Colorado Rockies: The Season Is Over...Where Do the Rockies Go from Here?

The 2011 Colorado Rockies have just completed a dismal season after high expectations during the offseason. The national media felt the Rockies could contend for the NL West title, but instead, they competed for last place with the Padres.There are many issues on the team that became apparent as the season progressed.

This slideshow presents the issues the Rockies faced during their 2011 campaign and some thoughts on the resolution to each issue.

Reading the Press Clippings in the Offseason

After the Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and Jorge De La Rosa signings, hope was rampant. The national media jumped on the Rockies bandwagon and expected them to contend for the NL West title. Did the players just assume the division would roll over? Obviously, they did not. Next year, the expectations will be much lower.

Scouting Department Woes

The failings of the Rockies' past drafts is very evident. There have been no impact players coming through the farm since Troy Tulowitzki. The Rockies have had a woeful experience in top 10 draft picks.

Here is the list of some of the notable misses:

Ian Stewart (2003 10th pick)

Chris Nelson (2004 ninth pick)

Greg Reynolds (2006 second pick)

Casey Weathers (2007 eighth pick)

This is supposed to be the bread and butter of the franchise, especially as a mid-market team.

Is a shake-up needed in the scouting department? When I look at other mid-market teams like the Braves, they seem to excel at the draft. The Rockies need to emulate the drafting practices of the successful franchises. If success doesn't soon follow with the most recent draft classes, perhaps O'Dowd needs to replace the existing staff to get some fresh ideas.

Ubaldo Jimenez

Ubaldo did not participate in winter ball,and it showed in his performance. Whether it was an arm strength issue or not, it forced the hand of the Rockies GM, as Ubaldo was traded for two top pitching prospects from the Cleveland organization. Ubaldo was supposed to be the ace of the staff, as the organization expected him to perform like the All-Star he was in 2010.

The haul for Ubaldo included Alex White and Drew Pomeranz. From the limited exposure that we saw in 2011, Pomeranz looks like the real deal. He could be in the rotation in 2012.

White was coming off of an injury, so it might not be fair to judge him just yet. Spring training should sort this out.

Jorge De La Rosa

After Ubaldo’s performance woes, the Rockies looked to Jorge to assume the ace duties. He performed well until a season ending arm injury occurred. With Ubaldo struggling and Jorge done for the season, this essentially caused the rotation to have no true No. 1 or No. 2 starters.

Jorge should be back by May or June of 2012. How he responds from the surgury won't be known for a month or so after. This has me concerned, as Dan O'Dowd needs to be looking for a solid No. 2 as backup since Jorge is the ace. This could make or break the season.

Ian Stewart's Disappearance

During the opening game of spring training, Stewart was injured and did not return until the end of the spring. It appeared he never got traction and was up and down between AAA and the big club. Was he unprepared to start the 2011 season? There has been talk of Stewart not making the Rockies his first priority. For someone with his potential, time is running out quickly.

It appears Stewart will be playing winter ball in Mexico this offseason. He will be receiving a 20 percent pay cut, so this should serve as a wake-up call. I believe the Rockies need to find a solid veteran that can be signed on a two-year deal. It seems the Rockies are very high on Nolan Arendo in AA as the future third baseman.

Second Base Issue

From the initial offseason signing of Jose Lopez (who was eventually released), to the position being handled by Jonathan Herrera, and eventually, a trade being made for Mark Ellis, this position has been in flux all season. Ellis is a free agent and was making six million in 2011. I doubt the Rockies will pursue Ellis if the dollars remain the same for a light hitting second baseman.

If it means having Herrera, Chris Nelson and Jordan Pacheco platooning, so be it if it means using the money saved on Ellis to bring in a power bat.

Pacheco showed real offensive prowess during his September callup. It seems he will be used as a super utility guy able to man any infield position.

Huston Street

Street has had a rough year as a closer. The 1-2-3 ninth inning seemed rare, as it was always an adventure. A closer with an ERA of 3.86 is just not a good solution. Rafael Betancourt has replaced Huston for the latter part of the season and was very effective. 

Going forward, it appears that Betancourt will retain the role, with Rex Brothers moving into the setup role. I suspect the Rockies will pursue a trade for Street this offseason and save themselves 7.5 million in the process.

Tulowitzki and Gonzalez Early Season Struggles

By the end of the season, the stats looked good for both Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. In the early season, the team needed someone to carry the team. Unfortunately, Gonzalez struggled in April, and Tulowitzki did the same in May. By June, the team was now in a free-fall, which they never were able to recover from.

One can only hope that the early season struggles were due to the burden of signing the big contracts in the offseason. Both need work in being more selective at the plate to eliminate the strikeouts.

Starting Pitching

With the issues already mentioned with Jimenez and DeLaRosa, the remainder of the staff also struggled to eat up innings. This caused an issue straining the bullpen. When your starters consisted of of a AA pitcher (Nicasio), a soon to be retired pitcher (Millwood) and a handful of minor league players (White and Pomeranz), this just did not work. Aaron Cook never could get back to his old self, and Jason Hammel was horribly inconsistent.

This is an area that really needs most of the offseason work. I suspect the Rockies will need to pickup at least a No. 2 starter and possibly a No. 4 that can eat a lot of innings. That would give the rotation this set of starters... new No. 2, Chachin, Hammel, new No. 4 and Pomeranz or White.

With both Jorge De La Rosa and Juan Nicasio coming off major surgeries, it is just too much to expect a lot of contributions...maybe we can expect 100 innings from Jorge if all goes just right.

It appears that Esmil Rogers has pitched himself off the rotation and will more than likely land in the pen.

Jim Tracy

The constant lineup changes seemed to give no consistency to the roster. For example, Seth Smith was batting in the .300’s for a good part of the year, but was always pulled in favor of a right handed batter when lefties pitched. His stats were similar to Carlos Gonzalez's against lefties, but he still got platooned.

When Smith is one of your top hitting players, why keep pulling him? I would like to see Tracy keep a lineup intact to help the players gain confidence if they are struggling. This would be similar to what Tracy allowed Tulowitzki and Gonzalez to do. If a player struggles againist certain matchups, I can understand the player switches, but if that is not the case. let your lineup remain a constant.

Tracy is on the last year of his contract and should have the pressure to push the players. It is either put up or shut up for this set of coaches and manager. I would like to see Tracy be more assertive with the players, and the one-year deal might just be the ticket to force this issue.

Clutch Hitting

The Rockies continue to lose a high number of one run games. A big part of this problem is the lack of clutch hitting. No one exemplifies this more than Ty Wiggington; he hit .167 with runners in scoring position. The team is filled with similar players, and this will need to be heavily analyzed this offseason.

When analyzing players to be brought in, they need to pay attention to how they bat with runners in scoring position instead of HR's or batting average. Ty Wiggington on the surface looked like a good pickup, as he hits for power with a decent average, but what has hurt this team is clutch hitting.

General Manager: Dan O'Dowd

It appears that Dan O'Dowd goes after a lot of borderline players, hoping to cash in like the Gonzalez/ Holliday trade did. When you sign players like Ty Wiggington, Jose Lopez, Felipe Paulino, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Mark Ellis and Jose Morales and not one of these players made any significance to the bottom line, that is a problem. The biggest miscue was not pursuing the Michael Young trade further.

Going forward, go after quality over quantity and do a better job of picking up mentally strong clutch hitters. There is a lot of money coming off the books with departure of Cook (10 million), Heltons re-structured deal (five million) and possibly Street (7.5 million) and Wiggington (4.5 million) to make a run at a solid No. 2 starter and a solid power batter.