What the Rockies need to do in the coming weeks

Hit better.

What you've come to expect. Groudbreaking analysis! Thank you, thank you. Applause, applause!

The Rockies still have enough games left to emerge as an elite team and call the current swoon an aberration. As Troy Renck points out in the Denver Post, the pitching is good enough. More than good enough, in fact: they surrendered only six runs over the entire Giants series this weekend (which they lost).

Fans overreact. That's what we do. People call for the firing of the hitting coach, the firing of the manager, and the demotion or release of any and all underachieving players. For good reasons, Rockies management does not listen to fans.

The Rockies organization has made its name with patience. When it works they are praised for building the franchise the "right way," and when it doesn't they are criticized for not making the big splash move they needed.

Management does not overreact or make hasty moves; Jim Tracy needs to do the same with his lineup. When he keyed the team's turnaround in 2009, he cited the need for players to know what their role was every day. He said once players did not question where they stood, they could settle in and just play ball.

Of course a manager will tinker when his team hits as poorly as the Rockies have this year. But I would like to see Jim Tracy pick a lineup, stick with it for a significant stretch of time, and make changes a bit more gradually than he has so far in 2011. Here is what he should do:

• Stop platooning Seth Smith. Make Ryan Spilborghs a pinch hitter, and stop playing him by default against any left handed pitcher.
• Pick a 3rd baseman and play him every day. I would like to see Chris Nelson, with Ty Wigginton making spot starts at each corner to spell Nelson and Todd Helton. People like Wigginton's bat, but he was not signed to play every day.
• Call up Charlie Blackmon and insert him in the lineup. Some think that this move would force Carlos Gonzalez back to center field. Blackmon came up through the system playing CF; why not start him there and use Dexter Fowler as a defensive replacement in late innings?
• Pick a 2nd baseman between Jonathan Herrera and Eric Young, Jr. Use the other as your utility player and spot starter. If you start Young, insert Herrera for late inning defense.

Lineup stability was Jim Tracy's calling card when he won Manager of the Year. I believe he needs to return to that strategy rather than tinkering with the lineup each time the hitters falter. If he does so and the lineup is ineffective for a long stretch, then move the pieces. The length of baseball's season lends itself to gradual rather than kneejerk changes. Management gets that. Jim Tracy used to, and we need him to return to that philosophy.

Do not mistake my intentions here. I do not blame Jim Tracy for the team's struggles. I blame the players for ineffective approaches at the plate. If Tracy does move to a more stable lineup, the onus is still on the players to strike out less, take good situational at-bats and make pitchers pay for mistakes.

Why some writers should avoid baseball

Mark Kiszla tries too hard to be controversial, and tends to really miss the boat with his Rockies opinions. One is left with the feeling that he just does not watch that many games. He wrote today that Dan O'Dowd is a mediocre general manager. Nobody will claim that O'Dowd is always great, but when you hear any actual baseball experts (such as MLB Network's Jon Hart) talk about the Rockies, they say that the organization is following something like the Minnesota Twins model and building the right way in a middle sized market. Once again, the pay-off in baseball is gradual, something that does not suit a writer as desperate for controversy as Kiszla.

He points to specific players to argue O'Dowd's ineffectiveness. Most baseball fans and analysts understand how shortsighted this is; you do not argue that O'Dowd is absolutely awful because of Ian Stewart any more than you argue he is executive of the decade because of Ubaldo Jimenez or Troy Tulowitzki. He points out O'Dowd's overall win-loss record is not overly successful. Unfortunately this chooses to overlook O'Dowd's philosophical change in the 2000's and the fact that the team is trending the right direction in the big picture, even with its recent disappointments.

With the exception of the huge markets out on the east coast, championship baseball teams are built over years, not weeks or months. Therefore, any decision on whether or not a general manager is successful is deferred again and again. It might be frustrating, but it's the nature of the game.

This week

Hopefully lineup stability is part of a long term answer. In the short term, just win a series. Two of three from the Padres and three of four from the Dodgers. It sounds so simple, but a week like that against teams in the division goes a long way for a team as dreadful as this one has been.

Win how? Beat the mediocre pitchers, such as Clayton Richard and Tim Stauffer of the Padres, by making them pay for mistakes and not helping them out with wild swings. That takes the pressure off of a bad match-up such as Clayton Kershaw on Thursday night.

To me the Padres series is especially important. Why? If the Rockies lose it, they will have sole possession of last place. It would still be too early to panic, but to have them in last place would just be icky.

Other Rockies links

Troy Renck comments on the Giants and their whining problem (a great read) http://www.denverpost.com/commented/ci_18208679?source=commented-rockies

Thomas Harding and Nick Kosmider check in with Charlie Blackmon http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20110605&content_id=20082796&notebook_id=20082798&vkey=notebook_col&c_id=col