In 2007, when the Rockies were riding a Rocktober wave to the World Series, the Tampa Bay Rays finished dead last in the AL East standings at 66-96.
The year before, then-Tampa Bay executive vice president
of baseball operations and general manager, Andrew Friedman, had hired Joe Maddon to manage the Rays, and together they were working to right the ship. In 2008, they did just that. Under Friedman, who now calls the shots for the two-time champion Dodgers, the Rays went 97-65 and landed in the World Series.
Maddon, who now writes about baseball and leadership among other things, wrote an article earlier this week in The Athletic about what makes Friedman a good leader, which also happened to include some tips on winning.
Before we get to those tips, I have to make two disclaimers.
First, I do not think that the Rockies should bring in 71-year-old Maddon to manage the Rockies. Second, I believe his comments on the San Francisco Giants hiring Tony Vitello being “insulting” to him because he doesn’t have MLB experience make it sound like he’s a grumpy old man yelling at kids to stay off his lawn (but I do love the reaction of being insulted by being insulted). At the same time, Maddon’s .532 winning percentage in his 19-year MLB managerial career is 0.44 higher than any Rockies manager and also includes a World Series Championship. So, he does know a few things about winning.
Last week, the Rockies hired Paul DePodesta as the new head of baseball operations. He has quite the to-do list: quickly hire a GM, determine the identity of the organization, begin to set the culture, make a choice on who will manage the team, and build the 2026 roster. Some of Maddon’s advice could be valuable.
First, for DePodesta. Maddon shares the two Friedman leadership traits that make him so effective. Dick Monfort ought to listen: First, “He intentionally challenged people’s ideas to create a conversation,” Maddon said, and second, “He was a great listener.”
In his press conference on Thursday, DePodesta seemed to be on the right track on both points. He emphasized his priority of getting to know everyone and learn about what’s been done and what’s worked in the past.
“The first thing I want to do is get to know everybody here and the capabilities that are already in place,” DePodesta said. “I want to do that before we think about how we want to supplement that with additional people and additional skills.
Rockies executive vice president Walker Monfort talked about DePodesta’s freedom to try to change his mind, along with his father’s (owner Dick Monfort), which seemed to openly welcome challenges to Rockies conventional wisdom.
“He’ll have an opportunity to allocate what we do have,” Walker Monfort said of DePodesta’s control of the reins when it comes to how money is spent. “And, I think he will have the opportunity to convince us that there needs to be more available.”
That seems promising because DePodesta must challenge Monfort’s ideas. The people under DePodesta need to challenge his ideas while he challenges theirs, and so on. Each decision, whether it’s signing a free agent or determining an approach for pitching, needs to be debated like a diplomatic deliberation where only the best ideas that can stand up to scrutiny become policy.
Then, for the manager, whether it’s Warren Schaeffer or someone else, there needs to be a way to build an identity and win more games. Here’s where they can perhaps adopt an approach Maddon took to win 32 more games in 2008 than they did in 2007.
“Before the 2008 season, I came up with an esoteric idea for our team: 9 = 8. It meant: 9 players playing 9 innings hard can make us one of the 8 teams in the playoffs,” Maddon explained. “I started to extrapolate that. I wanted 9 more wins out of the offense, 9 more wins out of the defense, 9 more wins out of the pitching staff. I didn’t even know how that would work, but I thought it sounded good.”
If Tanner Gordon can play a whole season, if Chase Dollander can continue to progress, and if Kyle Freeland throws 14 quality starts again, surely nine more pitching wins are available — and that’s just for the starters. If the Rockies defense isn’t dead last in defensive efficiency (.661) and they don’t have the second-most errors in MLB (110), there might be nine more wins on the table. And if the offense can reduce its strikeouts (not be No. 29 at 1,531) and score more runs (not be No. 29 at 3.69 per game), Colorado could use its bats to post nine more wins.
The Rockies went 43-119 in 2025. What if they could win 27 more games and be 70-92 in 2026? That would be a move in the right direction and would result in the best Colorado record since 2019. While it would still be a losing season and nowhere near the playoffs, it would be a sign of progress, which the top brass preached had to happen every season at Thursday’s press conference.
On the bright side, as DePodesta mentioned on Thursday, one of the changes from when he was last in baseball is that 12 teams make it to the postseason now. Therefore, nine could equal 12. It’s easier to make it to the MLB postseason than it’s ever been, and the Rockies could find a blueprint to contention sooner than later.
That brings us to Maddon’s final piece of advice: the need for confidence.
Maddon thought up the 9=8 idea while riding on his bike. He wanted to use it as a way to motivate the team and give it direction. When he called Friedman to ask him what he thought of the idea, Friedman said he loved it.
“Imagine the confidence I had to follow up on that. Andrew loved it. That created all the momentum for me,” Maddon said. “He liked new things, new thoughts and ideas, and he understood, beyond his ability with data and analytics, the human side of things.”
The Rockies have to embrace new ideas. Then, they need to find their vision for winning and inspire confidence in everyone —from the head of baseball operations and GM to the manager and players — to execute it.
Renck: Rockies’ Dick Monfort passes torch to son Walker. Please don’t take it back | Denver Post ($)
Troy Renck expresses his optimism about DePodesta after sitting in on the press conference on Thursday. While Dick Monfort let Walker do most of the talking, Renck expresses his fears that the owner will meddle too much and not turn over key decision-making to his son and DePodesta.
A ‘Moneyball’ architect is back in MLB to turn around another franchise | Washington Post ($)
In a national story, Chelsea Janes analyzes Paul DePodesta’s hire. She has quotes about his decision to come back to baseball in a time when the game has changed and continues to evolve rapidly.
Three Out-of-Left-Field GM Candidates for the Colorado Rockies | Heavy
Mark Knudson has some ideas for whom Paul DePodest could hire. My vote is for Kim Ng.
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