Anyway, what? Oh yeah, I can imagine how the average Sporting News voter looked at the past MLB season. I'm sure they thought, as they were considering the year past, "Who is good?" And they probably thought of the Yankees and the Red Sox and the Mets and the Braves and maybe the Dodgers (they do have an office in LA...you can see where all their offices are here--my favorite part is that their Dallas office is in Atlanta). And then, being good stewards of journalism, they decided to do some research. So they (and by they, of course, I'm talking about "Jeff D'Alessio") cracked open the ol' laptop and fired up espn.com. Ol' Jeff navigated over to the MLB page (after checking to see if Rick Reilly had graced the world with any new witticisms, natch) and clicked on the MLB Playoffs 2009 link. He spent a few minutes looking at the AL half...Yankees and Red Sox, of course, and the Twins and Angels. No surprises there, which would make for a tough AL Exec of the Year pick. I mean, how can one decide between Cash and Theo? One can't, that's how. Call it a tie or flip a coin? That's the tough call. So as Jeff is pondering, his eyes wander over to the NL half of the page, and...wait...what in the name of Chris Berman? The Colorado Rockies? What the hell is that? Oh, that's still a team? Huh. Oh yeah, I remember. A person called "Chris Bahr" (who seems, in this photo, to be wearing a fake shirt) picked them to finish 4th in the NL West, whatever that is. But they were in the playoffs? Holy Moses! That's weird that I didn't hear anything about that, though...I mean, I watch SportsCenter 4-6 times a day, and I don't recall hearing anything about the Rockies. I'd totally forgotten that they even existed! But they made the playoffs, eh? Well, I suppose when a team has Matt Holliday, anything's possible, right? But who else do they have? Wait, who the hell are all these guys? Where's Holliday? Hm...search for Holliday...the Cardinals? What the...? They traded Holliday? Who'd they get? Huston Street, Carlos Gonzalez, Greg Smith. Well, two of those guys contributed, eh? So Huston Street and a team full of unknowns made the playoffs? I think I know who the Executive of the Year is! Wait, who the hell is the Rockies' GM? Dan O'Dowd? Well, whatever. We have a winner!
(Update: Apparently the Sporting News awards are voted on by GMs and Assistant GMs. I like my version of it better, and I'm pretty sure it applies even when you're talking about MLB executives...especially those whose teams lost to the Rockies; "What the hell?" They'd ask. "We lost to the Rockies?" Yep, everything I said is still true.)
I'm 95% certain that's 95% accurate with a margin of error of +/- 2%. I'm sure that if the average baseball fan (which these days seems to be an ESPN-worshiping dbag with the IQ of a hammer who owns a Yankees hat and a Red Sox hat just to have all his bases covered) even acknowledged the existence of the Rockies, he'd (and yeah, I say he because as much as it pains me to say, no woman is this stupid...about sports) be shocked that the Rockies (the Rockies?! Really?!) made the playoffs. He'd say, "I mean, I don't even know anything about the National League--except that it sucks!," high-five or do something homo-erotic with his buddy, then spend fifteen minutes talking about all the things he knows about the National League. I won't bore you with that business; you can thank me later. But yeah, I think that if I wasn't an NL-loving denizen of a non-EST state, I might be a bit surprised by the Rockies, too. But I am those things, so, well, I wasn't.
I'm 95% certain that's 95% accurate with a margin of error of +/- 2%. I'm sure that if the average baseball fan (which these days seems to be an ESPN-worshiping dbag with the IQ of a hammer who owns a Yankees hat and a Red Sox hat just to have all his bases covered) even acknowledged the existence of the Rockies, he'd (and yeah, I say he because as much as it pains me to say, no woman is this stupid...about sports) be shocked that the Rockies (the Rockies?! Really?!) made the playoffs. He'd say, "I mean, I don't even know anything about the National League--except that it sucks!," high-five or do something homo-erotic with his buddy, then spend fifteen minutes talking about all the things he knows about the National League. I won't bore you with that business; you can thank me later. But yeah, I think that if I wasn't an NL-loving denizen of a non-EST state, I might be a bit surprised by the Rockies, too. But I am those things, so, well, I wasn't.
Let's take a look at the three moves most often cited as the reasons Dan O'Dowd deserves to be EotY.
1. O'Dowd traded Matt Holliday and got valuable players in return.
Here's why that's stupid. O'Dowd needed to trade Holliday. That, to me, is indisputable. Holliday priced himself out of a Rockies uniform the day he signed with Scott Boras (which, of course, I'm not condemning him for; every player who wants to be paid a lot of money should sign with Scott Boras. He's the best. Not the best person, or the best thing for baseball, but the best agent. By far. I wish Scott Boras would have represented me in my contract negotiations with the school I used to work for [and additionally, he didn't price himself out of a Rockies uniform because of the Rockies' market; it was because of the Rockies' cheap-ass meat-packin' ownership (and that's not a slur, their money is Greeley meat-packin' money)]). So O'Dowd traded him. He got Huston Street, a good pitcher. I like Huston Street. He got Greg Smith, a player who spent zero days in a Rockies uniform this past season. Jury's out, but color me skeptical. He got Carlos Gonzalez, an outfield prospect who was traded away from a team in need of outfield talent. Now, don't get me wrong, I dig CarGo. I loved watching him play, and I believe that he has a bright future. But it's not like any of those dudes really wowed anybody...and in fact, both Smith and Gonzalez had been part of Oakland's trade of Danny Haren to the Diamondbags. Prospects that get passed around a bunch generally end up as...not-prospects. But Street had a good year, and the future of CarGo looks good. So O'Dowd made a good trade, but certainly not a haul when you consider the production of those players over the past season.
2. O'Dowd hired Jim Tracy this offseason, then fired his friend, Clint Hurdle, when the Rockies were performing poorly.
First of all, the trumped-up bull about "firing his friend" is just that. If a GM can't make tough decisions, then he should not have that job. Firing Hurdle was an excellent decision. I think Hurdle is great, but it became more and more clear that he was just not the man for the job any longer. And after he was let go, the chorus seemed to be the same from players...the whole Clint-is-great-but-we-just-needed-a-new-voice thing. Sounds good. They did that. Tracy was a new voice, and the Rockies responded in fantastic fashion. Good move. But hardly genius, right? When the basic moves lead to EotY awards, I guess that says something about the sorry state of MLB front offices.
3. O'Dowd traded for Jason Marquis.
Dan O'Dowd makes a lot of trades. According to a spreadsheet available here, O'Dowd's trade for Marquis was his 98th as Rockies GM. Look at that spreadsheet. Most of those trades were absolutely awful. I mean, the man traded for Jacob Cruz, Todd Hollandsworthless, and Jack Cust. I will never forgive him for making me watch those players defile Rockies uniforms. There were some good moves, but again, looking at that list...how many of them make you think, "Oh yeah, that was a great move!" There were a few. But really, what's his average there... .112? This was a good move, sure. But Jason Marquis kicking ass for three+ months is no cause for lauding O'Dowd. First of all, the Cubs didn't want him. He'd fallen out of favor in Chicago, getting lustily booed at the end of the 2008 season. O'Dowd figured, "Hey, free starter! Nice!" And all he had to give the Cubbies in return was a mistake signing known as Luis Vizcaino. Marquis performed very well for the first half (he was an All-Star, for crying out gleven!) before reverting to his career-standard second-half form, which is to say...less than stellar. Good, but not great. The Rockies made the playoffs in 2009. Marquis pitched 1 playoff inning. Good move. Not great.
So that's O'Dowd's resume for being named the best of all 30 men who do that job. I don't know...it just doesn't really do it for me. I mean, there is one other thing that gets cited, so let's call it:
4. The Rockies have gotten good production out of players from their organization who they drafted.
Ok, this is true. And in fact, this guy even claims that the Blue Jays should follow the "Dan O'Dowd Model." But what the hell does that have to do with O'Dowd? I mean, I'm sure he probably has final say over a lot of those draft decisions, especially the first round or two. So let's give him credit as due for Francis, Stewart, Tulo, and Cook (all but Cook were first rounders; Cook was second). But that guy cites Hawpe (11th round), Atkins (5th round), Holliday (7th round), Fuentes (25th round by the Mariners), Fowler (14th round), and Ubaldo and CarGo (international free agents) as examples of O'Dowd's exceptional work. Isn't all the other credit due the Rockies' scouts and minor league coaches and managers? I mean, sure, O'Dowd is technically the boss of all of them...but are we really to believe they couldn't have done it without him? Is he really out there scouting the Rockies' 14th round draft pick? I guess it seems like GMs are always given disproportionate amounts of credit for their teams' systems (both positive and negative). I could be wrong, but I don't see this as a feather in O'Dowd's cap.
Dan O'Dowd is like the Dan LeBatard of GMs. LeBatard says and writes a whole lot of words. Inevitably, some of them will make sense and might even be funny. O'Dowd makes a crapload of trades. A tiny percentage of them pan out. Is that all it takes to be praised? To do well occasionally? It certainly seems to me that even a GM's average oughta be better than .112 (number may not be real). That doesn't even get close to Mendoza. I guess this is just another example of East Coast Bias. Ugh.
Tomorrow: Did O'Dowd go from trading too much to being terrified to trade?
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