SAN DIEGO — Jim Tracy is unflappable. He was raised in Hamilton, Ohio, to roll up his sleeves and remain a stranger to excuses. But even Tracy has been unable to hide his disappointment with this season.
The Rockies were picked by many to reach the World Series. They need 16 wins in their final 23 games just to produce a winning record.
During this road trip, while watching the final speckles of dirt thrown on the Rockies’ contender status, their manager has fidgeted, walked away from the top step of the dugout and placed his hands on his face.
“Why? Because I wish the onus was just on me and not these guys who have given everything I asked since the first day I took over (in 2009),” Tracy said Saturday.
Fingers are pointing in Tracy’s direction from disgruntled fans who wonder why the Arizona Diamondbacks can go from worst to first in the National League West but Colorado isn’t even playing meaningful games in September. There are tangible reasons, of course, from Jorge De La Rosa’s elbow injury to Ubaldo Jimenez’s mediocrity and eventual trade, and the lack of production at third base.
Tracy is under contract for next season. Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd and owner Dick Monfort have said he will return.
There are those who want Tracy to be more of a firebrand, cracking the whip on underachieving players.
“I do that stuff behind closed doors. That’s how I am. My (10-year) track record as a manager is successful,” Tracy said. “My job is to remain patient and deliver the message of how important it is to pay attention to the small details.”
That has been the most troubling thing about the Rockies this season. Arguably no team spent more time drilling home fundamentals in spring training. The Rockies used on-field demonstrations with accompanying video work. And yet they have not run the bases well — particularly Dexter Fowler at times. Their clutch hitting has been abysmal, which explains how they have lost 14 games this season with double-digit hits.
“The failure this year has to make us better. It has to,” Tracy said. “If you are a competitive person and want to be successful and realize places you’ve been before and know that you didn’t handle it as well as you should have, then the next time it shows up, you should have a different approach.”
When a team struggles, grumbling is common. But complaints from players about Tracy privately and publicly have been minimal. The lineup has been in flux for weeks, traced to the lack of production at third base, second base and in the outfield.
O’Dowd’s most damning criticism is that the Rockies lack mental toughness. The Rockies are 21-24 in one-run games and 9-26 against current National League playoff teams. He wants players to hold each other more accountable.
How does that change?
“It’s part of learning from experience and making adjustments,” Tracy said.
Over the final month, Tracy is looking for more consistent starting pitching and better situational hitting. Other than Kevin Millwood, no starter is regularly pitching deep into games, which has compromised the bullpen. To improve hitting with runners in scoring position, the Rockies, Tracy said, need to take what the defense gives them.
“You saw it with Tulo (on Friday), where he hit that groundball with the infield back to score a run,” Tracy said.
With the Rockies closer to last place than first, there will be changes during the winter. They will attempt to bolster their rotation with a veteran starter as a concession to the injuries to De La Rosa and Juan Nicasio. And adding a corner bat is a priority.
As empty as this season has been because of the expectations, Tracy remains convinced that it’s an aberration, not a trend.
“I don’t feel like we are that far away. Why? Because we have been competitive in virtually every game, where a hit here or a pitch there and we’d be in the hunt for the division championship,” Tracy said. “We’ve dealt with several forms of adversity. But we have to recognize our errors and handle it better. If we learn from this, we can get good quickly.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
