Hurdle In Trouble In Denver Update…

UPDATE – About three hours after I wrote this post, Clint Hurdle and his George Hamilton tan was fired as manager of the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies will replace Hurdle with bench coach Jim Tracy. Rockies’ GM Dan O’Dowd said this will be an audition for Tracy.

Now I was torn about firing Hurdle and if the Rockies feel they will be better off without him, that’s there perogative. However, I 100% do not agree with the hiring of Jim Tracy. The Rockies had better options in Don Baylor, Triple A manager Tom Runnells (now the bench coach), or my recommendation Vinny Castilla.

My guess is that Tracy finishes out the season and is not asked back after Rockies’ management figures out he can't manage.

For the second time this season, a National League West manager will get the axe (former Diamondbacks manager, Bob Melvin being the first). According to the Denver Post, Rockies’ manager Clint Hurdle is managing on borrowed time. I am kind of torn on whether or not this is a good move by the Rockies.

On one hand, Hurdle is 460-537 in seven seasons as the Rockies’ skipper. Not very impressive. This year, the Rockies are in last place 14.5 games out of first place with a 18-28 record in the weak NL West.

What is not helping Hurdle is the fact that the San Diego Padres are in second place and greatly overachieving with a 24-23 record. Many predicted them to win maybe 60 games this year. Management is thinking, if the Padres can overachieve why can’t our club do the same?

Also not helping Hurdle is Troy Tulowitzki and Garrett Atkins who have forgotten how to hit. As unfair as it may seem, when your star players aren’t performing it comes back on the manager.

Tulowitzki is putting up a .227/5/15 line and Atkins is putting up a worse .195/3/15 line. We are all talking about Ortiz’s falloff, how about we start talking about Atkins’ falloff? This guy averaged 25 home runs and 110 RBI the last three seasons and now on May 29, he is hitting .195. What the heck happened?

On the other hand, just two years ago Hurdle led the Rockies to their first World Series in franchise history and finished third in the Manager of the Year voting in the National League. Two years ago, Hurdle was the toast of the town and now all of a sudden he can’t manage? I find that hard to believe.

I also find it hard to believe Rockies’ management had higher expecations for this club. Many people (including myself) picked the Rockies to finish in fourth place this season.

As I have said several times before, you can’t lose your best player in Matt Holliday and your best pitcher in Jeff Francis in the offseason and expect to compete. The Rockies, for the most part, are where most people thought they would be right now. How is that Hurdle’s fault?

So as you can see I am pretty torn about the firing of Clint Hurdle. I just think at the end of the day, a manager should have more equity if he led a team a World Series appearance.