Going into 2014, owner Dick Monfort thought, with a healthy roster, the Colorado Rockies would win 90 games. Well, the Rockies didn’t stay healthy as injuries not only TKOed the usual culprits in Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez, but took bites out of Nolan Arenado, Michael Cuddyer and most of the pitching staff. Beyond the Colorado Rockies 2014 season, the Rockies barely avoided a 100 loss season as they stumbled to a 66-96 record. Thus in the not-quite-yet frozen lands near Coors Field, Rockies fans were forced to eat the resignations of General Manager Dan O’Dowd and Assistant General Manager/Senior Vice President of Baseball Operations Bill Geivett resigned and there was much rejoicing. Yaaay.

Well, some rejoicing, anyway.

On the heels of another losing season but with Monfort remaining loyal to his personnel and “the culture”, there were quite a few serious questions on whether the Rockies would ever change anything… with their roster, with their front office, heck even with their quality assurance program. Meanwhile, not only were fans more than disgruntled but discontent and confusion had spread to the players as well. So, they gone.

To replace them falls on the task of one man, just one man – Jeff Bridich who has been with the Rockies for the last ten years and has been the team’s senior director of player development since 2011. At a scant 37 years of age (one year younger than me!), he’s the youngest General Manager in baseball.

If you hadn’t heard of him before, he’s had a busy offseason as he was one of the main drivers behind the minor league affiliation reshuffling. That being said, Thomas Harding probably summed him up best.

Good at seeing trends, where players are headed. His handling of finance, will be creative about allocating payroll resources. — Thomas Harding (@harding_at_mlb) October 8, 2014

So, on Wednesday, the Rockies had a press conference to announce their new hire.

That, um, didn’t go all that well…

The charitable view is that Bridich said all the politically correct things he was supposed to say, so he has that going for him, which is nice. The Rockies were, as he said, “united” and the main takeaway was that the Rockies would become winners as soon as “I believe becomes we believe”… which, for whatever reason, I felt was directed towards the fans. I felt I was being told that if I would just cave in and read The Secret or, for the cheaper alternative, watch reruns of Angels in the Outfield on the Disney channel, then sabermetrics be darned, the Rockies would be winners. Other than that, since Bridich had, as he said, only been on the job for two minutes, there was no real blueprint for success.

I’m not sure which bothered me more, the lack of a blueprint or the quickness that he was hired. In the grand scheme of things, the lack of a blueprint should matter more, but perhaps Bridich was being coy. But with the speed of his hire being fair game for a topic, the reporters present jumped on the topic. One member of the press contingent asked outright whether Bridich had interviewed for the position and he sidestepped the question. I would say I walked away from the press conference with the impression that the promotion was unexpected and that the Rockies put less effort into their general manager search than most teams put into their managerial search, except I was sitting at my desk far away from Coors Field watching the fiasco on television so there was nothing really to walk away from besides, well, my desk. However, even before the press conference was over, I got the weird feeling that instead of Dick Monfort deciding to fire O’Dowd and Geivett for accountability’s sake, that they had instead turned the tables on the owner and out of loyalty to themselves (integrity?), walked away. That might also explain why the announcement came during (a break in) the playoffs instead of after the season, which is when Our Dear Commissioner-Emeritus Bud Selig prefers major announcements are made. According to Nick Groke from the Denver Post, Bridich said the process had been going on for several weeks and deferred questions on whether there were other candidates, but from the press conference it didn’t “feel” that way.

But, back to the idea of accountability, part of the impetus among fans for firing O’Dowd and Geivett was that the fans wanted ownership to hold the front office accountable for performance on the field. Yet, it wasn’t refreshing when Bridich was asked about accountability during the press conference, his response was to summon Walt Weiss to, as he said, “take the heat off”.

Weiss, for whatever reason, came off as exceptionally photogenic on camera. I had a distinct but irrational urge to make him the general manager right then and there. Perhaps he was just happy not to have the general manager’s office in the clubhouse next to his anymore.

Weiss, among others at the press conference and on Twitter, spoke highly of Bridich. Cool. And I’ll admit it’s a bit unfair to roast someone too much for a press conference since actions are kinda supposed to speak louder than words. Except that made me wonder that, if he was such a “bright star”, what kind of input had Bridich provided during his decade-long tenure in the organization. If people thought he was bright, was he often overruled and if so, why? If not, then how much of the Rockies poor decisions over the last decade should have been blamed on him instead of on O’Dowd and/or Geivett? Inquiring minds will probably never know. The subject of autonomy came up during the press conference to which, Bridich replied “Only Dick and Charlie Monfort have complete autonomy” which is kinda sorta what people generally say about the owner of their company… but the metaphysical question ponders the concept of Bridich being “in charge” countermanded by how much he is overridden.

On that note, Bridich repeatedly indicated that his main priority was establishing a relationship with Weiss. Weiss reportedly had some issues, if not with Geivett particularly, with the organizational oversight including the proximity of Geivett’s office to the clubhouse. Again, on the question of “who is in charge”, this might add an extra complication. It is worth noting that in one of his interviews earlier this year, Bridich was a part of the system that put developmental coaches at each level of the minor league system which, similar to the dynamic between Weiss and Geivett, caused some frustration with minor league managers… but on that note, I’ll also admit I’m in favor of a system that emphasizes organizational oversight. At the least, replacing two general managers with one general manager should reduce confusion inside and outside the organization.

It is also a little fair to wonder, as insular as the Rockies can be, what is Bridich’s exposure to ideas outside of the organization? If the biggest thing on his resume, besides a stint in the main MLB office, is spending ten years in a losing organization, does he have a good idea on what makes franchises successful? Ordinarily, I might be a bit more skeptical and say “Nah, he doesn’t”, but this is kind of where social media helps because of his evident popularity outside of Denver. And to be fair, every so often the Rockies do try innovative things such as the four man rotation (not to mention the two general manager system), so they are outside-the-box at times, though it is unclear who gets the credit (or blame) for that.

There were other tidbits during the press conference that raised a wayward eyebrow. There was an effort to highlight that Bridich not only went to Harvard but was a catcher on their Ivy League baseball team. This made me wonder if my own boarding school experience with a stint on the varsity team qualified me for a minor league job in the Rockies organization. Hey, I get the idea that players like it when their “boss” played baseball, but if one of the criticisms of statheads is that they don’t know what they are talking about because they never played professionally, a Harvard backup catcher wouldn’t appease that morass. Perhaps it was an effort to placate a fanbase with a “Hey, Rockies fan! Bridich is smart, but don’t worry because he also played baseball, so he’s cool!” kinda way. I’m not quite sure what that says about the Rockies or about us fans…

Some were curious that owner Dick Monfort wasn’t available to the media for questions. Eh, he might’ve talked a bit too much this year, so while the formality should’ve taken place, I’m not bugged by it. And all things considered, as bad as the Rockies may have been on the field in recent years and as meddling as Monfort might be as an owner, he does a good job on the business side of it. The Rooftop area worked quite well (if not for me) and attending a game at Coors Field provides one of the best sporting bangs for the buck that you can find.

But overall, for those interested in seeing the Rockies “change”, in the informal Q&A that took place after the formal Q&A, the coyness remained as the common causes of Rockies failure i.e. injuries and altitude were parroted out. I get the idea that no team wants to reveal their secrets, though it’s hard to see what kinds of competitive advantages another team could glean from the Rockies besides “Here’s what you don’t do.” For myself, I don’t need the nitty-gritty details, but a broad overview as practically every other team does, would’ve been nice.

What the change in General Managers does in philosophy or “Rockies culture” is hard to tell. There might not even be any change.

However, it does buy time.

I imagine changing general managers defers any serious questions about bringing in an external candidate to be president for at least a few years. Bridich’s “leash” a.k.a. job security, given the Rockies recent trends, should be secure for at least five years, win or lose. Furthermore, with the Rockies expected to rebound from their dismal 2014 season, Bridich will have added a feather to his cap, as unearned as it might be. So that will earn him some goodwill with the fans, which is nice.

However, by spring training, it should be pretty evident what has actually changed. There are a number of decisions about current players and pending free agents which should indicate what the “new” front office values. Do they go with clubhouse chemistry and retain Michael Cuddyer, ignoring age and health and indirectly benching Charlie Blackmon and Corey Dickerson in the process? Do they value defense and keep Drew Stubbs? Do they trade Carlos Gonzalez (since Tulo has to be off the table at this point, right?) How does the catcher and bullpen situation shake out? While Rockies fans may be happy with the current change (and I’ll admit, as a Rockies fan, I am happy that _something_ happened), in theory we won’t have to wait all that long to find out if actual change took place. Yaaay.