What does 92 wins in the National League West get you these days?
A trip to the playoffs and a division title. Just don’t lose in the division series, because those 92 wins won’t help you keep your job, as Don Mattingly learned on Thursday. The now former Dodgers skipper “agreed to part ways,” with the club after the club again failed to get out of the division series.
So what does 94 losses in the National League West get you these days?
A stay of execution if you’re Walt Weiss and your bosses are Jeff Bridich and Dick Monfort. Despite posting the team’s second-worst season in franchise history in 2014, and its fifth-worst (tie) season in 2015, the Rockies brass decided to hang on to their skipper, who now boasts the worst winning percentage in club history.
That’s the difference between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Colorado Rockies as both teams enter the offseason.
Mattingly’s “mutual” agreement (are they ever?) to depart Los Angeles highlights what starkly different ends of the baseball spectrum the Dodgers and Rockies occupy. Colorado, on the opposite end of the win-loss range, value a certain “clubhouse culture above winning,” according to Bryan Kilpatrick, managing editor of Purple Row.
Kilpatrick joined Morning Mayhem on Mile High Sports AM 1340 on Friday morning and said Mattingly’s departure has as much to do with a new organizational philosophy as it does his lack of playoff success over the past three years.
Still, Dan Williams, co-host of Morning Mayhem, says managers with teams like the Dodgers “only get so many laps around the track with the engine running at full speed.”
Marcello Romano, Williams’ co-host, notes that the new front office in Los Angeles, who came in prior to last year, believes very heavily in sabermetrics, while Mattingly is more “traditional.”
Kilpatrick agrees with Romano in the notion that baseball managers are the least impactful “coaches” of the big four sports, and says that the Rockies are giving Weiss a pass on the past two seasons because he’s inherited such terrible pitching staffs.
The two teams are each at a bit of a crossroads as they enter the offseason. The Dodgers will be seeking a new coach, one Kilpatrick predicts will be an up-and-comer more in line with the analytical philosophies of the new front office. Anchored by two exceptional pitchers in Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, and with talent both young and old up and down the lineup, the Dodgers will be looking for a manager who can key in the right combination to get them over the hump.
The Rockies, on the other hand, need to shore up their pitching staff. As the top run-scoring team in baseball and boasting two potential MVP-caliber players in Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez, the formula to fix the Rockies is quite simple.
In addition to his perspective on Mattingly, Kilpatrick shared his insight on what moves the Rockies might make in the offseason. Catch his full analysis in the podcast below.
Catch Morning Mayhem every weekday from 7a-9a on Mile High Sports AM 1340 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of what’s new and what’s next in Colorado sports.
