Rockies hot streak has turned them from sellers into buyers

Troy Tulowitzki (center), who reportedly wasn't getting along with Clint Hurdle, has taken off since Jim Tracy became manager. Miles Chrisinger/Icon SMI

A month ago this was not looking like a road trip as much as last rites; and taunting last rites at that.

Over nine games from June 22 until July 1, the Rockies would visit the closer they could not sign, the slugger they could not keep and the team they could not beat. It looked about as much fun as trying to eat the Rocky Mountains a spoonful at a time.

But a funny thing happened to the Rockies on the way to their June obituary: They morphed into a cross between their 2007 forerunners and the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays. And in the process they transformed from one of the most obvious sellers in the trade marketplace to a club trying to figure out how to add a veteran reliever on the cheap.

"The next five weeks will determine who we really are," Colorado GM Dan O'Dowd said Monday.

Caution is probably the right emotion, because the Rockies have become baseball's most schizophrenic club. Consider that the Rockies won 14 of their final 15 regular-season games to close the 2007 season, vaulting from fourth place to the NL wild-card spot and eventually to their first World Series appearance.

Then from the conclusion of that postseason until May 28 of this year, Colorado went 92-116, the sixth-worst record in the majors over that span. That included a 74-88 record last year and an 18-28 start to this season. And then Clint Hurdle was fired as manager, Jim Tracy was named as his replacement and the Rockies became the best team in baseball.

Which is great for fans in Colorado, but just horrible for what already was an incredibly contracting trade market. At the time of the managerial change, interested clubs were already doing the vulture thing around Huston Street, Brad Hawpe and Jason Marquis; the Yanks particularly were eyeing Street and the Phillies were very interested in Marquis. Now O'Dowd is telling other organizations he is in a holding pattern until at least the All-Star break. At that point, if the Rockies are still soaring, O'Dowd will keep what he has and try to uncover a cost-effective, veteran reliever who could help get the ball to Street.

O'Dowd is paying particular attention to the current California voyage as a barometer of whether his club is simply assembling an unsustainable hot streak or it is truly a formidable wild-card contender in a watered-down National League.

This road trip appears to be constructed by a novel writer more than the schedule makers in the commissioner's office. The first stop was in Anaheim to face the Angels, who in the offseason signed the Rockies' all-time saves leader, Brian Fuentes. The Rockies will then move north to face the A's, who in the offseason traded for Colorado's best player, Matt Holliday. Colorado concludes the trip by heading back to Southern California to face the Dodgers, who so far this season are 8-1 versus the Rockies, outscoring them 74-44. Ubaldo Jimenez, Colorado's fine young starter, is 0-3 with a 10.20 ERA against the Dodgers this season and 6-4 with a 2.66 ERA versus everyone else; he opens the series at Chavez Ravine on Monday.

But all the 2009 horror against the Dodgers came under Hurdle. His managerial tenure ended with a three-game sweep at Coors Field that the Dodgers won by a combined score of 31-13.

The next game, with Tracy as the manager, the Rockies beat the Padres 3-0 and have hardly lost since. Entering Wednesday's game, they're 19-6 under Tracy. Before losing 4-3 to the Angels on Tuesday night, they had a franchise-record nine-game road winning streak and had won 17-of-18 overall.

So how did this happen? How do you decide to not make an offer to Fuentes, deal Holliday due to concern that keeping him in his walk year would be detrimental to the team's psyche and win just 18 of your first 46 games -- and not only survive, but ultimately thrive?

Well, don't ignore the obvious. Hurdle had been on the job seven years and presided over the greatest success in the organization's history, the 2007 NL title. But he was being tuned out by his players. In good times Hurdle's personality would be described as gregarious and in bad times bombastic. Word out of the Rockies' clubhouse was the players had grown disillusioned with the inconsistency of Hurdle's message; he either would threaten changes if inept/indifferent play continued and not follow up on the threat or follow up in one instance but let it slide in others. Word is the relationship between Hurdle and shortstop Troy Tulowitzki was particularly strained.