third base coach

Experience: manager of the Salt River Rafters of the AFL, first and third base coach

Why I'd hire him: He is a five time All Star and World Series champion with a connection for large quantities of HGH. Williams is a hard worker and is actively paying his dues to be a major league manager. He's listed on a famous document with some of baseball's best players.

Why I'd pass on him: He is a partial owner of the division rival Diamondbacks. He's listed on a famous document with some of baseball's best players.

Jason Giambi, free agent

Experience: N/A

Why I'd hire him: He has 429 career home runs, 47.6 rWAR, five All Star appearances and an MVP. His brother is Jeremy Giambi. He's listed on a famous document with some of baseball's best players. He actually had 113 plate appearances for the Rockies in 2012 so he knows where everything is already.

Why I'd pass on him: After years of playing simulation games, I have way more experience managing than Giambi. He'd face awkward moments with current players/former teammates after having to tell Michael Cuddyer he isn't very good and Todd Helton he's old. He's listed on a famous document with some of baseball's best players.

Walt Weiss, retired short stop

Experience: one year managing Regis Jesuit High School varsity

Why I'd hire him: His name is Walter William Weiss and alliteration is fun. He is a World Series champion and won AL Rookie of the Year in 1988.

Why I'd pass on him: The 1988 rookie class was extremely weak and my Walt Weiss rookie card never appreciated in value. Also, maybe something about lack of pro experience.

Dexter Fowler's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, no-hitters and Brian Wilson's beard are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Ah, nice to see you again Dexter Fowler. Fowler cut his Sombrero total in half from 2009 to 2010 (hey, 2-1 is still half) but he's off to an early start this season. At 25-years-old, we still don't really know what Fowler is. A little pop with some raw speed, neither of which he uses much. He gets on base enough and doesn't appear to butcher his outfield position. I'm just starting to doubt he becomes anything more than a solid regular. But none of that matters here as long as he keeps swinging and missing. It's like crack for me...

Bottom 1st: Fowler struck out swinging against Matt Cain. Cain did not have his best stuff coughing up 6 earned over 4.2 but he did strike out 6. Fowler did his part here and then...

Bottom 2nd: Fowler struck out swinging against Cain again.

Bottom 6th: Fowler struck out looking against Dan Runzler. Fowler watched five pitches before realizing he didn't bring his bat to the plate. In other news, when did Dan Runzler stop slicing deli meat at the Rouses by my house?

Bottom 7th: Fowler struck out swinging against Guillermo Mota. Fowler took the opposite approach this time around by swinging at all three strikes. The results did not vary.

Tulowitzki Gets His $100 Million

Who had the first $100 million contract of this young Hot Stove season being signed by a player who wasn't going to hit free agency for FOUR more years. Cliff Lee will sign a deal well north of the $100 million mark. Carl Crawford will probably get nine figures too and Jayson Werth might come close. But it was Troy Tulowitzki who was the first to ink a contract that will provide him the financial flexibility to buy Iceland out of bankruptcy and fill it with dogs wearing sweaters. I dare him to come up with a better use of that money.

Tulo's new deal is actually just an extension which picks up his 2014 option for $14 million. The "new money" is the $119 million he will make from 2015 through 2020 or his 30-35 year old seasons. Did the Rox jump the gun on making Tulo the new face of the franchise for the next decade? Yeah, probably. Tulo is coming off of his best season posting a 6.4 WAR despite only playing in 122 games. He also missed 61 games in his 2008 campaign. So, the Rockies are gambling that Tulo won't be gimpy every other season. Maybe he can buy one of those hyperbaric chambers with his riches.

Tulowitzki has been a blog favorite around these parts and solidified that position with his 15 homer, 40 RBI, .303/.366/.754 line September which helped him garner a 5th place finish in the NL MVP voting. I wasn't as appalled by the deal as some of the other baseball scribes but maybe I'm biased because Tulo rocks a sweet mullet. I'm no scientist, unless you count mixology, so I'll leave the heavy lifting to the math nerds amongst us. The great Tangotiger ran the metrics and figures Tulo will be worth almost the exact amount of cash he's due. So there, Jeff Passan.

Of course, the awesome fallout from this signing is when Derek Jeter holds firm for a 6-year, $2.3 billion contract. What? Minka Kelly totally deserves her own island.

Shot Of The Night: Walk Off Edition

Shot Of The Night is Off Base Percentage's toast to a player who had an exceptionally good or bad night. There's always a reason to drink.

The shot of the night waited until all of the games were over but it didn't have to. Tonight's shot of the night is a Curtain Call: 1 part Jagermeister® herbal liqueur, 1 part Midori® melon liqueur, 1 part Jack Daniel's® Tennessee whiskey. I'm pretty sure after a couple of those you'd be under the curtain or wearing it as a dress. Tonight's shot is in honor of Carlos Gonzalez.

CarGo had a pretty good night at the plate for the Rockies. He went 4-4 and also had a sac fly. Not only did Gonzalez hit the walk off homer in the 9th, the home run completed his cycle. If I wasn't so lazy to do the research, it seems like we're having an absurd amount of cycles, no hitters, perfect games, golden sombreros and platinum sombreros this season. It's probably all due to random chance but I prefer to believe it's some kind of baseball voodoo. I may also have been in New Orleans for too long.

Honorable Mention: Ryan Zimmerman
Zimmerman went 2-4 with a home run. But guess what that home run was? You're right. It was a walk off in bottom of the 9th. I should really stop putting the answer to my little quizzes in the title of my posts. I alluded it to it early in my trade roundup earlier but I think I'm jumping on the Nationals bandwagon. I can have an AL and NL team right?

Clint Barmes' Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Clint Barmes joins the ranks of Adam Dunn, Miguel Montero, Jason Bay, Adrian Gonzalez and Koyie Hill in just a silly couple of days of swinging and missing. Barmes, of course, is most famous for my favorite injury in the history of baseball. In 2005, Barmes broke his collarbone after falling down some stairs while carrying deer meat. Now he more sensibly keeps his deer meat in a freezer in a storage unit in his apartment complex.[citation needed] Let's go check out Barmes' first Golden Sombrero since 2007...

Top 2nd: Barmes struck out looking against Josh Johnson. Johnson tossed just another 6+ innings of 1-run, 11-strikeout ball. He's good at the pitching.

Top 5th: Barmes struck out swinging against Johnson.

Top 7th: Barmes struck out swinging against Johnson again. I'm running out of steam, people.

Top 9th: Barmes struck out swinging against Leo Nunez.

Brad Hawpe's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

It didn't take a lot of hard research for me to find the other Golden Sombrero last night. Brad Hawpe went 0-4 with 4 strikeouts to join teammate Dexter Fowler in the giant shiny Mexican hat club. When was the last time two teammates had 4 strikeouts? No seriously, when was it? I don't have all day to sit on Baseball-Reference and Elias doesn't return my calls even when I tell them I'm really Jayson Stark. I have to believe it's been a while so that calls for a special video.



That's some pretty solid nonsense. Let's see how Hawpe racked up those K's.

Bottom 1st: Hawpe struck out swinging against Kevin Correia.

Bottom 3rd: Hawpe struck out swinging against Correia again. I don't know what-the-Strasburg got into Correia but he was sitting batters down, striking out 8 in 5 innings.

Bottom 6th: Hawpe struck out swinging against Joe Thatcher.

Bottom 7th: Hawpe struck out swinging against Ryan Webb. Four straight swinging strikeouts. I think somebody is trying to get on my good side.

Dexter Fowler's Golden Sombrero

A golden sombrero is awarded to a player who manages to strike out four times in a single game (real golden sombrero not included). It's quite the feat unless you're Ryan Howard or Mark Reynolds. Unfortunately, cycles and no-hitters are all the rage nowadays. Not for me, though. I will pour over the box scores to bring you the finest at swinging and missing.

Five long days between Golden Sombreros. I suppose Dexter Fowler was due too. Last season, Fowler had 2 Golden Sombreros to go along with six 3 strikeout games. So the Rockie put on quite the performance last night (he wasn't the only one, stay tuned) going 0-5 with 4 strikeouts. Since it's a Saturday, I'm breaking out the bottle of Patron, by which I mean Costco tequila, and lining up the shot glasses. We'll drink every time he strikes out swinging.

Bottom 3rd: Fowler struck out looking against northpaw™ Kevin Correia. I never really thought of Correia as a strikeout pitcher but I also don't seem to pay much attention to Padres at all. Fowler lets us down in the shot department.

Bottom 4th: Fowler struck out swinging against Correia. Shots! Fowler comes through in the very next inning. Atta boy.

Bottom 7th: Fowler struck out swinging against Ryan Webb. Drink up. I usually have to look up Padre relievers but their numbers are always good. It's like they have some underground relief pitcher factory under Petco. I'm going to send an I-team out there to investigate.

Bottom 8th: Fowler struck out looking against Tim Stauffer. Sometimes you simply forget to bring your bat with you. Fowler took three straight pitches looking and was asked to please go sit down.

Overall a pretty impressive game. It's generally hard to go 0-5 and strike out 4 times in 8 innings. I'm confident I could do it but I have god forsaken talent.