Reasons for the Rox\u2019s wreck abound: They\u2019re bad at drafting and player development<\/a>, they\u2019re bad at data analytics, they\u2019re bad at innovation and listening to outside ideas. You know, nuts and bolts baseball things.<\/p>\n But a couple weeks ago, in a feature for our Colorado Sunday newsletter<\/a>, we took a bigger swing: At the heart of the Rockies\u2019 trouble is an inability to figure out how to play well at altitude and to switch back and forth between their high-elevation home and the low-elevation everywhere else. So we proposed a wild idea: What if the Rockies were allowed to use a raised-seam baseball at home that would produce more drag and move at altitude like a normal ball does at sea level?<\/p>\n Then we turned it over to you. What are your dreamy, audacious, just-crazy-enough-to-work ideas for fixing the Rockies? And you delivered big time (unlike a certain ballclub wearing purple).<\/p>\n Here are your ideas to turn around the terrors of 20th and Blake. Some of these have been lightly edited for length or clarity.<\/p>\n New owners<\/p>\n By far the most common response we received was that changing owners would change the team\u2019s horizon. The Monfort brothers, beef barons of Greeley, have run the team for 30 years after pushing out trucking baron Jerry McMorris<\/a>, the original owner.<\/p>\n Today, the Monforts are known as much for their real estate developments<\/a> surrounding Coors Field as they are for their on-field investments.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Gene from Grand Junction:<\/p>\n We were at the first game at Mile High. We shared season tickets with friends until we left town in 2000. If we were still on the Front Range we would have dropped the tickets long ago. Changing the owners would be a more likely accomplishment than changing baseballs. Jerry McMorris was far more interested in winning and connecting with fans \u2014 yes, I did get to know him and he was a regular guy. I guess trucking is a more normal business than running a slaughterhouse.<\/p>\n Linda from Englewood, another early season ticket holder, had the same thought:<\/p>\n If the ball were the problem, then other teams would be faced with the same problem here\u00a0 \u2014 and they aren\u2019t. We lose. They win. After all, in the early years, we had some competitive teams \u2014 and the altitude was the same. Plus their win record at home is actually better than their away record.\u00a0<\/p>\n As season ticket holders since Day 1, we have been incredibly disappointed recently and have finally decided not to renew. I believe that the problem starts with the ownership. And that probably won\u2019t change in the near future.<\/p>\n Boot them to Triple-A<\/p>\n One feature of American sports leagues is that they are more or less cartels. Have an all-time terrible season? No worries, there\u2019s always next year.<\/p>\n But what if there weren\u2019t?<\/p>\n That\u2019s the idea suggested by Serena of Denver:<\/p>\n In English soccer, the worst teams get relegated down to a lower league at the end of the season; and the best teams are promoted up. After at least 115 losses, it is time to relegate the Rockies. I don\u2019t think this because the Rockies are the worst team in baseball and deserve to be relegated (they are and they do), but because I believe for the Rockies to be good, there needs to be a business incentive for these owners to care.\u00a0<\/p>\n Year after year, regardless of the Rockies\u2019 record, the owners rake in plenty of profit. Go to any Rockies game when the Dodgers, Cardinals, Astros or Cubs are in town and the opposing fans are the ones filling seats. Fans from around the country know that Coors Field is a lower-cost way to see the league\u2019s stars and their favorite team. And the Rockies owners know they don\u2019t need the Rockies to win for this cash cow.\u00a0<\/p>\n I am tired of being a fan of a business and not a team. The only way I can see a way out of this rock bottom (pun intended) is the threat of relegation to the minors. Because the Rockies owners won\u2019t make money off the Dodgers, Cardinals, Astros or Cubs fans if those teams don\u2019t come to town. And if the Rockies owners don\u2019t have a business incentive to stay in the major leagues, there is really no reason they\u2019ll invest in \u2014 or care about \u2014 winning.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lean into the chaos<\/p>\n Did you catch the All-Star Game this year? It ended with a first-of-its-kind, baseball-mashing home run derby<\/a> to decide the winner.<\/p>\n Sunny of Lafayette saw that and thought: Heck yeah, baby.<\/p>\n MLB should do what they did in the All-Star Game to break the tie, which was to do a home run derby shootout \u00e0 la NHL hockey instead of extra innings. Given that Coors Field is hitter-friendly, we would possibly win more overtime games. Plus, MLB has been trying to make the games shorter; this would also serve that purpose. It is another suggestion which they\u2019ll never take, but I appreciate the opportunity to give it voice.<\/p>\n Change the field<\/p>\n Altitude isn\u2019t the Rockies\u2019 only riddle to solve. There\u2019s also the problem of how the team has previously tried to account for altitude \u2014 namely, by putting the fences at Coors Field waaaaaaay back.<\/p>\n Coors\u2019 cavernous outfield is the largest in baseball<\/a>. That may limit home runs, but it also makes the stadium a place where shallow popups become inning-extending base hits and base hits become run-scoring doubles and triples.<\/p>\n And that\u2019s where two readers put their focus. First, Peter from Denver:<\/p>\n Here\u2019s an idea that is completely within the current rules: move home plate forward by 10-ish feet. This has two potential positive effects: it makes the outfield smaller and it makes the foul territory bigger. Both of these would result in more outs per plate appearance.\u00a0<\/p>\n The obvious downside is that the outfield walls are now closer, so potentially this would increase the number of home runs hit. I think this would be more than offset by the two positive benefits mentioned above, but the Rockies analytics department would have to crunch those numbers.<\/p>\n Matt from Denver was also thinking about foul territory but from a different, um, angle.<\/p>\n My wild idea comes from the Effectively Wild<\/a> (well-named for this purpose) podcast from Fangraphs; specifically, on episode 2175<\/a> a listener suggested that MLB allow for some variance from the 90-degree angle of the foul lines<\/a> extending out from home plate.<\/p>\n For Coors Field, the suggestion would be to narrow the angle slightly, moving each foul pole towards center field by a few feet. Even a small change could shave many hundreds if not a thousand square feet or more from the dimensions of the Coors Field outfield. Aesthetically, could you tell the difference between 88 degree foul lines and 90? No protractors allowed.<\/p>\n Just, you know, make the team better<\/p>\n Unlikely-to-launch moonshots aside, several readers pointed out there are non-audacious things the Rockies could do to improve. And how do we know if those could work? Well, they work for everybody else when they come to Denver.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s Matt from Denver again to close us out:<\/p>\n My banal take is that the organization needs to catch up to baseball\u2019s data and technological advances to specifically let them develop a pitching philosophy that works for Coors.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/RoxGame_HC_23-1200x865.jpg\")
Rockies fans watch in disbelief late in a loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Aug. 15, 2023. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/RoxGame_HC_12-1-1200x800.jpg\")
Coors Field in Denver, pictured Aug. 15, 2023. (Hugh Carey, The Colorado Sun)<\/p>\n