The Rockies yesterday introduced Bud Black as their next manager, and Owner Dick Monfort said the team's payroll "will be a record" next season, according to Patrick Saunders of the DENVER POST. The Rockies’ Opening Day payroll for ’16 was estimated at $112.6M, 19th in MLB, but the "highest in franchise history.” That figure, however, included the $15.6M the club had to pay former SS Jose Reyes, “even though the Rockies released him.” The Rockies “will owe” Reyes another $22M in ’17 (DENVER POST, 11/8). In Denver, Mark Kiszla writes the Rockies have “finally started to act like a real big-league team instead of operating like your friendly neighborhood mom-and-pop store." Their hiring of Black gives Colorado “something this franchise has never really had.” Black is a manager who will be “disappointed if this team doesn’t play in the World Series someday.” The Rockies have not had a winning record since ’10, and “too often, it has seemed the primary job of the guy filling out Colorado’s lineup card was to draw a smiley face on a losing organization that incessantly preached the patience of waiting until next year.” Black gives the Rockies a manager who “not only demands his team plays hard but demands his team wins.” Kiszla: “Refreshing, isn’t it?” (DENVER POST, 11/8).
