Monfort's outlook still sunny

Colorado's owner doesn't see need to vary strategy

By Tracy Ringolsby, Rocky Mountain News

Published February 25, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

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Photo by Barry Gutierrez / The Rocky

Charlie Monfort believes the Rockies' approach will produce continued success.

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This time, Rockies owner Charlie Monfort got the last laugh.

And he is enjoying it.

"I think this year I'll pick us to finish fourth," Monfort said with a smile. "Everyone else can pick us first."

Fat chance.

Ever since the Rockies came into existence, Monfort has spent the spring extolling the virtues of his team. Most times, Monfort has been laughed at, sometimes good-naturedly but more often than not sarcastically.

With the Rockies coming off the first National League pennant in franchise history, and with a team that has another year of experience on its resume, the Rockies no longer are considered the dregs of the baseball world.

Monfort arrived at Hi Corbett Field for the first full-squad workouts of spring training this past weekend confident that last year was merely the first year of many to come in which the Rockies are a factor in postseason battles.

"Everybody should be better with the experience of last year and the way we finished up," Monfort said. "We should be successful again. To be honest, we feel we are built for the long run. We feel we should be successful for more than just another year or two."

It wasn't easy getting to the postseason for the Rockies.

After an 11-year absence, they had to win 14 of their final 15 regular-season games, including an NL wild-card tiebreaker against San Diego. Then they added sweeps of Philadelphia in the Division Series and Arizona in the Championship Series before getting swept by Boston in the World Series.

They had managed a winning record in only one of their nine previous seasons, and that was a ho-hum 82-80 in 2000.

Coors Field, where sellouts initially were the norm, had gone through an extended period of being half-empty. And the public was restless.

Now, though, the mood is upbeat. Opening Day was sold out within 30 minutes of single- game tickets going on sale, and Monfort said advance sales are running more than 20 percent ahead of last year, one result of a season that went right.

What helps is that this isn't Florida. A summer of success wasn't followed by an offseason of cost cutting. The Rockies, in fact, added long-term deals for right-handed pitcher Aaron Cook and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the commitment made to left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis the previous offseason.

"For them to sign on shows they know the team is going to be special, and they want to be part of it," Monfort said.

The Rockies also are hoping they set the stage for a deal that will keep Matt Holliday in town into his free-agency eligibility by signing a contract that covered his remaining two years of arbitration.

"You never know if the negotiations will work out or not but, obviously, we want to keep Matt," Monfort said. "Our team is young and it has had success, which we feel is important to Matt. Matt likes Colorado. He has bought a home in Denver. He likes the players on this team and the organization. The piece that is missing is financial.

"Hopefully, that can be resolved in the next year or so. Our intention is to come up with a contract that both sides feel is fair and allows the relationship between Matt and the Rockies to continue."

Holliday is, after all, third in seniority among the Rockies and one of 16 products of the Rockies' minor league system that filled the playoff roster. He was a prospect who struggled but has blossomed on the big- league level to be considered an elite player by his peers and fans.

Individually, he is what the Rockies are as a team, a product of an organizational commitment that was questioned often during the five-year rebuilding plan that culminated with a World Series appearance.

There were times when fans demanded change, but the franchise didn't sway.

"I've been in the game long enough to know you have to do things because you believe, and your people believe, it is what should be done," Monfort said. "We bowed to the pressure from outside eight years ago (signing Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle). At the time, we thought we were doing the right thing.

"We realize you have to be thick-skinned, but people who did their homework could see what was going on with the organization and knew last spring we were on the verge of being very good. We took some shots, but we talked to each other and kept each other up. It helps when you have good people, and we do, which is why we feel this is something that will continue."

What won't happen is, the Rockies won't again become big players in the free-agent market. Monfort said the emphasis on scouting and player development is such that free- agency shopping sprees never should be necessary, although he said there will be times the Rockies will look at free agents to patch an unexpected hole.

"There will be bumps along the way and we will have to address those, but we feel our future is with the players we develop," he said. "It's like this year. I've heard it said we didn't do anything (in the offseason). In reality, we did a lot. We added a year of growth to our players, and their talent level will grow from that."

The Rockies had their chance to stray into high-priced waters in July. With the team on the fringes of the NL West race, the rotation was beset with injuries, and it looked into adding the likes of Brett Tomko (who wanted a one-year, $7 million extension to agree), Esteban Loaiza (who is guaranteed $7.375 million this year) and Matt Morris (who is guaranteed $10.5 million for this year). Instead, the Rockies opted to bring up prospects Ubaldo Jimenez and Franklin Morales.

"We spend endless hours talking about who was out there and what direction we should go," Monfort said. "We weren't going to take (the contracts) on that were available. If we had, it would have impacted what we were able to do for this season. Plus, we felt we had strong arms in the organization who would benefit from their experience, even if things didn't work out."

But things did work out, and Monfort said he felt it was especially rewarding for first baseman Todd Helton, who had become a victim of the team's lackluster history in his 10 seasons with the Rockies.

"When you are a player of Todd's caliber and people are constantly asking you about not winning, about not getting to the playoffs, about constant rebuilding, how can you help but get stale in that environment?" Monfort said. "You are just like everyone else. You need a reason to believe. And I think you saw from the way Todd played down the stretch he is a money player."

And the Rockies showed they had the right idea - finally.

"It really hit me one Sunday when the Broncos were playing a game and I drove by a park (in Greeley) where kids were playing baseball," Monfort said. "I'd never seen that before.

"But when you think about it, we had a decade, after the excitement of the first four years, where there wasn't the buzz.

"Last September, a lot of kids got to feel the excitement of Coors Field for the first time. A new generation of Rockies fan was born."

TRIPLE OPTION

3 different roles that left-handed pitcher Franklin Morales could fill this season. He could be in the Rockies rotation or bullpen, or he could be sent to Triple-A Colorado Springs for consistent work as a starter if he doesn't fit in the big-league starting alignment. "He has the dynamic stuff and ability to work through stretches because of the pitches he can make to strike out a hitter," manager Clint Hurdle said. "We need to see the consistency with his strikes."

WELL SHOD

Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki has endorsements, including one with a shoe company, but he saw a pair of tennis shoes he couldn't resist buying recently, and they are part of his daily wear in spring training.

They have purple and orange patches.

"They are my Denver shoes," Tulowitzki said, "purple for the Rockies, orange for the Broncos. . . . The only place I had seen them was in (the store). I liked them."

HE SAID IT

"I watch where the catcher sets up and where the ball ends up. I watch for the sharpness and crispness of the pitch."

Hurdle, on what he can see from pitchers throwing in workouts before spring games begin.

FAMILIAR FACE

Former big-league pitcher Greg Olson, the 1989 American League Rookie of the Year and a member of the 1990 AL All-Star team, was a visitor to the Rockies camp Sunday, promoting a line of undergarments he created.

Olson was a No. 1 pick of Baltimore out of Auburn in June 1988. He spent his first five full big-league seasons with Baltimore and in the next eight years played for seven teams - Atlanta, Cleveland, Kansas City (twice), Houston, Minnesota, Arizona and the Dodgers.

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