BY DAVID MARTIN

The Colorado Rockies had their window. They had their chance to be in the Denver sports spotlight.

That chance came and went, thanks in large part to the new face of Denver sports, Tim Tebow.

The scene was set for the Rockies to take over. The Broncos were coming off a 4-12 season in which their head coach was fired and their team was in disarray. To top it off, the NFL was heading into a lockout that threatened to end the season before it started. The second worst team in football would never lose its fan base, but there certainly were fans out there looking for something different.

The Rockies were poised to be in that position. They had just locked up their two youngest and brightest stars, Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez. They were moving into a new spring training home in Scottsdale and the experts were picking them to win the National League West for the first time in franchise history.

Those predictions looked like they were going to happen until an 11-2 start proved to be smoke and mirrors. The Rockies sank back to the team that caused many of their faithful fans to relegate Coors Field as a place to spend a beautiful summer night, rather than a place to get excited about the team playing on the field.

While the Rockies foundered and the Broncos shine, it is hard not to notice some distinct similarities.

The leader of the Rockies is undoubtedly Tulowitzki. At shortstop, he directs the team. His fiery style of play, and propensity to make plays that no one else could dream of seems to draw attention to him. More than anything, his personality, which oozes his love for baseball in a nearly unhealthy way, is what makes him so special.

Tim Tebow isn’t that different. While his overall talent is not what Tulowitzki’s is, he makes plays that have football fans who have been watching the game for years wondering how he did it. Like Tulo, Tebow’s passion for the game is so evident in the way that he plays the game that it is undeniable that he will do whatever it takes to help his team win.

The quarterback and the shortstop also have something else in common. Neither one of them was supposed to play their respective positions. Everyone told Tebow that he should be a tight end, or a fullback. They told him that he was too big to play quarterback or that he couldn’t throw well enough to be successful in the NFL.

The same was said of Tulowitzki. The 6-4, 225-pound. shortstop was passed over by six Major League teams in the draft because they insisted that he was too big to play shortstop. When they asked him to make the move to third base, he refused, and those teams decided against drafting him.

Both players are excelling at their positions, despite what the critics have said about them.

One big difference, however, is that one of those teams–the Broncos–has found a way to play better than their talent would suggest, while the other team–the Rockies–found ways to play far below their talent level.

So what is the problem?

Don’t look at the stats. Throw out the numbers. Simply pay attention to what is said to the media following games.

Never once will you hear Tebow point to himself in a positive moment. He will never take credit for a win, he will never take credit for a big play. He always gives credit to his teammates. When he throws a touchdown pass, the receiver made a great catch and the offensive line blocked well. Never once will Tebow not give credit to his teammates for their play.

On the flip side, when Tebow struggles, and the team loses, the quarterback will never blame his teammates. He will always talk about getting better. He will point the finger straight into his own chest and take the blame, no matter what happened.

With the microphone on him, Tebow comforted wide receiver DeMaryius Thomas, after Thomas had dropped a long pass against the Bears that would have put his team ahead. Tebow told Thomas to not worry about it, to shake it off because he was going to catch the game-winner later on.

In the Rockies clubhouse, Tulowitzki never has learned to lead in that way. After the Ubaldo Jimenez trade, Tulo told the media that when you don’t play to the expectations, that you get traded. He said that he was excited for who the Rockies were getting in return, and seemed relieved that the ace had been traded.

A month later, with the Rockies still foundering and quickly getting closer to last place, Tulowitzki pointed the finger at Jason Hammel, who had given up six runs in two innings. After the game Tulo said “it makes it hard to win games when you are down by six runs before you have even had two at-bats.”

It quickly becomes clear how a team with very little experience and talent can rally around a leader like Tim Tebow, and how a team with talent that is picked by almost every expert to win its division can play so poorly.

It is unfair to ask anyone to become the leader that Tebow is. The quarterback is exceptional in that category. Very few people in any walk of life can claim to lead in the way that Tebow does.

Still, the lesson is one that should be heeded. Tebow’s leadership makes a team come together. His humble spirit makes the players around him play better. Tulo’s leadership style, one that too often points fingers, doesn’t seem to make a team play better.

BY DAVID MARTIN

There is no way to sugar coat it.

The 2011 Colorado Rockies season was one to forget. A team that was destined to win their first National League West title fell on their faces. They came out of the gate winning 11-out of-13, then proceeded to win just 62 of their next 149 games.

Injuries were a huge part of the disappointment. It seemed that almost every Rockie went down with an injury of some sort at least once throughout the season. Carlos Gonzalez hurt his wrist running into the wall in July, and if the truth were told, he never fully recovered.

As the season came to an end, Jim Tracy pointed to the nagging injuries as a reason why the Rockies ended up contending for the basement of the National League West rather than the crown. The excuses were empty. They were just that, excuses.

The reality is, every team deals with injuries. All 30 teams in Major League Baseball will have their depth tested throughout the course of a 162-game season. Some teams are more fortunate than others, but the reality is, injuries are a part of the game. They cannot be used as an excuse.

What injuries really point out is how deep a team really is. They expose the truth in a farm system. The Rockies have pointed to their farm system as their crown jewel for several years. They have been overly hyped as having one of the best farms in baseball. Often the Rockies have held on to prospects instead of trading them for big-name players that could help their current big league team out. Those players have hit the big league level and never shown their potential.

The glaring problem for the Rockies in 2011 was not their injuries, but what the injuries pointed out. The Rockies farm system was over hyped. They have players who they valued as impact players at the big league level who will most likely amount to average, at best.

The other big issue for the Rockies was in the clubhouse. It became clear after Ubaldo Jimenez was shipped off to the Cleveland Indians that he had lost favor with certain team leaders — particularly Troy Tulowitzki.

Apparently Jimenez took a trip to Europe in January instead of continuing with his offseason throwing program, which generally consisted of him playing in the Dominican Leagues. Instead, Jimenez took the sight-seeing tour and wasn’t ready for spring training. When a groin injury and a thumb injury came up in March, it compounded the issue, and the end was beginning for the former ace.

Jimenez’s trip to Europe was most likely an innocent one. However, it seems as if it sparked clubhouse dissension that ultimately led to the team’s failures. The Rockies were known for having a tight-knit, family atmosphere in the locker room. However, that seemed to go away with the Jimenez issue, and players took sides.

Those issues seem to have forced the hand of Dan O’Dowd, who has nearly finished shipping out all of the players whose attitudes never contributed to a winning clubhouse. The offseason has been full of one thing for the Rockies, getting rid of the passive personalities on the club. First it was Ty Wigginton, the player who never learned team baseball, then it was Chris Iannetta, shipped out for pitching depth. Next came Huston Street, then it was Ian Stewart, given up on after a miserable season. Within weeks the final decision will be made when the Rockies find a suitor for Seth Smith.

The reality is, the players the Rockies are getting rid of are not the fiery-type. They aren’t the ra-ra types that thrive under the leadership of a player like Tulowitzki. They go about their business, and go home. Losing may make their skin crawl, but they don’t wear their emotions on their sleeve like Tulo. It may not be a bad thing, but it was clearly deemed a problem by the Rockies front office.

It was clear. The objective was to create a winning atmosphere in the clubhouse. One where losing is unacceptable and makes the players sick.

So have the Rockies done enough to make that happen? They brought in Michael Cuddyer, a Twin who has seen what it takes to win. They may have overpaid for him, but he may be the answer to some of clubhouse issues.

Beyond Cuddyer, the Rockies haven’t done much to add proven talent to the big league roster. There are some patch-work fixes that have been made, and some fliers taken on a few players, but the team really seems to be hanging their hat on Cuddyer turning things around, and an addition by subtraction in the clubhouse.

Will it be enough?

BY DAVID MARTIN

The Colorado Rockies are quietly rebuilding their roster in Dallas at the annual baseball winter meetings.

With all of the hype around what the newly named Miami Marlins are doing, particularly signing Jose Reyes to an absurd amount of money and trying, and failing, to lure Albert Pujols with an even more absurd amount of money, the Rockies have seemed quiet. However, the club is doing anything but standing pat.

If Dan O’Dowd believed that Jim Tracy wasn’t the issue, and Jim Tracy believed that none of his coaches were the issue, then they are backing up their beliefs this week.

Instead of re-tooling the coaching staff, the Rockies are quietly changing a clubhouse mindset that most believe became too comfortable, too OK with losing.

The other issue that became glaringly obvious in 2011 is that the Rockies are not as deep as they thought they were. that is particularly true when it comes to starting pitching. It was so apparent that the club was in a position that they were almost forced to deal former ace Ubaldo Jimenez, just to have additional options.

With a clubhouse that became too content, and a lack of starting pitching depth, the Rockies are trying to kill two birds with one stone. Last week they shipped Chris Iannetta to the Angels for Tyler Chatwood, a 21-year-old starting pitcher who has the potential to be a back-end starter, or a late-inning reliever. They also traded a player-to-be-named-later for Kevin Slowey from the Minnesota Twins, a rebound candidate who went winless in 2011, but was a double-digit winner the previous three seasons.

Earlier in the offseason they parted ways with O’Dowd’s biggest mistake from a year ago, trading Ty Wigginton to the Phillies for nothing more than salary relief.

It was well known that the Rockies were doing their best to trade Huston Street, especially considering that he had been supplanted by Rafael Betancourt as the closer, and the future is looking closer than ever with Rex Brothers proving that he has the ability to get the job done at the big league level.

With Street owed $7.5 million going into 2012, most thought that the Rockies would have to eat a large chunk of his salary. However, O’Dowd worked out a deal with the division-rival Padres, who were willing to absorb almost all of Street’s contract.

The salary relief puts the Rockies in a great position to go make a move to fill a hole. Signs point to them making a run at Michael Cuddyer from Minnesota, or taking a chance at Cody Ross to fill some holes.

Guys like Cuddyer and Ross are clear examples of the Rockies wanting to change the mindset in the clubhouse. Both of those guys are grinders. They are both guys who want to win at all costs.

With Iannetta and Wigginton gone, and Seth Smith and Ian Stewart squarely on the trading block, the Rockies’ objective is clear. All of four of those players are similar type of players. They all play hard, but their enthusiasm is not clear. They may be passionate for the game, but when there are too many quiet type of players on the field, it becomes infectious and almost lulls a team to sleep.

Not everyone needs to be like Troy Tulowitzki. In fact, 25 guys like Tulowitzki might be worse than 25 guys who are the opposite. However, there needs to be a good mix, and the Rockies clearly haven’t had that over the past two seasons. Players can be quiet, but their desire to win needs to be evident. Todd Helton is the best example of that. No one questions his desire to win. It oozes from his pores.

The Rockies are in the process of rebuilding the talent on their roster, but more importantly, they are in the process of rebuilding the mindset in the clubhouse.

BY DAVID MARTIN

On Wednesday afternoon, the Colorado Rockies completed a trade sending catcher Chris Iannetta to the Los Angeles Angels in exchange for starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood.

The move coincides with the Rockies nearing a deal with free agent catcher Ramon Hernandez. The deal with the former Red is reportedly a two-year deal worth just over $6 million.

The move brings a power arm in the form of 21-year-old Chatwood. Despite a poor win-loss record, Chatwood shows promise. He is a hard thrower with a high ceiling. He went 6-11 with a 4.75 ERA in 27 games for the Angels, 25 of them coming as a starter. The California native will be just 22 years old on Opening Day.

The move ends a slightly odd era in Colorado. Iannetta was by far the most polarizing player to don a Rockies uniform. A highly touted prospect, Iannetta came into the big leagues with enormous expectations. The club had seen “can’t miss” catching prospects come and go, from Jawhawk Owens to Ben Petrick to JD Closser, the Rockies had seen their fair share of catching prospects fail to pan out.

Iannetta never reached the hitting ceiling that his talent suggested. He was handed the starting job in 2007, but quickly struggled to find his way. After being supplanted by journeyman Yorvit Torrealba, Iannetta never regained his footing. He was shipped back to Triple-A late in the season, returning in time to watch Torrealba catch every game of the famous 2007 run to the pennant.

The following year was going to be a different story. The Rockies were ready to give Iannetta the job once again. However, he stumbled out of the gate and lost the job to Torrealba again. After the Rockies fell out of contention in the disappointing season, Iannetta quietly put up phenomenal numbers. In the end, his offensive numbers were among the top five in baseball.

The following season is when the controversy began in earnest. Iannetta was coming off of a phenomenal season, and then matched that play in the World Baseball Classic. He seemed ready for a breakout season. Instead, the catcher regressed, hitting just .228. He did, however, launch 16 home runs and drive in 52 runs in just 93 games. A hot start from Miguel Olivo caused the Rockies to once again give up on Iannetta and play the hot hand.

Iannetta’s supporters shouted that he wasn’t given a chance. They said that he was a great player who was outplayed by a veteran in each of the season’s beginnings, but should have been given a chance to play through his struggles. His detractors said that he was just another flamed-out prospect in a long line of failed Rockies catchers.

The debates raged on.

Iannetta’s supporters suggested that his low batting averages should be ignored because his on-base percentage was so high. They also pointed to his ability to hit for extra bases on a regular basis as reason to look past the low batting average.

In May of 2010, after another slow start, Iannetta was shipped back to Colorado Springs for a refresher course. The move made many Iannetta fans believe that there was some sort of vendetta against him in the front office. Many thought that Jim Tracy or Dan O’Dowd had issues with Iannetta’s attitude or personality. They felt that it wasn’t fair to him, and that once again, he wasn’t getting a fair shake.

In the end, however, Iannetta never lived up to his potential. It may not be fair to him. He is who he is. The fact that he never became the player that fans and the front office envisioned isn’t his fault. Maybe he was a victim of bad timing. Every time he struggled, the other catcher on the squad seemed outplay him. However, the fact remains, he never hit his ceiling, which caused his eventual trade.

Iannetta may never have been used in the right spot. Tracy always seemed to pencil him into the eighth spot in the lineup, regardless of the other tinkering that he was doing throughout the lineup. In fact, on several occasions down the stretch, Tracy left Iannetta in the eight hole, while light-hitting center fielder Dexter Fowler found himself in the three hole. Even Mark Ellis found himself in the three hole with Iannetta in the eighth spot.

Whatever it was, Iannetta simply never was the impact player that the Rockies envisioned. He made improvements, but failed to be anything above average.

The Rockies ability to pick up a young arm from the Angels, one that they will have control of for the next five seasons, is more than enough to make the trade a good one for the Rockies. The move bolsters the young starting rotation that showed a lack of depth when Ubaldo Jimenez started slowly and Jorge De La Rosa went down.

Iannetta fans may be disappointed. They may think that the Rockies lost a chance to see what he can really do, but the fact is, Iannetta’s value was as high after the 2011 season as it most likely ever will be. With the ability to sign Hernandez, buying Wilin Rosario time to grow up without pressure, and gain a pitcher at relatively close to the salary of Iannetta, the Rockies end up as winners.

BY DAVID MARTIN

If watching the Colorado Rockies pathetically stumble their way through a 2011 season that had so much promise wasn’t bad enough, it only got worse with the words from the front office and the clubhouse.

As the season grew increasingly worse, with the Rockies falling further and further out of contention in a division that was theirs for the taking, the excuses began to mount. Jim Tracy was the leader of the excuse mill. On a nightly basis, the skipper continued to tell the media just how bad the Rockies’ luck was.

The excuses were hollow, but undeniable. The Rockies certainly dealt with injuries. They certainly dealt with under-performing talent. They definitely had reasons to feel like luck wasn’t on their side.

However, with all of the reasons to have excuses, the Rockies’ use of them became even more discouraging than the disgusting play on the field. The reason that it was frustrating for fans was because anyone who followed the club knew that the reason for the Rockies’ failures had little to do with injuries. It had little to do with one or two players in particular.

The issues came directly out of the clubhouse and the excuses were just fueling the raging inferno that the Rockies’ 2011 expectations were in the middle of.

The Rockies’ excuses might have worked. They might have had some legitimacy. The excuses may have been credible, until one team showed that excuses only come from a bunch of losers, not a bunch of winners.

For Rockies fans, the situation that the now-World Champion St. Louis Cardinals dealt with are eerily similar to what they went through in 2011. The results were a completely different story.

In spring training, before he ever had a chance to take the mound, Adam Wainwright, the Cardinals ace who had won 19 and 20 games in each of the past two seasons, was lost for the season after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Before opening day, fans had declared the Cards dead to rights in the NL Central.

If losing Wainwright wasn’t bad enough, Chris Carpenter, the club’s other ace who had been a huge factor for the club in years past, went into July with a 3-7 record.

Could a team be more down and out than the Cardinals were?

If that wasn’t bad enough, on June 20, Albert Pujols, the best player on the Cardinals and perhaps the best hitter in baseball over the past 10 years, went down with a broken arm that was injured in a fluke play at first base. He missed three-and-a-half weeks.

Not only did Pujols deal with injuries, but Matt Holliday, the Cardinals’ other slugger, dealt with a bevy of injuries that included a bad wrist, an emergency appendix removal and a number of other injuries that held the former Rockies to just 124 games.

On paper, the Cardinals had no chance. However, they made no excuses.

As Labor Day approached, the Cardinals were well behind the Brewers in the NL Central, and the Braves simply needed to cruise in order to be the NL Wild Card team. However, 8-1/2 games behind the Braves, the Cardinals didn’t stop. They battled to the end, got lucky, and found themselves celebrating a playoff berth on the final day of the season.

The Rockies would like to have their fans believe that they dealt with more adversity than any team in baseball. They sold that to their fans the whole second half of the season. They said that losing Jorge De La Rosa was a devastating injury. They said that Ubaldo Jimenez under-performing was something they simply couldn’t come back from. They said that the multitude of injuries that Carlos Gonzalez dealt with were too much to expect to overcome.

It might have worked. The excuses might have made sense. Fans might have accepted the excuses as winter they became further removed from the season.

It might have made sense, except for one problem. The problem with the Rockies’ excuses for not winning is that the one team that dealt with injuries, dealt with adversity, dealt with under-performance more than the Rockies ended up hoisting the trophy at the end of the season.

Good teams don’t make excuses. Injuries are something that every team has to deal with. Part of being a contender is having the depth to replace injured players. Instead of finding guys to plug into holes, the Rockies found excuses to give. This led to a team with a losing mentality, a team looking for a reason why it was all right to lose that day.

The excuses were the main reason why the Rockies didn’t contend in 2011, not the injuries.

BY DAVID MARTIN

Was losing 89 games not enough? Was the most trying season in the history of the Colorado Rockies not enough to endure?

Just when the Rockies fan base thought they were done with the suffering and could look forward to an offseason of change, an offseason that would once again lift their spirits, giving fans time to lick their wounds and not be sick to their stomachs every time they thought about the Rockies, the organization went out and dealt them one last kick in the teeth.

Last week Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd made it clear that he wasn’t going to make the decisions about who stayed and who went when it came to Jim Tracy’s coaching staff. For the first time in O’Dowd’s tenure, it would be the manager who had complete say over who stuck around.

O’Dowd might be second guessing himself on that move right now.

Tracy made an announcement before the Rockies final game on Wednesday that all of the coaches from his staff would be retained. He made comments about how it wouldn’t be right to pin the lack of success to one coach. He said that they needed consistency within the coaching staff, not a constant rotation.

What the move proved to Rockies fans is that first, Jim Tracy doesn’t get it. He truly doesn’t understand what went wrong in 2011. He doesn’t see that the message wasn’t getting through to these players. He actually believes that this club was a few injuries away from being in the playoffs.

Second, Tracy actually believes that the fans are going to buy into that. He thinks that the fans don’t pay enough attention to baseball to understand that the issue had nothing to do with injuries, but rather that this team played with absolutely zero heart.

Third, both it shows that Tracy, O’Dowd, and by default the Monforts, take for granted the fact that Colorado Rockies fans come out to Coors Field in droves, regardless of the product on the field.

Maybe they are right. Maybe the fans will be at Coors Field in 2012 regardless of what changes on the team. Maybe it doesn’t matter if the club finished dead last in the National League in ERA again. Maybe it doesn’t matter if all but one guy on the roster takes horrible at-bats, swinging at 3-0 pitches with the bases loaded, constantly letting the opposing pitchers off the hook. Maybe fans will still come.

However, this might be the one time that they are dead wrong.

Part of the reason the Rockies attendance was so high was because of the excitement heading into 2011. Many fans flocked to the ticket windows long before the snow melted, long before the players reported to the new spring training facility. The Rockies don’t make the number public, but it would be a sure bet to say that the number of season ticket holders and mini-plan holders went up by 15 percent over the winter.

That number greatly influences the overall ticket sales number. Those fans are the ones who aren’t coming back. The fans who shelled out hard-earned dollars to see a team that they thought would bring excitement, and had a good chance at winning their first-ever division crown, sure they would go see that.

Instead, they got a team that didn’t win more than they lost at home, a place that even the poor Rockies teams dominated. They got a team that didn’t get soundly beat by the opponent each night, they soundly defeated themselves by playing selfish baseball and forgetting how to play the game using fundamentals.

As the Red Sox walked away from a season that saw them blow a nine game lead in the American League wild card race, there are rumors swirling that Terry Francona will not be back as the manager next season. This is the same manager who led this team to a comeback over the Yankees in 2004 when the club was down 3-0 in the AL Championship Series. This is the guy who brought a championship back to Boston for the first time since 1918. He broke the Curse of the Bambino. He didn’t stop there either, he brought them another championship in 2007. All of this, and he still is on the hot seat after blowing this lead.

If Francona is on his way out in Boston, how on earth can Jim Tracy still be employed in Denver? And if Tracy is going to be employed, how on earth can there not be even a single change in the coaching staff? How does that make any sense?

There is only one conclusion. The conclusion is that the Rockies ownership isn’t determined to be winners.

Now, that is not to say that they don’t want to win. Many fans have utter disdain for the Monforts, saying that they don’t want to win. That is incorrect. This ownership group wants to win. They love to win. Their goal is to win. Make no mistake about it, every season, they desperately want to win. However, they are not intent on winning. Winning doesn’t consume them. They don’t live and die with each game. They aren’t a pain to be around all offseason when the Rockies don’t go to the playoffs.

These owners want to win, but they don’t expect to win.

The problem for this club is that the attitude of the owners trickles its way all the way through the organization and into the clubhouse. It has been shown all season long. They want to win, but they aren’t intent on winning. That type of attitude always takes a team to one place, and it doesn’t involve first place.

BY DAVID MARTIN

This season can’t get done soon enough.

The Colorado Rockies don’t care. That much is evident. Caring is one thing, self-respect is another. These Rockies don’t even care if they are thoroughly embarrassed.

The first thing many people argue is that it is not fair to assume that professional athletes, who dedicate their lives to a sport that they love, don’t care. At this point, it’s safe.

If they cared, things would be different on the field. If they cared, being down about the losses when they talk with the media after the games would start to turn into getting mad about the losses. Down doesn’t change performance, that much is certain. Anger does. Unfortunately, this bunch could care less about doing anything about it.

Sure, the argument can be made that this team is plagued with injuries. It is easy to suggest that without Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and Todd Helton on the field for the past five games, the Rockies don’t stand much of a chance. The only problem with that argument is that the lack of interest in the games didn’t start last Thursday. The lack of interest began in May, long before the Rockies were out of the playoff race.

If the Rockies had been playing the game hard all season long and were having the same struggles that they currently are, it would make sense to blame the injuries. The injuries aren’t the issue. The issue is this team is dreaming of where they are going on vacation next month.

To a certain extent, it is understandable. The frustration has to be at an all-time high in the clubhouse. This team has to be exhausted from trying to find a way to get wins and being unsuccessful. The only problem with their effort was that it was in the wrong direction. They put pressure on themselves early instead of relaxing, and they relaxed when they should have put pressure on themselves.

On Monday night, facing yet another embarrassment, the Rockies nearly outdid themselves. Subtract one swing of the bat from Mark Ellis and the Rockies would have become the first no-hit victims of the San Diego Padres. The only question is, would anyone in the clubhouse have cared? The sense of urgency seems long-since gone. It is sad. It is a slap in the face to the fans.

It is going to take a huge move in the offseason to gain many of the fans back. After a horribly disappointing season that could, in all reality, end up in a last-place finish, the Rockies are going to have to do something drastic. All of the fans that believed in them going into spring training are bitter. All of the people who paid hard-earned money in a very tight economy to buy tickets and go to games are going to bail. Getting fans back is not going to be easy.

The reality is, this 2011 season is by far the worst season in the history of this club, and the reality is, this team is closer to three years of rebuilding than contending. The road to redemption is not going to be an easy one, and there will be many fan casualties along the way.

BY DAVID MARTIN

Don’t expect him to be an ace. Don’t expect him to be dominant. Don’t expect awe-inspiring pitching.

Do expect Kevin Millwood to be the Colorado Rockies’ fifth starter in 2012.

After another extremely impressive start from the veteran, the Rockies should have seen enough of him to know that he still has what it takes to be in a big league rotation. Before the Rockies signed him in late July, Millwood was ready to retire after failing to get a big league call-up with both the Yankees and Red Sox Triple-A squads.

As soon as Millwood made him plans to go home for the last time, the Rockies called, giving him an audition. The move came with grumbling from the fans. Many wondered why the team wouldn’t give their prospects a chance to get their feet wet at the big league level and show what they can do. Many thought of Millwood as a retread who would give up too many home runs at Coors Field.

However, Millwood has done nothing but prove that he still has the talent to pitch at the big league level. He will never be the 2002 version of himself, a guy who won 18 games for the Atlanta Braves. Yet, he still has a chance to be an impact player.

If Millwood isn’t the pitcher that he once was, he is quickly proving how good of a pitcher that he actually is.

The measure of a good pitcher is not how good the pitches are they possess, it isn’t about how hard they can throw the ball. The measure of a good pitcher is how many outs they can get. A true pitcher can pitch his way out of jams. He can find ways to induce ground ball double plays, get strikeouts when necessary, and not be afraid to throw all of his pitches in the strike zone.

That is exactly what Millwood does. In seven starts with the Rockies, Millwood has walked six batters. He pounds the strike zone and is rewarded with outs.

If Millwood’s pitching isn’t enough to convince people that he deserves to be in the rotation, look no further than Drew Pomeranz’s comments to Root Sports Alanna Rizzo after his Major League debut on Sunday.

Pomeranz was quick to point out that his nerves were calmed in part because Millwood took him into the video room the night before the game and watched video of Reds’ hitters, helping him prepare his game plan.

That shows what kind of player Millwood is. He isn’t the veteran who is self-centered and is too good to help out a rookie, he is a veteran, equipped with 162 career wins, who is willing to work with a guy who is barely a year removed from the day he was drafted.

That type of pitcher is exactly what the Rockies need on the mound. They need someone who can show the rest of the staff how to throw strikes and get outs without having the best stuff. However, even more importantly than a veteran who can be the example of what a pitcher is supposed to be on the mound is a veteran pitcher who can show the younger arms how to be a pitcher in the clubhouse.

The Rockies’ starting pitchers are extremely young. The potential starting five for the Rockies in 2012 will include Jhoulys Chacin, 23, Drew Pomeranz, 23, Alex White, 23, Esmil Rogers, 26.

At some point, Jorge De La Rosa will return and bring some experience to the staff, but that is a rotation full of very young pitchers who will need a veteran who can show them how to act and how to pitch at the big league level. Millwood has already shown that he can be that guy with the leadership that he has displayed in his short time in Colorado so far.

BY DAVID MARTIN

At this time of year, for teams in the Colorado Rockies’ boat, talk turns to the team playing the spoiler role.

In his pregame press conference with the media on Tuesday in Milwaukee, Jim Tracy alluded to that role, according to Jim Armstrong of the Denver Post.

There are plenty of stories of a team that seems to figure it out down the stretch. They suddenly start playing with energy and look like a completely different team then they were for the first 135 games or so. Teams like that seem to pop up on a contender’s schedule about this time of year.

The spoiler role is also one of those things that a noncontending team’s manager can point to as a way to motivate his team when they really have nothing to play for. It becomes something that they can rally around and finish a disappointing year on a good note.

For Tracy, no one can really blame him for hoping that his team can fill that role. He is the manager. It is his job to find something that will motivate the guys in his clubhouse to not just go through the motions down the stretch of the season, ending up even worse than they were before.

However, as admirable as that approach is, it is tough to believe that Tracy actually believes that this Rockies team can play the spoiler.

The Rockies couldn’t get motivated when they had a seven-game lead in the National League West going into May. They couldn’t get motivated when they were just a few games out after a May that saw them go 8-24. They couldn’t get motivated when they had a chance to turn their season around after the All-Star break. They couldn’t get motivated when simply playing average baseball would have put them squarely back into the race.

So why would they suddenly embrace the spoiler role? The fact is, this Rockies team will do nothing more than play out the string of their games and try to pad their own personal stats. This team hasn’t played like a team all season long. They play like a bunch of guys who are desperately trying to make their own batting averages and home run totals go up.

With the exception of Todd Helton, who always takes a good at-bat, always works counts, and seems purely focused on helping his team win, there isn’t a member of the regular lineup that has played the game with a team approach. Offseason acquisition Ty Wigginton is notorious for swinging at 3-0 pitches when the pitcher can’t seem to find the zone. Troy Tulowitzki looks like he often forgets that he can’t hit a six-run home run.

The reason that the Rockies haven’t played up to expectations in 2011 is simply because they have played for themselves all season long. When teams start playing to pad their own statistics, the one stat that represents the team as a whole goes by the wayside. That stat? Wins and losses.

If the Rockies want to contend in 2012, or anytime in the near future, they need to figure out a way to infuse the clubhouse with a team-first mindset. How they do that is going to be easier said than done.

Whether that is to get a few veterans in the clubhouse who can change the mindset around, or get rid of a few bad apples, the Rockies must do something in order to mix it up, or they will be in the same boat as they are now one year from now.

BY DAVID MARTIN

So much for butterflies.

With the season all but over, and Colorado Rockies fans shifting their attention to the Denver Broncos’ season, the Rockies gave one last reason to continue paying attention. When the team announced that Drew Pomeranz would start on Sunday, it became a “can’t miss” game for fans.

Let’s face it. The future of this current Rockies team hinges on Pomeranz. The tall left-hander was the centerpiece of the Ubaldo Jimenez trade. His talent suggests that he is going to be not a future ace, but an ace right away. He has all the weight of the world on his shoulders. If he fails, the Rockies are going to be forced to go in a different direction, and the ramifications of that might be years of struggle.

Perhaps the best part of Pomeranz? He seems oblivious to how much hinges on his success. He pitches with ice water running through his veins. After the game he told Root Sport’s Alanna Rizzo that he wasn’t nervous. Usually when a prospect making his Major League debut says that, everyone knows that he is lying. This time, it seemed genuine.

Instead of looking like a deer in the headlights, Pomeranz simply went out and did what he does best. He threw pitches, and he threw them for strikes. He was confident enough to throw his change-up and he didn’t try to get creative by throwing his curveball too much. The pitch selection shows confidence. It shows poise.

Limited to five innings due to being just three weeks removed from an appendectomy, Pomeranz showed no fear on the mound. This is a kid who barely threw 100 innings in the Minor Leagues at all. He was drafted fourth overall just 15 months ago.

Very few prospects making their Major League debut have the capabilities of pulling off what Pomeranz looked extremely comfortable doing. In his five innings of work, Pomeranz gave up just two hits. He struck out two and walked two, hitting a batter in between. The key line for the lefty, however is the final one, no runs. Despite dealing with a little traffic, Pomeranz kept getting ground balls, inducing two double plays to get out of jams.

What that suggests is that Pomeranz already knows how to pitch. He isn’t concerned with blowing guys away at the plate and he isn’t worried about tricking batters. He is willing to pitch down in the zone and let the defense behind him field the ball and get outs.

It is extremely early to know exactly how well this trade is going to work out for both clubs. However, it is safe to say that after one quick start for the Rockies, many fans are not so upset with Dan O’Dowd for dealing the teams first-ever ace. Very few are angry that the team didn’t get a Major League-ready player in the deal.

Pomeranz looks like he is the real deal for the Rockies, which is a good sign for the Rockies, Dan O’Dowd, and their fans.