Woody Paige: Colorado Rockies GM Jeff ‘The Brain’ Bridich is stopping the bleeding with this?
The Associated Press
The Rockies again pretended to be a baseball team in their 100th game Tuesday night.
They were humiliated by the Nationals 11-1. What’s new? Instead of caps, the Rockies should wear paper bags over their heads and beg for a 10-run mercy rule.
Between the Rox and a hard place, the season began with a 3-12 record. Surely, it couldn’t get any worse. Since June 30, the Rockies must own up to a 3-14 record.
Six and 26 in two despicable stretches of stench. Wait till next decade.
With the trade deadline approaching July 31, will the Rox be buyers or sellers?
Get serious. Wholesale Firesale!
How about this trade: The Rockies exchange two former Nationals’ players — Ian Desmond and Daniel Murphy, who were warmly welcomed back to D.C. Tuesday — for ex-Rockies left fielder Gerardo Parra?
One flaw in that suggestion. Washington doesn’t want those two, who are owed a remaining combined total of $45 million from the Rockies. The Nationals just put Ryan Zimmerman on the injury list and could use another first baseman. But then, neither Desmond nor Murphy is a first baseman.
The Rockies added Yonder Alonso to the roster Tuesday. He supposedly will be the replacement for Mark Reynolds, who was dumped. The White Sox recently dumped Alonso, who primarily was a designated hitter. Wow. There’s general manager Jeff “The Brain’’ Bridich’s brilliant move to stop the bleeding?
The Nationals scored eight runs in a seventh that featured about 14 Rockies errors.
But I’m just a guy (JAG) who was covering baseball before Bridich was born and Dick Monfort was in the meatpacking business. Bridich told a lackey that he is smarter than beat reporters and, presumably, the rest of us who didn’t graduate from Harvard.
Here’s an oddity: A report Tuesday from MLB.com contributor Jon Paul Morosi stated that the Rockies would be willing to listen to offers for its All-Star right fielder and leadoff hitter Charlie Blackmon.
Usually, such a rumor would be dismissed instantly. Bridich was silent.
Yet, Morosi also attended Harvard, so he must be smarter than us, too.
Bridich wouldn’t trade one of the Rockies’ most successful and popular players, who has baseball’s best beard, walk-up song and home field numbers.
Except Bridich just might. He did get rid of fan favorite Troy “Tu-Lo’’ Tulowitzki. Yes, Troy’s career went south north of the border, but the return was as awful. Jeff Hoffman, called back up for another attempt at being a pitcher, has won only seven of 30 starts. Two other pitchers acquired in the trade, Miguel Castro and Jesus Tinoco, each have won one game for the Rox. Castro was cut loose after 2016, and Tinoco has pitched loosely in seven games this season.
The other player in The Big Deal was Jose Reyes, who ended up getting $50 million from the Rockies for lousy play, with a domestic dispute.
I’d rather have a fifth-grader as GM. He’d be smarter.
On May 1 of this season, the Nationals had a 19-31 record, and the Rockies were 22-26. The Rox would become the No. 1 wild card in the National League in June, but the Nationals were surging. Now, the Nationals are the No. 1 wild card at 53-46, and the Rockies have collapsed to a 47-53 mark. No division title, no wild card, no .500 record.
The Rox are on pace to win 77 games, returning to the bad old days of 2010-2017 when they averaged 72 victories.
We should feel sorry for the Rockies.
As my mom, who was a dedicated Rox supporter, would say: “Our boys try hard, but they aren’t quite good enough.’’ She died on July 4, 2017, and didn’t get to experience the Rox’s two postseasons since she moved to Colorado. She would be sad watching her boys perform almost every night like a beer-league, slow-pitch softball team.
The Rockies’ first four hitters — Blackmon, Trevor Story, Nolan Arenado and David Dahl — are All-Stars, but that’s it.
The pitching is pathetic, pitiful and painful to view, and the defense is offensive.
Bridich, in a rare interview, recently told Thomas Harding of mlb.com: “This group right now is struggling and playing, objectively, just really bad baseball.’’
Really. Bad. Baseball. Really.





