The Rockies and manager Jim Tracy are nearing a three-year extension, the Denver Post is reporting, though an official announcement on an extension will likely wait until after the World Series. Tracy took over for Clint Hurdle after Hurdle was fired on May 27 and led the Rockies to a 74-42 record and the wild-card berth in the National League playoffs.
When Tracy took over, the Rockies were 18-28 and 14 games behind the Dodgers in the NL West. Under Tracy, they challenged L.A. for the division title. That sprint to the playoffs makes this extension more or less a foregone conclusion. What team in their right mind wouldn't extend the interim manager that had his team playing at a 103-win pace over a large chunk of the season?
Let's start by looking at two stat lines. Some of you have probably already guessed where I'm going with this, but bear with me.
Player A: .319/.395/.691, 1 HR/11.56 plate appearances Player B: .207/.298/.356, 1 HR/37 plate appearances
If you haven't already figured it out, both of those players are Ryan Howard. "Player A" is Howard against righties in 2009 and "Player B" is Howard against lefties in 2009. To simplify, Ryan Howard is Albert Pujols against righties and David Eckstein against lefties. So why does no one question Jim Tracy's decision to leave right-hander Huston Street in the game to face Howard with the Rockies' season on the line?
From the Windup is Matt Snyder's extended look at some aspect of America's pastime each Thursday -- it's running Friday this week.
Earlier this week, Brad Lidge's nightmare 2009 season continued, when he allowed a walk-off homer to Andrew McCutchen. Ed Price covered the outing the following morning. The abysmal performance by the Phillies' closer underlines the only weakness of the defending World Series Champions.
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... Jamie Moyer can still win games.
Moyer bristled when the Phillies demoted him to the bullpen in favor of Pedro Martinez, and when a rain delay Tuesday forced Martinez from his start against the Diamondbacks, Moyer took over when play resumed in the fourth inning for his first outing since the decision.
He went the rest of the way, allowing two hits and striking out five in six scoreless innings and earning his first relief win since May 15, 1996, for the Red Sox. (That day he worked two innings in relief of Tom Gordon.)
The real story here, of course, is that the win statistic suddenly seems a little trivial. Baseball experts across the board have always agreed that wins are the definitive pitching statistic. ERA? WHIP? Maybe those nerds at the acronym factory are on to something, because a zero-pitch win just doesn't seem right. Then again, Embree was up against the Nationals, and everyone wins against the Nationals.
If you picked Jim Tracy as the NL Manager of the Year, pat yourself on the back.
Even though he wasn't a manager when the season began, he's looking like a pretty sweet pick right about now. The Rockies were 18-28 when they fired Clint Hurdle, and they are 22-7 since elevating Tracy from bench coach, heading into a showdown series with the first-place Dodgers starting Monday night.
Of course, Hurdle wasn't that bad of a manager (he got the Rockies to the World Series in 2007) and Tracy isn't that great of a manager (the Dodgers and Pirates both let him go).
Starting Five is our wrapup of the previous day's baseball action, with a quick nod to what is ahead.
You Oughta Know ... The Rockies are 4 1/2 games out of the NL wild card after Thursday's 5-4 victory over the Brewers.
OK, so they're still four games under .500, and fourth in their division. But Colorado has won eight straight games – all on the road, no less – to climb toward respectability.
"It's hard to expect to win eight in a row, but we definitely are a team capable of doing it," [Ian] Stewart said. "Our pitching has been unbelievable these last eight days. Timely hitting with runners in scoring position, keeping innings alive. Everything has kind of been going our way. We know we can be this good, so we just have to continue to play this way."
So much for the Rockies' desire to wait until the end of the season and assess the situation. Colorado axed maligned manager Clint Hurdle on Friday and replaced him with bench coach Jim Tracy for the rest of the season.
Hurdle, who led the Rockies on a magical run all the way to the World Series back in 2007, has been at the helm through a disappointing 2008 season and during an 18-28 start thus far in 2009. In seven-plus seasons managing the Rockies, Hurdle compiled a 534-625 record. The Rockies finished above fourth place just twice in his tenure and the NL-pennant-winning 2007 run was his only trip to the postseason.
As expected, the Pirates just announced that manager Jim Tracy will not be brought back for the 2008 season. To say that everyone saw this coming would be an understatement. What was not expected, however, was that Neal Huntington also announced the firings of senior scouting director Ed Creech, director of baseball operations Jon Mercutio, and senior director of player development Brian Graham, who also served as interim-GM after Dave Littlefield's firing. From the Bucs' official release:
"Since my appointment as general manager I have worked diligently to gather information about the inner-workings of the organization," Huntington, who met with Tracy and members of the coaching staff earlier in the week, said in a statement. "After a systematic evaluation of that information, I have come to the difficult conclusion that to transform the culture and to chart the course for future success, these changes needed to be made."
If you want to know the difference between the old regime and the new management in Pittsburgh, look no further than the front office shakeup today. Last off-season the Pirates actually added the term "Senior" to Creech and Graham's titles despite more than ample evidence that they were not good at their jobs. Today, they were both fired fired. This won't make the Pirates automatically better, but if any organization needed a restructuring from top to bottom, it was certainly the Pirates.
The Rockies and manager Jim Tracy are nearing a three-year extension, the Denver Post is reporting, though an official announcement on an extension will likely wait until after the World Series. Tracy took over for Clint Hurdle after Hurdle was fired on May 27 and led the Rockies to a 74-42 record and the wild-card berth in the National League playoffs. 
Let's start by looking at two stat lines. Some of you have probably already guessed where I'm going with this, but bear with me. 
Starting Five
On Tuesday night's game between the 
If you picked 
Starting Five
So much for the Rockies' desire to wait until the end of the season and assess the situation. Colorado axed maligned manager 
