Colorado Rockies News and Notes for Tuesday, April 23, 2024
Perhaps you remember the Colorado Rockies Home Opener, a game that saw Kris Bryant both hitting a home run and missing a key catch at first. That’s when the scattered booing started.
After the game, Bryant commented on a number of topics, including the fact that he had received death threats. Watch the video here:
Rockies first baseman Kris Bryant discusses the ugly side of baseball after Friday’s Home Opener:
“I’ve been through it all – death threats, kill yourself all the craziness that this game will dish out” pic.twitter.com/X7psTvb86o
— Dave Althouse (@davealthouse) April 6, 2024
I was in the clubhouse that night, standing at his locker with the scrum of reporters.
You have to understand that the Rockies Home Opener is always an anomaly because it’s when all of Denver media shows up — even the television stations. They want that first-day, feel-good story. Most probably won’t be back unless something extraordinary happens. After all, the Rockies are not very good while the Colorado Avalanche and Denver Nuggets are — plus, the Denver Broncos have new uniforms. (And it’s always football season.)
Their presence that night was one reason those comments were so widely circulated. The moment stayed with me less because of Bryant’s description of receiving death threats than the point he made about what it takes to play baseball.
“It’s just what I’ve been trying to talk with these young guys (about),” he said.
“Nolan [Jones] was going through it early on, and I’ve just told him, ‘It takes courage to keep showing up,’” Bryant said. “It’s gonna make you a better person at the end of your career, and it’s something that I’ll be able to teach my kids through adversity, how you respond to it, and you just keep going.”
The next day, the booing continued, mostly when Bryant struck out, which, to be fair, would be a lot over the next week.
With another hitless game, assuming he doesn’t hit again tonight, Kris Bryant is 4-for-35 with one extra-base hit and 14 strikeouts to open the season.
— Manny Randhawa (@MannyOnMLB) April 10, 2024
The sound wasn’t overwhelming, but enough to be heard through the crisp air of a Coors Field spring — a spark with the potential to catch fire before the end of what looked to be another long season.
I’m not here to defend Kris Bryant because he doesn’t need that.
But I do wish those booing would take a few minutes to think about the person they’ve decided to boo.
If you’re expecting a defense of Bryant’s contract, this isn’t it. (An OPS+ of 90 during his time with the Rockies is not notable in any positive way. And that’s when he’s healthy, which is not often.) This seven-year, $182 million deal came at a time when a rebuilding Rockies team needed to devote its time and capital to developing young players and acquiring pitching.
It will surely go down as one of the worst contracts, certainly, in Denver sports history.
That said, Bryant had a period of his life when he was one of the most elite baseball players in the game. Rookie of the Year, NL MVP, World Series winner — these are not small achievements. There was always the possibility the winning would continue after he reached free agency.
Remember: The way the system works is that players’ labor is largely exploited until they become free agents. In this, Bryant was a poster child for service-time manipulation. “The most egregious on record,” according to Forbes. (This Grantland piece provides an infuriating account.)
The Chicago Cubs exploited Bryant as much as they could, won a World Series, paid him as little as they could, and then traded him to San Francisco before he became a free agent.
That Bryant would expect to get paid makes sense. It’s Capitalism 101. The system negotiated by the owners and players is designed to allow players like Bryant to get paid, which he did.
Rockies owner Dick Monfort gave it some thought, pulled out his wallet, and wrote a check. In other words, the decision to sign Kris Bryant is completely and totally his.
(At the time, skepticism about the contract was bountiful. For example, see here, here, and here.)
That Bryant’s contract has turned out to be a marginal investment isn’t KB’s fault. No one is more frustrated by his lack of success than he is — and you don’t have to talk to him very long to understand that.
So to all the, “He got paid, and he doesn’t care” people, sit this one out.
Bryant is more a victim of lacking Charlie Blackmon’s robust constitution than a will to win.
Then came those comments to The Athletic about “prospects.” I thought at the time it was a deliberate misreading. (To Sam Blum: Do better. To The Athletic: Actually cover Colorado sports.) My feelings have not changed — it seems as clickbaity now as it did then. Bryant was inartfully referring to his own future rather than the Rockies’ farm system. (Skyler Timmins does the interpretive work here.)
All of that said, here’s what bothers me about the booing: It seems misdirected.
Shouldn’t those fans be booing Dick Monfort?
After all, that Kris Bryant is a Rockie is a decision for which Monfort is entirely responsible. The Rockies signing Bryant made zero sense at the time. Monfort did it anyway.
Consider an analogy.
At some point in your life, there’s a good chance you had a job — say in retail or the service industry — and you found yourself in the position of being dressed down — in effect, booed — by a customer who disliked something that had happened. The odds are that whatever the customer was unhappy about was well beyond your control. Rather, it was a policy created by someone else, who was probably making a lot more money. Yet you were forced to stand there and take it because the rent was due at the end of the month, and, really, you didn’t have a choice.
That’s Kris Bryant right now every time he strikes out (without the “paying rent” part).
“It takes courage to keep showing up.”
He tries to model this because it’s the job, even when things aren’t going well. That’s what I took away from Bryant’s presser.
Kris Bryant has the courage to go out and face the boos. Dick Monfort does not.
And that Colorado Rockies consistent losing record (2265-2615) is a testament to Monfort’s leadership of the franchise — not Bryant’s on-field play. Don’t lose sight of that.
So the next time Kris Bryant strikes out or grounds into a double play, before taking in a deep breath to let him know how you feel about it, pause a minute to ask yourself if you’re booing the right person.
It’s generally better to complain to someone who can fix the problem, not the person who happens to be standing in front of you.
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The Rockies should have signed him before he left Denver.
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In case you missed it over the weekend, Duane DaPron spoke with Victor Vodnik about joining the Rockies bullpen.
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