If you picked Jim Tracy as the NL Manager of the Year, pat yourself on the back.Even though he wasn't a manager when the season began, he's looking like a pretty sweet pick right about now. The Rockies were 18-28 when they fired Clint Hurdle, and they are 22-7 since elevating Tracy from bench coach, heading into a showdown series with the first-place Dodgers starting Monday night.
Of course, Hurdle wasn't that bad of a manager (he got the Rockies to the World Series in 2007) and Tracy isn't that great of a manager (the Dodgers and Pirates both let him go).
A manager is only as good as his players, and the players on the Rockies got a "wake-up call," in the words of reliever Alan Embree, when Hurdle was fired.
"Once we got our manager fired, I think everybody in the room kind of took a look around and said 'Oh crap,'" Embree told FanHouse. "We caused this. It kind of gave us a gut check."
The Manager Bump is a common phenomenon, which is due mostly to the fact that teams whose managers are fired are underperforming. They are likely to perform better eventually, regardless of who the manager is.
Rockies veterans, who were fond of Hurdle, are careful about heaping too much praise on Tracy.
"It's hard to say something good about the new manager without saying something bad about the old manager," Todd Helton said. "I have a lot of respect for Clint and what he did. That being said, Tracy knows what he's doing. That was pretty apparent from the beginning."
A few things did change under Tracy that have paid dividends for the Rockies.
"Tracy has come in and added a new discipline," closer Huston Street said. "It was something that the team had lost."
Street cited one small example. Now the Rockies players are all required to be in the dugout or on the field for the national anthem, not in the clubhouse.
"That doesn't seem like a big deal, but look around the majors and see how many teams are doing that," Street said. "First of all, it's important to honor that, but secondly, it brings you together. It's just a little thing, but bringing you together makes things better."
From a baseball standpoint, Tracy has asked his hitters to be less discplined.
"I felt like our approach was not aggressive enough," Tracy said. "I felt we had a passive approach. I wanted them to turn the volume up on that a little bit."
Barmes was hitting .235 on May 25, and he's hit .338 since then. Stewart was hitting .177 on June 2, and he's hit .276 with seven homers since.
Shortstop Troy Tulowitzki, one of the Rockies most valuable players during their run to the pennant in 2007, has come back to life under Tracy, hitting .385 with seven homers since June 7.
Tracy said Tulowitzki is standing a little taller at the plate, which allows him to see the ball better.
"Early in the season we were seeing a 6-2 shortstop and a 5-10 hitter," Tracy said. "We asked him to be 6-2 at home plate. The other thing he's doing is understanding what he has to do to get behind the ball and stay behind the ball, so he's recognizing pitches a lot. He's driving the ball much better. His power numbers are more what we're accustomed to seeing."
The Rockies pitching has also been better, although that probably has less to do with Tracy and more with Street settling into his role as closer. After a slow start, Street made an adjustment with where he stands on the rubber, and it's helped him be more effective. Since regaining the closer job (under Hurdle), Street has converted 18 of 19 save opportunities with a 1.46 ERA.
| Jim Tracy: Before and After | ||
|---|---|---|
| Stat | Before | After |
| W-L | 18-28 | 22-7 |
| ERA | 4.93 | 3.76 |
| R/G | 4.9 | 5.6 |
Now the Rockies find themselves right in the mix with just about every other team in the National League for the wild-card spot. On Monday they will begin a three-game series against the first-place Dodgers in Los Angeles.
"When you weather that (slow start) and get back to .500, you think 'Wow, this is a big accomplishment,'" Embree said. "This is something that has potential to be a special year. When you overcome that adversity. It was basically like a new start."
Before the Rockies completed their series against the A's, Tracy said he is hoping the perception of the team has changed.
"I hope we aren't talking about runs anymore, but expectation," Tracy said. "It's not a nice run, a neat winning streak. This is a group of guys that expects to win."
