Monday Grab Bag: The return of the worst week in sports

Welcome, once again, to the worst week in sports.  The Major League Baseball All-Star game, annually, announces itself as deserving of an entire week of focus, and then proceeds to bore the nation to tears through a glorified round of batting practice and a main event no more important than a random spring training game.  Even for me, a devout follower of the religion of baseball, this week is impossibly difficult to get through.

The question that I've been hearing more and more over the past few years is "how do we fix it?"  You can't, stop trying.  The reasons behind the existence of this non-event were: 1) to create a new source of revenue for the league during the Depression, which eventually evolved into 2) provide a showcase for out-of-town stars that fans rarely got to see.  80 years later, baseball no longer needs the revenue, and fans can see out-of-town stars whenever they want, thanks to nationalized television packages.  There's no longer a point. Just name a team, hand out some bonus checks, and keep the season moving.

But, that's too logical and forward thinking for baseball, so expect them continue to wring the stone in search of water.  Meanwhile, more and more fans of the game will stop watching, and the sport's infrastructure will become more and more irrelevant. *sigh*  Baseball, as always, is timeless to a fault.

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Today in the bag, I'm talking the conclusion of the World Cup, NBA free agency, and fundraising at CU.

Click below for the bag...

Rockies move into competative franchise mode

Over the past 3 years the Rockies have fielded some pretty competitive teams; yesterday they took some steps to become a truly competitive franchise. 

First they locked up team leader Troy Tulowitzki.  When I say locked up, they took a man already under contract through 2014 and extended him out through 2020.  2020!  By then we'll have flying cars!  It's a decade long $134 million commitment that's none to surprising coming from Rox GM Dan O'Dowd.  This totally fits his M.O. of providing long term deals to franchise-level talent so they can act as the rock of the franchise (pun intended).  While O'Dowd whiffed on Mike Hampton's $124 million, 8 year deal in late 2000, in 2001 O'Dowd threw 9 years and $141 million at franchise cornerstone Todd Helton, and it's obvious that this Tulo deal is meant to echo the Helton one from a decade ago.  Position players are much easier to project long term production for, and this is why deals like the Helton one, and potentially this Tulo one, are usually safe-ish bets for a franchise.

(Homeboy's about to get paaaiiiiiiid)

Second, they agreement, in principal, to re-sign free-agent pitcher Jorge De La Rosa.  The word is that the pending deal is a 2-year contract for $21 million with various options for 3rd and 4th years.  It was widely accepted that Jorge was the second-best free agent starter available heading into the free agency period, and for the Rockies to keep him is a firm sign of their continued commitment to stay at the competitive level they had shown over the past 3 seasons.  Reportedly, they had been interested in Carl Pavano, but I'm glad they chose to stick with DLR.  Besides the fact that Jorge is 5 years younger than Pavano, and that he is a strong Latino role model in an area with a large Latino population, Carl has a history of blowing up in the faces of GM's who put financial faith in him.  Anyways, I think it's good policy to stick with talent already in your system as it avoids transition pains and keeps expectations in the realistic range.  The Rockies, from field staff to the front office, know what they're going to get from Jorge.

(Resigning talent like DLR is the first step to ensuring that the current success continues)

Sure, the Tulo deal is useless for current purposes, since he wasn't going anywhere (but I still like the deal.)  But combine it with locking up your big free-agent potential departure, and you've shown, in one fell swoop, that you are serious about remaining on top.  If the knock on Dan O'Dowd is that he routinely lets young talent leave after their 6 team-control years are up, then this can be a sign that the status-quo has changed, and that the Rox are willing to spend to keep the good times rolling.  Kudos to O'Dowd and the Rox for taking the necessary steps to remain competitive.  If they add one more decent free agency chip (say a veteran bat) for a reasonable price, then O'Dowd will have done his franchise a good service, and positioned them to win not only now, but in the future as well.