Rockies Owner Dick Monfort On Starting Rotation: 'We've Got Numbers'
DENVER (CBS4) - Colorado Rockies CEO and owner Dick Monfort says he thinks this year's offseason has gone by really fast, but he's ready to get things started. He was the guest on CBS4's Xfinity Monday Live!
"For some reason, this year did go by pretty quick," Monfort said. "I know we didn't play very late in the year, but it went quick, we had a lot of things to do."
After making the playoffs in 2009 but having two seasons being out of the playoffs since then, Monfort says he's ready to get back to playing baseball in October.
"Our goal every year is to play games in October," he said. "So that's what we go into the offseason thinking about and that's what we live for; is to have games here in October."
Last year at this time Ubaldo Jiminez was the ace of the team, but looking at the starting pitching going into spring training this year, there is no clear-cut ace on the team. The Rockies hope Jhoulys Chacin can fill the role. They have brought in a lot of starting pitchers to try to see how they can fill out the rotation.
"We've got numbers. You'd rather have maybe that ace," Monfort said. "I think Chacin can take a step forward, (Drew) Pomeranz has got a big upside, (Juan) Nicasio is going to come back and be alright, Jason Hammel; we've got a lot of good arms and now we've just got to find two or three or four guys who will really take a step forward."
Fans 'Riddle Me This' With Dick Monfort in the video below:
The Rockies have some pitchers that have had success in the majors and also some within the Rockies system who show promise.
"We've got some guys who are coming up in our system who have pitched well," Monfort said. "We have some great numbers. Last year, one of the things, after Nicasio and (Jorge) De La Rosa got hurt, we were a little thin. We decided we had to bulk that up, and I think we have. We've got some guys who can throw."
Some Rockies fans and baseball critics think the ownership doesn't spend as much as they should on players. Monfort disagrees.
"I don't think we'll ever spend enough to make everybody satisfied," he joked. "You know what? Our ticket prices are like 29th in the majors, and that's by design. We want fans to be able to come to Coors Field and be able to enjoy the games. We spend all that we can … we're not going to get ourselves in a bad situation."
Monfort said the team tries to use the money prudently.
"We work very hard at budgeting, trying to raise the revenue. The standard in baseball is to give 50 percent to the players. We actually do more than that. We're a mid-market team, so we're never going to spend like the Yankees or the Red Sox, or even the Angels or Texas last year."
The Rockies' pitchers and catchers report to spring training in less than a month on Feb. 19 in Arizona.
Watch more of the video with Monfort in the Xfinity Monday Live! section.
