The Colorado Rockies haven't been big spenders on the free agent market since they signed Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle to absurd contracts back in the winter of 2000. The organization has preached a "build from within" attitude and has made two playoffs since then. But that hasn't worked the last two years. Now it appears the Rockies are looking to make "internal" improvements. As General Manager Dan O'Dowd recently told Dave Krieger of the Denver Post:
"I personally think a lot our issues are internal, not external. I think we have to improve our internal process, our internal culture. The years that we've won here, in '07 and '09, I think our culture and our clubhouse and our process was fantastic. The winning created that.
And bringing back Jim Tracy and his managerial staff is going to go a long way in changing that, right?
Let's look at 2007. That was really just pure luck--that a team wins 21 of 22 games before falling flat on their faces in the World Series isn't an internal process so far as it being a long-term once. And 2009 was finally the season the Rockies were able to get out from under the hanging, unwanted presence of Clint Hurdle.
So, yeah, those were internal improvement processes, but not long-term ones.