Editor’s note: Yahoo! Sports will examine the offseason of every MLB team before spring training begins in mid-February. Our series continues with the Colorado Rockies.

2012 record: 64-98

Finish: Fifth place, NL West

2012 final payroll: $84.2 million

Estimated 2013 opening day payroll: $73 million

Yahoo! Sports offseason rank: 27th

Hashtags: #projectfail #rudderless #applemaps #insulting #mashedpotatoelbow #waaaaaaaaalt #ughmanagement #purpleweed #humidorofbaddecisions #why75pitches











OFFSEASON ACTION





Nothing exposes a franchise floating in the ether quite like an offseason of curiosity and indecision, of maneuvers unmade and ill-fated. To call the Rockies a rudderless ship at this moment would be an insult to rudders. This is a ship with a hole the width of its bow.

Walt Weiss may turn out to be a perfectly good manager. He is, by many accounts, a good leader, and the Mike Matheny-Robin Ventura double-shot of neophyte success last season emboldened the Rockies to pluck Weiss from his position as a high school coach. The daily grind, the media obligations, the interpersonal relations – he did all that as a player, and having spent seven seasons as a Rockies special assistant, he understands the organization.

If Weiss is so promising, then, and if he is the man under whom the Rockies expect to crawl out from the rubble of the worst season in franchise history, how can they possibly rationalize offering him a one-year contract? This is not a manager fighting for his job after substandard performance; this is a manager starting a job, and starting a year after the team's starting pitchers put up a collective 5.81 ERA, a problem the Rockies have addressed with aggression this offseason. And by aggression, we mean they re-signed Jeff Francis, who brought down the rotation's overall numbers with his 5.58 ERA.

Otherwise, this Rockies offseason has consisted of some thumb-twiddling, a couple of missed free agents and a trade of potential consequence. When considering whether to trade center fielder Dexter Fowler, coming off his breakout season, the Rockies asked for multiple pitchers in return or a disproportionate return, like Kris Medlen. The Rockies considered going three years on reliever Mike Adams before watching him sign with Philadelphia.





[More MLB Springboards: No. 30 Astros | No. 29 Marlins | No. 28 Mets]

In their biggest deal, Colorado gave up Alex White, one of the centerpieces of the mutually awful Ubaldo Jimenez deal, for relief pitcher Wilton Lopez, who was on his way to Philadelphia until doctors looked at his elbow and wondered whether ligaments or mashed potatoes held it together. His MRI passed muster for the Rockies, and if indeed he remains healthy, it's a savvy move for general manager … oh, might as well start there when discussing the Rockies' long-term prognosis.

REALITY CHECK

Dan O'Dowd is the Rockies' general manager, only he doesn't manage the Rockies. Bill Geivett is the Rockies' senior VP of major league operations, which means he operates the major league team without control over the vital minor league system. The GM-by-committee system, much like the closer-by-committee system, could work if in the right hands. These are not the right hands.

The Rockies are a humidor full of bad decisions, from not budging on the price of their surplus everyday players to Project 5,183, O'Dowd's plan aimed at solving the perils of pitching in Denver. That the Rockies commissioned such an endeavor is in and of itself a good thing, and that they considered the merits of a four-man rotation even more so. Limiting those four pitchers to just 75 pitches, however, ultimately proved ineffective. And not just because the four pitchers they happened to use were no good.

Story continues