Former Colorado Rockies shortstop Walt Weiss has been announced as the next manager of the Colorado Rockies. Following Jim Tracy‘s resignation and quick departure, the club interviewed numerous candidates and narrowed it down to Weiss and Arizona Diamondback’s third-base coach, Matt Williams. The interview trio of Dick Monfort, Dan O’Dowd and Bill Geivett landed on the head coach of Regis Jesuit High School’s varsity team.
Surely knowing that it will appease some fans, Weiss will be seen as the sympathetic character in the ongoing future of the Rockies. It will make it harder to sling mud at the club because they brought in a good ol’ boy to be the manager.
Hopefully he can find a way to make the lineup more consistent as they will have to carry a heavier bat if the pitching fails like it has been. A new regime of coaches will be in the dugout with Weiss now in command. If a fundamental refreshing of voices in the dugout can shake things up, maybe someone can then get through to the pitchers.
Weiss faces an uphill battle, but luckily he has been put into his position to make that hill seem a bit smaller with the Rockies faithful. With memories of the Blake Street Bomber years in many people’s minds, he will also get another line of credit to work with because of the front office factor. His best hope from them is that they actually land some future talent in the pitching department through the draft.
The best hope for the new manager now is that he can rally the players around each other. A unified front is going to be required from Weiss and his players to take on the likes of Los Angeles and San Francisco in pursuit of a division title. It will be interesting next season to see how the ballclub responds to nearly losing 100 games. At least Weiss has a clean slate to work with.