Rockuppied

Pitchers and catchers reported to sites across Florida and Arizona this week, but it was a gang of purple-clad chaw-spitters in Tucson that drew particular attention here in HoG Country. That's right, gang, the defending National League champs, your Colorado Rockies, are back in business.

Management would have you believe that this season will serve as an extension of last year's magical run to the Fall Classic, and have operators standing by at the team's ticket windows and gift shops to prove it. But that's the problem with this franchise: the appearance of success has always mattered much more than actual on-field accomplishment.

Make no mistake, these young Rockies are stocked with quality ballplayers, and with a healthy dose of luck they could find themselves right back in the thick of the NL playoff hunt. But winning baseball is played in front offices just as frequently as it is between the white lines, and as usual this winter saw the Colorado suits standing still while the rest of baseball got to work.

Division rival and vanquished NLCS foe Arizona went and got Dan Haren, giving the D'Bags yet another potent ace to pair with Brandon Webb. The underachieveing Mets acquired Johan Santana, merely the best pitcher in the American League, who may post the first negative ERA ever while toiling on the senior circuit. Houston acquired Miguel Tejada. The Cubs and the Dodgers followed the lead of the World Champion Red Sox and sought help in Japan. Welcome to the Fukodome, Colorado. What improvements can you show your fan base?

Uh, that would be none. In fact, the talent flow is going in the opposite direction with the defection of free agent dynamo Kazuo "Sex" Matsui. The Rox will send the same rotation into 2009 as the one that got swept by Boston in October. The bullpen will be virtually the same, minus the swap of LaTroy Hawkins and Luis Vizcaino with the (suckered) Yankees. And expect to see a nearly identical batting lineup and fielding alignment as last year, once the situation at second base clears up (Marcus Giles and Clint Barmes lead an uninspiring field).

What chaps my hide is that zero effort went into making this team a powerhouse for the forseeable future. The pieces are there, but it would take a smart GM-owner combo to pull the trigger. Dan O'Dowd and (particulalrly) Charlie Monfort are not that combo. When Haren, Santana and Erik Bedard were available, they stood pat. When the Tigers--who actually want to, you know, go back to the World Series sometime soon--took a shot with Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis, O'Dowd and Monfort sat on their collective ass. There are still quality improvements, such as Oakland's Joe Blanton, available for the right price, but the Rocky brass is standing pat.

The simple fact is that this team reacts to market forces rather than dictating them. Smart GMs, like Billy Beane of the A's and Theo Epstein of the Red Sox, operate several years in the future. If Beane had Todd Helton's monster salary on his roster he would find a deal (unlike O'Dowd and Monfort, who botched a Helton deal with greed last spring). If Epstein ran the Rockies and saw Scott Boras client Matt Holliday two years from a free agent contract Colorado could never afford, he'd find a deal (ideally for a young pitcher like Bedard or Haren). It ain't rocket surgery.

But O'Dowd and Monfort carry the scars of past megacontracts and use them as justificiation for perpetual cold feet. Because Helton peaked shortly after his monster deal, they will piss away Holliday and blame Boras. Because Mike Hampton and Denny "Shotgun Oral" Neagle went to shit, they will never even try to go after a singular talent such as Santana. Hell the Padres even had the foresight to spend a mil on Mark Prior--a high-risk investment to be sure, but what if he comes back healthy one of these years?

Maybe lightning will strike twice. Maybe Ubaldo Jimenez will master the strike zone this year and give Colorado the ace they didn't trade for. Maybe Franklin Morales will become a Bedard clone at one-tenth the price. Maybe they'll find another Josh Fogg type on the scrap head that can bag a few cheap wins and consume some important innings. And maybe that LoDo magic can linger for another full season instead of drifting into last fall's booze-filled memories. Maybe.

But it sure seems like the Rockies missed an opportunity to build a baseball force in a football town.