TODAY: Black received a three-year deal with at least one option (of indeterminate kind) included, per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post (via Twitter).
YESTERDAY: The Rockies have hired Bud Black as their new manager, according to Ken Rosenthal of FOX Sports. FanRag’s Tommy Stokke was first to report Colorado’s decision (Twitter links).
Black, 59, will now manage his second National League West team, having previously served as the Padres’ skipper from 2007-15. The Padres went 649-713 under Black, who helped the club to an 89-win season in 2007 and a 90-victory campaign in 2010. Black earned NL Manager of the Year honors in the latter season, but that was the last time the talent-deprived Padres finished over .500 on his watch. San Diego fired Black midway through the 2015 season, and he caught on with the Angels last November as a special assistant to general manager Billy Eppler. That was Black’s second stint with the Angels, as he previously worked as their pitching coach from 2000-06.
A longtime major league pitcher, Black will now take the helm of a Rockies team that plays half its games each season at hitter-friendly Coors Field. Thanks in part to that, the majority of Colorado’s hurlers have struggled over the years, but the team’s rotation now seems to have long-term building blocks in Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson and Jeff Hoffman.
Despite 382 1/3 combined innings of quality pitching from Gray and Anderson, not to mention a position player group featuring Nolan Arenado, DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon, Trevor Story and Carlos Gonzalez, the Rockies won just 75 games in 2016 and missed the playoffs for the seventh straight year. That led Rockies GM Jeff Bridich to part with Walt Weiss and replace him with Black, who beat out the likes of Don Wakamatsu, Tim Wallach, Dave Martinez, Sandy Alomar Jr., Glenallen Hill and Brad Mills for the job.
I like Bud. Good fit for Colorado.
Bravo good sir. Bravo.
It will be something if he can improve the pitching.
A comment made by either a moron or someone on the east coast.
Their starters were 8th in baseball in ERA-. So, most of the way there!
The Rockies have two top 30-40 prospects, Hoffman and Marquez, that got a few starts in the majors last season and will have a full season there in 2017. That alone should improve the starting pitching. Picking up a veteran groundball pitcher in FA or in trade to go along with Gray, Bettis and Chatwood would be a good move. Their starting pitching staff was one of the youngest staffs in baseball and will be even younger next year with Gray at 25, Bettis at 27, Chatwood at 27, Anderson at 27, Hoffman at 24 and Marquez at 22. Bringing in Black will help that young staff immensely.
Good for him and for the Rockies. With their young pitching doing good last year this team should be better than people think
Yawn
Bud is a fine manager.
I think he’s a perfect fit for Colorado. He should help improve the pitching and they already have a solid position-player core. Watch out for the Rockies next season, they can give the Giants/Dodgers a little competition in the west
I don’t know about giving the big-budget Dodgers and Giants a run for their money, but it’s quite possible that the Rockheads could continue improving. They had 66 wins in 2014, 68 in 2015, 75 last season, and maybe 82-84 in 2017? They have a very good core of position players in Cargo, Dahl, Blackmon, Parra, LeMahieu, Story and Arenado. The only holes are at 1B and catcher. They have depth in the OF with Cargo, Blackmon, Dahl, and Parra with top prospect Tapia knocking on the door, so could trade from that strength to bring in a pitcher. Certainly a better outlook for them than for my Padres.
Good luck Bud. Welcome back to the NL West.
As a Padres fan, I have so much respect for Bud Black. I think he will do wonders with the pitching staff in Colorado. Good for him!
They could have hired Bud Light as their manager and will receive the same results. lol
Rockies should just end their team or move anyways. Not sure why these secondary cities have teams.
Yeah let’s have all 32 teams in NOO YAWK. You lame ass troll
I good man and a good manager.
Players love playing for him.
Can’t wait to see him play Blackmon at 1st base and only let Arenado start against lefties.
Did you know that Bud Black played the least platoons in the NL in 4 of his 9 seasons with the Padres? The platoons he did play were because he had garbage players his whole time in SD with very few that were a fit at any position. Even you know that, but you would rather talk shiite about him.
Here is another fun fact, Black ranks third in the last 36 years among managers in Wins Above Expectancy/WAR. To make it real simple, he won more games than he should have based on the actual play of the players on his teams by a huge margin. Those moves you complain about won more games.
All I gotta say is there’s a reason it took him this long to get another managing job.
But you’d rather defend the guy who played Yangervis Solarte at 1st base when Yonder Alonso was available multiple times just because the opposing starter was left-handed.
One season? He turned down a job with the Nats because they lowballed him. The next season he is managing again. It didn’t take long at all.
The facts show you are full of it. Was Alonso healthy? He did have 2 stints on the DL in the first half of 2015 and only started 92 games that year. Do you know that he was available? Fact is you don’t know for sure. Solarte played 1B 28 times with 25 starts in 2015, 18 starts at 1B coming after Black was fired. Guess Black wasn’t the only SD manager who thought Solarte should play there instead of Alonso. You can talk garbage all you want, but the facts when it comes to Black never seem to back you up. You are a hater with no cause. Just own up to it.
People were saying he’d have a new managing job in seconds if we ever fired him. I guess they meant “47,304,000 seconds.”
Alonso was healthy when this happened and Solarte at 1st base is a thing in much the same way that Amarista at catcher is a thing. Meaning, it’s not.
And you’re one to talk about “hater with no cause” when you spend all day cherry picking random stats that support your biased narrative and ignoring ones that don’t (or straight up lying about stats) and others on here see it too.
What game? What was the date? How do you know Alonso was healthy that particular game when he was unhealthy most of the 1st half? How come Solarte played MORE games at 1B after Black was fired than before? How is that a random fact? It’s not. How is that a bias? It’s not. What stats back up your claim? There are none. That you are too lazy to look up anything more than basic stats is really sad. Stats are reality and you just don’t like facing reality. You like hating. Come on. Just admit you are a hater without a real reason. You LOVE to complain but almost always get the facts wrong. It’s really sad.
I don’t know the exact date off the top of my head, but Robbie Ray was on the mound for the Diamondbacks and Bud Black had Solarte play 1st base and Alonso was not on the DL at the time.
And you are calling me out for getting facts wrong? LOL! You have been wrong many times in the past two years but you usually just crawl back into your little hole when you get called on it. Perhaps the two most egregious offenses are you always whining about Derek Norris. You constantly bring up the fact that he had the second most stolen bases against him in 2015 but you deliberately leave out the fact that he threw out more baserunners than anyone else and the fact that, since his CS% was over 30% that year, opposing teams would have scored more runs against us in 2015 if no one ever tried to steal against Norris, statistically speaking. As in, it was a good thing that runners were trying to steal against him so much in 2015. They were basically giving away their outs and with our defense being as bad as it was, we needed all the free outs we could get. He might not have done so well this year, but you were saying this last year so it is still valid. Also during our final series against the Dodgers you told some Dodger fan that they wouldn’t make the World Series because no team with a losing record on the road has ever made the World Series. Someone was quick to point out that the 2006 Cardinals had a losing record on the road. And now as usual you are throwing a fit because someone finally stepped up to put you in your place. Stop crying because I’ve embarrassed you. Here’s your pacifier.
It’s interesting that you are too lazy to go find what game it was and yet you can assert that Alonso was definitely available. How you would possibly know that is beyond me since you were obviously not in the clubhouse or training room.
Just so you know, Robbie Ray started three games against the Padres in 2015, June 20th with Norris at 1B, June 26th with Alonso at 1B, and Sept 16th with Wallace at 1B. All after Black was fired and NONE with Solarte at 1B. You call me out for getting stats wrong, but can’t get things like that right. You can’t find fault with the stats I posted about Black either because they are facts.
Face it, you are a hater without any cause or basis in reality.
Norris threw out the 2nd most baserunners because he had the 2nd most bases stolen attempts against him. Baserunners ran on Norris at an alarming rate, because he was not very good. His CS percentage of .344 was just about MLB average (.334) among qualified catchers and ranked 31st among all catchers. It was about the same as Nick Hundley at .342. Among qualifying catchers, he gave up the 3rd most passed balls, was in top 7 in WP., and was 10th of 13 in dWAR. If we had played Hedges all year far fewer baserunners would have even attempted it because runners fear his arm while they didn’t fear Norris arm as evidenced by how often they attempted and succeeded in stealing bases against him.
You know so little about baseball and are almost always wrong, but are willing to try to call out people that are at least willing to look up stats. Please, try learning something about the game or at least look up the facts before you try to call someone else out.
I was trolling the Dodgers and guess what? The Dodgers didn’t make the World Series, again. I may have missed the one WS team in history that had a losing record, but I was on the money about Dodgers not making the WS.
No one expected the Dodgers to make the World Series in the first place so you shouldn’t pat yourself on the back too much for that.
And so you admit that you are a troll. Your words, not mine. You spout off “stats” and “information” all the time without making sure that it is true like you did when you claimed no team has ever made the World Series with a losing road record and then you just slink away whenever you get called on it. You have been wrong many times and more dubious statements to come from you in the future I am sure.
“Baserunners ran on Norris at an alarming rate, because he was not very good.”
No, they ran on him because he had a reputation for not being good at throwing out baserunners but that was more a result of the A’s pitchers being ridiculously easy to steal against. Notice how he improved dramatically in that regard after being traded. Also, there are tons of reasons why certain catchers get run on frequently. You know who had the third most SB attempts against him in 2015 behind Norris and Cervelli? Salvador Perez of the Royals. You know why? It’s not because he’s particularly bad at throwing out baserunners (he actually was the best in baseball at that this year). It’s because the Royals defense that year was airtight. Runners didn’t have time to wait for a ball to find a hole. They had to make things happen against the Royals. You know who had the second most stolen base attempts against him this year? Jonathan Lucroy. You know what his CS% was this year? .389, second to Salvador Perez. Further proving that just because you get run on a lot doesn’t mean you are bad at throwing out baserunners.
“If we had played Hedges all year far fewer baserunners would have even attempted it because runners fear his arm while they didn’t fear Norris arm as evidenced by how often they attempted and succeeded in stealing bases against him. ”
It explicitly says in Moneyball (small book, you might have heard of it) that trying to steal is counterproductive unless you can succeed 70 or more percent of the time. 66% of the attempts against Norris were successful in 2015, which means it’s a good thing for the Padres that runners tried to run on Norris so much. You should WANT runners to try and run on your catcher, assuming their CS% is over 30%. And clearly runners didn’t succeed in stealing against Norris so much if they got thrown 34% of the time. You continue to hoot and holler about the number of stolen bases allowed yet you continue to blatantly ignore the fact that he also threw out more baserunners than any other catcher. Getting caught stealing is just as bad as successfully stealing a base is good. Not only does it erase the runner but it gives away an out. You only get 27 of those per 9-inning game and part of the reasons the Padres aren’t a good team is because they give away so many outs on offense.
You keep coming back and getting smacked back down with facts Richard. Would you like a bib with that pacifier because you’re slobbering all over yourself with embarrassment? You’re so mad because everybody is aware of your stupidity that I’ve revealed for all to see. Keep crying in shame.
P.S. I’m sure you will once against fail to address the FACT that, statistically speaking, opposing teams would have scored more runs against the Padres in 2015 if no one tried to steal against Norris because have no idea how to actually interpret stats correctly. Just shows how little you know about baseball and everything in general. One counting stat is as relevant as another and you are either too stupid to realize this or you are just keeping it up because it supports your narrative. You can keep arguing with me until 2017 and it won’t change that I am SCHOOLING you with the cold, hard facts.
Are you kidding? The Dodgers had the 2nd best odds to make the playoffs in Vegas. Of course they were expected to make it there. You don’t spend $245 million and expect to lose. Wow, you are delusional.
So I missed the one team, literally the only team in modern baseball, that won the World Series with a losing home record. You didn’t pick up on it and the person that did posted 8 hours later on a thread with 1200 posts. Do you usually scroll back through 1200 posts to see what the answer was to your post? Even though I was wrong about that one thing, doesn’t change that you are always wrong.
OMFG. They ran on him because he is not any good. He was average in caught stealing rate. AVERAGE. And they ran on him more than all but one other catcher in the game. Why? They didn’t fear his arm. And YOU were talking about 2015. And in 2015 we had a horrendous defense. Moneyball was published in 2013 and the game has changed tremendously. Of the successful stolen bases against Norris in 2015, 63% scored. which is much higher than run expectancy for runners on 2nd or 3rd with less than 2 outs. In 2016 he had a 21% CS%. 20 caught stealing of 96 attempts. Not .389 or whatever you were trying to claim. Of those 20, only 13 were on throws by the catcher. The other 7 were by throws by the pitcher which the catcher also gets credit for in the stats. BTW, the 96 runners that attempted to steal against him was by far the highest percentage of baserunners on base in the game. All of your arguments are specious. Thats a big word for you so I will explain – They are full of hot air. And you are still wrong. Even about my name.
You’ve been wrong several times in the past two years. That one just stands out at the forefront of my memory.
And while the Dodgers were obviously going to make the playoffs, no one who isn’t a Dodgers homer seriously expected them to go to the World Series, let alone win it. I was surprised they beat the Nationals in the NLDS. So you shouldn’t pat yourself on the back too much for calling something that almost everyone else was calling.
Yes, he was average in caught stealing rate. 7th of 13 qualified catchers. So if he is bad at throwing out runners, so are the 6 guys below him. CS% is the only stat that matters in that regard. Do runners not fear Jonathan Lucroy and Salvador Perez’s arms? Because according to the stats, they should. The same applies with Norris, or at least it did in 2015. He may have taken a step back in 2016 but you were saying this a year ago so your are not retroactively redeemed just because he did. I said Lucroy had a .389 CS% in 2016, not Norris. The 63% of runners who stole 2nd and ended up scoring was because our defense was bad as a whole. If no one tried to steal, then other teams would have had 44 more runners on base and 44 more outs with which to get those runners home, which, statistically speaking, would have been worth more than 87 stolen bases. And that’s assuming a league average defense. Since our defense was so bad, they had even more of an incentive to stay on 1st and wait for a ball to find a hole.
Another argument you have failed at. And altho spacious may seem like a big word for someone whose I.Q. is as low as yours, it really isn’t to most people.
By the way, I’m not arguing with you, I’m scolding you. But you can’t tell the difference being the insolent child you are inside.
P.S. You said the Dodgers would get knocked out in the first round so you were still wrong about that one 🙂
So to summarize, if runners don’t fear Norris’ arm, my response would be the same as a Royals fan’s response to runners not fearing Perez’s arm. “Ok, let them try to steal. They’ll get thrown out and give away precious outs in the process.”
I just think it’s funny how we live in a world where Amarista at pitcher makes more sense than Amarista at catcher.
Now THAT was fun to watch!
And to be fair he got both the guys he faced as a pitcher out.
Good luck Bud.
I hope Rox fans like bunts.
Why? The stats clearly show that he had his players bunt much less than the average team.
In the 9 seasons that Black was here, the Padres only ranked higher than 9th in the NL in the number of bunts twice, and that was 6th in 2009 and 2nd in 2010. His team also ranked 15th in the NL in 2011 and 13th in 2013.
These teams hire the same old warmed over soup. Hire some new blood, give them a chance. This guy’s record is 649-713. It’s going to get worse playing in that bandbox in Denver.
You never know, he might just surprise the fans in Colorado.
Sure, his record doesn’t look good, but for many seasons in San Diego he basically had garbage to work with, and yet he still tried to make the most of it.
The Rox did hire some new blood in Walt Weiss. Didn’t work. Now, they have a manager with some experience and actually knows a bit about pitching. This is the first time they’ve hired a pitching-first manager. I don’t think they’ve even had a former catcher as manager either.
This is a big deal for the Rockies. While it might not matter in the end and much of the baseball world might not take notice, we are excited here in Colorado. Way to get your guy, Bridich!!!
I agree … guys like Wallach and Martinez should be getting a shot. Good to see Luvollo hired in Arizona.
With that line of thought the Giants should’ve never hav sign Bochy. He only had 3 winning seasons with the padres in like 12 years
Padres fans have a lot of hot takes about Black. The odd discussion above about playing solarte over Alonso in a single game was funny to me, for example. Solarte is a better hitter than Alonso is the short answer, right? Didn’t need eight paragraphs to flesh that out.
I don’t know how to feel about Black. His two good teams in 07 and 10 were deeply flawed – the 2010 team that collapsed down the stretch had only one above-average regular on offense and the rotation wasn’t very good either. The bullpen was great. The 07 team was better but, hey, Matt Holliday still hasn’t touched home.
Those other seasons he was given so little to work with. The 09 team featured a rotation that included chad Gaudin, josh geer, Kevin Correia and Walter Silva. The team was somehow unable to ever find a starting shortstop during most of his tenure. And what they did to him in the offseason of 14/15 was absurd: “here’s a bunch of right-handed hitting left-fielders and DHs. Figure out which one to put in center and right. Don’t worry about shortstop. We got Clint Barmes! And, oh yeah, we got rid of a really good catcher for a really lousy one. Good luck!”
Strategically it’s hard to know his strengths and weaknesses with the rosters he was given. Rockies seem to have a better foundation so I suppose we’ll see.
It wasn’t a single game. It was more than once. Yangervis Solarte did not do a good job at 1st base and benching Alonso to play him there was completely unnecessary since Alonso doesn’t have much of a platoon split.
One way or another, it will be interesting to see how Black fares with the Rockies. Their roster is probably better than most of the ones he worked with in SD but he still has a lot of work to do if he wants to make the playoffs.
Alonso not having much of a platoon split is like me saying I suck at bowling with either my left or right hand. He couldn’t hit anyway. And Solarte, defensively, doesn’t do a good job anywhere. But it’s also not like he was replacing prime Keith Hernandez out there.
The Rockies have a few decent starters, which Black rarely had in SD, and a better foundation. I don’t know if the Rockies can ever be really successful in that park; the “road hangover” effect is becoming really pronounced and they still haven’t figured out a pitcher type who succeeds there.. But Black must give a great interview to beat out all those qualified candidates.. I don’t see the postseason this year – the Dodgers and Giants are just too good, but maybe by 2018, right?
Alonso had a .742 OPS in 2015. That’s alright.
If they are truly a good team I don’t think playing their home games in Coors Field will make a difference.
You can’t find a single game to back up your claim that Solarte started over a healthy Alonso. Even the one you “remembered” was wrong. Just shut up.
Hey. This is a casual little comments section on a website about baseball trades. Let’s can it with the “shut up” stuff and the other silly trolling. We can be civil, especially since we’re all fans of the same team and it really doesn’t matter if Yangervis Solarte started a game at first ahead of Yonder Alonso. Like, it seriously doesn’t matter.
Can’t we all just get along?
Don’t waste your time with this troll
No, I don’t think I will shut up. I was going to point out a couple games where Bud Black had Solarte start at 1st over a healthy Alonso but it looks like davidcoonce74 already did it for me (thanks man). And all the ones he pointed out were before Black got fired.
Yep. After Black was fired Solarte didn’t play a single game at first. But before that, Black was definitely experimenting with him as the starter vs. lefties.
But obviously some idiots like Pads Fans here would rather spout off “stats” that say otherwise, lmfao 🙂
This guy comes on to argue, That’s all. He is nearly always wrong and yet he argues. When you call him on getting the facts wrong, he doubles down on his lies. Tries to make up stuff to “prove him right”. He does the same on the Padres board.
LOL are you self contemplating yourself Richard Burns? That is what YOU do. All the dang time. You were wrong about Norris, you were wrong about how no team with a losing record has ever made the World Series. You were wrong about the White Sox trading us Shields for Anderson and you have been wrong about several other things and will continue to be in the future.
BTW, that is because there ARE none.
There are actually plenty. Solarte started vs. Lester on april 19th. Went 1-4 but that hit was off a righty. Started vs. Keuchel on April 29th. Went 0-4. Started vs. De La Rosa (COL) May 2nd. Went 1-4 with a single. Then, between May 13 and June 1st, Solarte started every game at first, often against left handed pitchers. I assume Alonso was hurt during those two weeks.
Solarte didn’t start another game at first the rest of that season.
So actually, Mr West Coast Ryan is correct.
Take. A. Seat!
April 19th Alonso was listed on the injury report as DTD. In other words, he was injured. On April 28th he was taken out of the game against the Astros after the 8th with an injury in a 14-3 loss. So him not playing on 29th and 2nd makes sense. 6 days later, on May 8th Alonso went on the DL and returned on June 2nd.
And NONE of those are against the Diamondbacks. That was his claim. That he specifically remembered that Solarte played over a healthy Alonso against the Diamondbacks with Robbie Ray on the mound. Obviously that never happened.
He was wrong. Again.
Unfortunately, he didn’t help your argument. You were still wrong. See my post.
So I got one game mixed up. I was referring to the game Norris started as I remember ranting to my friend about them benching Alonso against a lefty.
Still haven’t been wrong as many times as you.
You’re lying. Just like you were lying about how no team has ever made the World Series with a losing road record, lying about how the White Sox were going to trade us Tim Anderson for James Shields and Shields was waiving his opt out clause, lying about how Tyson Ross immediately gave up two home runs once Hedges was replaced with Norris in some game about a year ago and lying about your name. LIES LIES LIES!
Anyone was better than Alonso. And to think the Padres prefer him than Rizzo at 1B what a joke
Alonzo was horrendous.
Glad braves didn’t let’s see what the Rockies record is with this guy
Bud is a good man, a good manager, and a class act all the way. We’ll never know what his record would have been if he had served most of his managing career under owners who cared about fielding a great team. I wish him all the best in the new job.
With Black’s hiring, that now makes it 3 out of the other 4 teams in the NL West being managed by former Padres managers/coaches.
Wow. Great insight. Next could be Nevin in Arizona if Lovullo doesn’t work out and it will be 4 of 5 with Padres ties.
Padres’ fans hate towards Black is dumb as it gets, the guy was 1 game under .500 with half a season to go. The Padres were even worst when he left, and Andy Green was a complete joke this past year. Padres fans got delusional really fast, just because of Preller trades that were supposed to make the team competitive, even though they didn’t have a SS or CF, reality hit hard in 2015 and Black who was the least guilty of it payed the price, I guess it’s true when they say it’s easier to fire 1 than to fire 25
Bud Black was not good manager here in San Diego. Andy Green was far from joke and did good job.
Bud Black got the most out of his players and they responded by giving him the 3rd best WAE/WAR since 1980. That is wins above expectancy based on WAR. Meaning Black made good decisions and his teams won more than they should have based on the actual production of his players.
You can’t say the same about Green. He hasn’t been bad, but his teams have won about as many games as they should have based on WAR.