"I Wanted To Be A Rockie"

The Rockies made 3 big moves this week:


1. Traded for Jose Lopez, a utility infielder with a good bat.

2. Extended Troy Tulowitzki's contract out to 2020

3. Re-signed Free Agent Jorge De La Rosa to a 2 year deal with options for 2013 and 2014.


Any deal will get criticized and many times praised, but the fact that the Rockies went out and got it done with Tulo and "George" shows that they are committed to try to build a winner.


While the National Press is obsessed with the saga of Derek Jeter and the Yankees, the Rockies have gone out and created a more solid core base of players for the next 4 years without paying outlandish sums to bring players here.


We won't try to claim De La Rosa is Roy Halladay or Cliff Lee, or C.C. Sabathia, but Jorge is a good fit as a starter for the Rockies, and when he stays within himself, can have long outings, and possibly win 15 games as the #2 pitcher behind potential 20 game winner Ubaldo Jimenez.


Meanwhile the emerging leader of the team as Todd Helton's replacement is more and more Tulowitzki. He had a rough year in 2008, but has matured over the past two years, and deserves the extension. That he was willing to commit to Colorado long term, says a lot about what this Franchise and this region offers to players.


The most significant quote was Jorge De La Rosa saying "I wanted to be a Rockie" speaks volumes about what this means to the future of pitching here. 10 years ago, the Rockies had to pay enormous sums to get players to come here and most of them flopped. Now we have a pitcher who could have gone East, albeit to current non-contenders Pittsburgh and Washington, who decided to come back and face the trials and tribulations of pitching here.