Dick Monfort Has Answered Another Fan Email

It provides insight into his thinking — and contrast with a fellow owner

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Steven Cohen, the Mets new owner, has become a Twitter sensation with his more than 140K followers and lively interaction with fans. Take this example:

Steven Cohen @StevenACohen2

I know this trade seems to creating excitement but let’s get back to what matters - the black jerseys

What’s not to like? He’s interacting with fans in a very public way; he understands what’s interesting to the community (jerseys); he seems utterly approachable — and all this after the Francisco Lindor trade. It’s early in his tenure, but Cohen appears get the fandom he is both interacting with and cultivating. (This Steve Serby interview illustrates Cohen’s fan-centric approach to ownership.)

Dick Monfort, however, is a bit more traditional in terms of fan communication, preferring to use individual email messages with their meme-able “Sent from My iPad” signature. @_DariNYC and Monfort have apparently become email pals. Late in 2020, Dari shared an email Monfort sent her in which he reiterated his support for Jeff Bridich. Last week, Dari posted on Reddit the text of his most recent correspondence with her.

It’s worth parsing through this as the email gives some insight into Monfort’s thinking about the Rockies and highlights some differences between Monfort’s and Steven Cohen’s leadership styles. To be fair, Cohen and the Mets have a different financial situation than Monfort and the Rockies, but the differences in approach are notable.

New Uniforms

According to Monfort:

You are in luck, not only am I answering but next year we will have a new uniform, so stay tuned for that.

Let me start by saying that the contrast is marked between Cohen’s tweet and Monfort’s email. Cohen’s tweet is fun, public, and shows significant engagement. Monfort’s email is limited to a single reader, and the exciting news is a one-sentence line that gets lost in an unruly paragraph. Clearly, the Rockies will have an elaborate new uniform rollout next year, but this seems like a missed opportunity, especially during a season in which fans would like something — anything — to get excited about.

Moreover, it underscores how bad the front office is at fan engagement.

The upgrade will happen in 2022. Joelle Milholm has a nice discussion of the possibilities and the impact of advertising here. Myself, I’m hoping for something retro — say, bring back the white vests with a bit of updating. (Just, please, eliminate the white pants with purple piping.)

Attempts to Extend Trevor Story

Monfort adds:

We have explored extending Trevor, last few years, his agent hasn’t wanted to discuss although I think Trevor does, one of the screwed up things about this game, agents.

Note to self: Dick Monfort doesn’t like agents.

We’ve known since last year that that the Rockies want to extend Story, but Monfort reveals that discussions have not yet happened. Allowing his agent to take the blame for deferring negotiations seems like a good strategy for Story in that it allows him to keep his options open.

This passage provides another contrast given Cohen’s recent trade for Lindor.

Plans for Ryan Vilade and Alan Trejo

According to Monfort:

We are actually moving Vilade to outfield, not a true SS, and Trejo more of a utility guy, great defensively maybe a little short on the bat, but may surprise us.

Vilade’s move to the outfield is not news though he was expected to spend most of 2020 learning the position in the minors. Where he is in his development remains unclear.

But it’s interesting to learn that the Rockies see Alan Trejo as perhaps the next Garrett Hampson. Trejo doesn’t get much attention and is not ranked by MLB Pipeline, but perhaps that should change. “A little short on the bat” is not encouraging, however. (He has a career MiLB OPS of .757.)

Nolan Arenado and Alan Trejo at Summer Camp

Evolving Analytics (Kinda)

Then Monfort points out:

Our analytical folks are actually exploring that, and for years we have done things most teams wouldn’t, times of games have been played with, oxygen, diet, traveling to road trips day early, different kind of hyperbaric chambers, taking curve ball machines on road, no outdoor BO first game of the road trip, totally in cage. It has been something we are challenging ourselves to figure this out.

I’m not entirely sure how to take this. The fact that the Rockies are attempting to sort out the Coors Effect is good. However, we know from reporting by Nick Groke that the Rockies’ already small analytics department is depleted and that Charlie Blackmon created the strategy of using a pitching machine to adjust to hitting away from elevation. (The results in 2020 were mixed.)

When it comes to analytics, I would like to something a bit more, well, systematic and data driven. This still feels like throwing everything at the wall and hoping something will stick.

Something, Something Streaming

Monfort continues:

The streaming is way over my pay grade, I think it will get better.

Serious question: Is anything “over the pay grade” of the owner? Moreover, shouldn’t he be very interested given that streaming provides a potential revenue source and MLB’s tv revenues are projected to decrease?

Steven Cohen, I think, would never be so casual about a subject that is, one, important to fans and, two, a source of revenue.

I’ve come to think that Monfort just isn’t that interested in anything technology-related or outside of the Coors Field experience.

Positive Thoughts!

Monfort concludes:

Happy New Year, keep the faith. Thanks.

So the rest of us may be feeling despair at the Rockies currently having the lowest fWAR in baseball with no apparent plans to make changes, but Dick Monfort urges fans to stay the course.

Meanwhile, Steven Cohen and the Mets (like the Padres) aren’t using hope as a strategy; rather, they are making moves to become a contender — and grow fan engagement.

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Updates

After a flurry of trade moves, Dan Szymborski recalculated the ZiPS projection for the Padres, which included this projection for the NL West in 2021:

Keep the faith, indeed. (Hey, new uniforms in 2022!)

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What I’m Reading, Watching, and Listening To

• Thomas Harding’s “Oberg Working Toward 2021 Comeback” (MLB.com) — Among other things, Oberg describes his now-removed right rib that is currently housed in a cabinet at his house. Removal of the bone should alleviate some crowding in Oberg’s neck and arm and (hopefully) allow him to pitch this year. (Daniel Bard had the surgery in 2014.)

• Kevin Henry’s “Colorado Rockies: One Analyst Says Slow Down Trevor Story Trade Rumors” (Rox Pile) — Henry explains why this is a bad time for the Rockies to make a trade.

• Vincent Parise’s “Chicago White Sox: Three Rockies Free Agents to Consider” (Southside Showdown) — They’re all yours, Vincent.

• Eno Sarris’ “Why Missing In-game Video Meant a Poor Season for Christian Yelich (and Others)” (The Atheltic) — This was a question I had in 2020: What effect did the lack of video have on the Rockies’ hitters? We know they weren’t good, but were they worse because this technology was missing and exacerbated the Coors effect?

• Jacob Boes’ “Detroit Tigers: Dahl to Detroit Reveals a More Pressing Thesis With Fans” (Motor City Bengals) — This piece about the #DahlToDetroit hashtag should strike a chord with Rockies fans.

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Weekday Walk-up

Since Scott Oberg is embarking on his comeback, it seems like a good time to play a little Led Zeppelin, Oberg’s warmup song, “Kashmir.”

Let’s hope “Kashmir” is rocking Coors Field this summer while Oberg and Bard are competing to be the closer.

Thanks for reading —

Renee

@307Renee