Keeler: Bud Black? Fall guy. If Rockies, Dick Monfort are serious about change, they’ll fire GM Bill Schmidt

If the Rockies were a restaurant the steaks would bounce The fish would bite back You d need a chainsaw to dent the bread With rats roaming the hall patrons in pain and vitality inspectors beating down the door Dick Monfort would fire the ma tre d and declare success The real obstacle on th and Blake wasn t the organization It s the menu It s the head chef It s the general manager Bud Black s sell-by date passed ages ago But Buddy didn t sign Kris Bryant did he Or Jurickson Profar Or Dakota Hudson I think we all play a part of that responsibility right Rockies GM Bill Schmidt explained late Sunday afternoon after it was publicized that Black had been let go as Rockies manager Related Articles Grading The Week Dick Monfort s Rockies almost made Kyle Freeland cry Join the club Nuggets-Thunder Competition -pointers Even Patrick Beverley thought Nuggets were wronged by refs Keeler Mikko Rantanen hopefully taught Avalanche Joe Sakic lesson Don t contract Stars for scrubs Keeler Is Rockies Dick Monfort sinking to get his MLB salary cap No way he s that clever Renck vs Keeler Who is more to blame for Avs collapse Chris MacFarland or Jared Bednar At the same point I d say what we envisioned the two guys in the middle of the order haven t played And then you have specific other guys that haven t performed that are starting to perform OK So it all plays in together We all played a part in it A few more than others Black doesn t swing the bat or throw the ball right And he can only do so much Bryant a stand-up guy with a wonky back reported me Sunday a meager minutes after a stunned clubhouse got the news He consistently had your six at least with the writers I commented Good times bad times whatever I m sure there ve been times where a manager doesn t want to have the players back Bryant replied He just wants to say Hey they stink Black is not the type of guy that would ever do that Bryant was transferred to the -day IL Sunday morning extending his ninth different visit to that list since Schmidt inked him to a seven-year million contract in March When that s your signature move as chef de cuisine you might as well burn the kitchen Schmidt inherited a -win roster in May Since then the Rockies have won and contests in a season They re on a darkly comic pace to win in Sunday s - thrashing of San Diego was the club s seventh win over its first games the worst start in modern National League history He s failed upward with the kind of G force that would crush a cosmonaut like a can of spinach I have an utmost respect for Buddy as a professional And as a manager I think he s a good baseball guy Schmidt explained It s just we didn t play to the standard that we needed to play Except the ceiling of this clubhouse was and is only so high That was never on Black Buddy wasn t the difference between wins and say or and creeping within shouting distance of the Wild Card That s roster construction That s talent That s organizational depth That s drafting That s rise That s teaching He didn t pact for Jake Cave He didn t ship out Juan Brito The more bucks you think about the more that wind up stopping at Schmidt s desk I think we re capable of playing better than we played Schmidt explained Not better enough Certainly not capable enough Yes Buddy had to go for his own sake as much as the franchise s The Rockies have been a zombie baseball club for five years now moaning and trudging along the National League cellar wandering the darkness looking for brains to eat A new voice was overdue Messages get stale The Rockies were moldy having allowed runs or more over four straight games before Sunday the longest streak of pitching ineptitude by a National League club since Houston in An unfathomable - loss to the Padres became a Saturday Night Massacre that certainly shamed Monfort enough to cut to cord The axe fell Sunday postgame It had been purchased overnight and sharpened over breakfast Black didn t go back into the clubhouse again after Schmidt advised him the news Yet a line of players marched into his office one by one to say their goodbyes and to thank him personally Michael Toglia shook Buddy s hand and gave him a hug It was man-to-man professional and I love him the first baseman recounted me We kind of lived near each other in the offseason so I m sure I ll see him around He loves Warren Schaeffer too The Rockies interim boss is young-ish and managed a bunch of guys on this roster as they were matriculating through Hartford and Albuquerque Sometimes a young clubhouse just requirements a kick up the backside What was it Crash Davis disclosed in Bull Durham They re kids Scare em I think those are different generations right countered third baseman Ryan McMahon who was for with a home run in Black s Sunday swan song The way that the contest is now I think a lot more positive reinforcement goes a long way showing that you believe in guys having somebody you can trust Which we did it s just at the end of the day it s execution We haven t been executing this first month and a half And we need to do a way better job The Rockies aren t lollygaggers per se Schaeffer chucking a bunch of bats into the players shower room feels like a waste of good lumber The freezer still stinks The refrigerator still leaks The cockroaches are still everywhere We have to get better and move forward Schmidt continued I think we owe it to our fans to play better baseball You do but don t stop there Hire a replacement for the beloved departed Kelli McGregor Add people baseball people to act as buffers as insulation between Monfort and the front office Give Schmidt better voices not the same ones preaching the same tired failing stuff on the same insular loop Otherwise what really changes other than losing another fall guy It took - for Monfort to move on from Black How various more touchdowns have to be scored at Chez Coors for Schmidt to do the right thing and fire himself Want more Rockies news Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis