Clint Hurdle faces daunting challenge turning around Rockies’ offense

Clint Hurdle captained the Good Ship Miracle during a remarkable run that became known as Roctober That talented Rockies squad won of games to reach the World Series Nearly years later Hurdle is charged with the task of instilling life into the Rockies dormant offense and finding tactics to get young players to cut down on an astonishing number of empty at-bats It might not take a miracle to improve what s been the Rockies worst offense in franchise history for two-plus seasons but Hurdle faces a daunting task After back-to-back -loss seasons the Rockies have opened the season - They rank th in runs for per encounter and th in strikeouts for per competition at a clip Entering the weekend they had hit the second-fewest home runs in the majors while touting the seventh-lowest OPS On Thursday the club fired hitting coach Hensley Bam Bam Meulens and moved Hurdle into the role Hurdle who managed the Rockies from through the early part of the season was named as a special assistant before the season This has been an incredibly frustrating and disappointing start to the season especially offensively general manager Bill Schmidt reported While all of us share responsibility I felt a change was necessary and that a new voice was needed to give us the best chance to perform as we move forward in the season Clint s -plus years of baseball experience especially over the past three-plus seasons working with our young players throughout the minor leagues put him and our club in a place to be profitable moving forward The Rockies scraped rock bottom last weekend when they were swept by the Padres in San Diego getting shut out for three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history Over the last two-plus seasons current manager Bud Black has frequently lamented his squad s inability to deliver quality at-bats particularly with runners on base He s been particularly disappointed by Colorado s poor two-strike approach The Rockies are counting on Hurdle to help fix those lingering problems Black and Schmidt have preached patience for a young gang that is facing in Black s words growing pains Outfielder Zac Veen average K rate and second baseman Adael Amador were in recent times promoted from Triple-A Albuquerque and they have struggled like so multiple of the other young players on the roster The only three players who have delivered with any consistency are infielder Kyle Farmer average and outfielder Nick Martini both as well as -year-old center fielder Brenton Doyle However a quadriceps injury limited Doyle to one at-bat during Colorado s just-completed - West Coast road trip If there is a poster boy for the Rockies offensive struggles it s -year-old first baseman Michael Toglia Considered a foundation for Colorado s future he s slashing a paltry with just one home run His strikeouts are the greater part in the National League and he s striking out of the time Colorado Rockies general manager Bill Schmidt left leans over the dugout rail with Clint Hurdle special assistant to the general manager to look on as players warm up before a baseball contest against the Kansas City Royals Saturday July in Denver AP Photo David Zalubowski With runners in scoring position Toglia is hitting for mirroring his career average As a unit Colorado is hitting with runners in scoring position ranking th in the majors Yes Toglia hit a grand slam in Colorado s - loss to the Dodgers on Wednesday but that monster homer came wrapped with three strikeouts Related Articles Rockies-Nationals Friday night battle postponed by bad weather Renck Clint Hurdle s return will be hit for Rockies if it inspires accountability from Dick Monfort Clint Hurdle to replace Hensley Meulens as Rockies hitting coach Michael Toglia s grand slam can t save Rockies in loss to Dodgers Rockies Mailbag As losses mount will Bud Black or Bill Schmidt be fired Ten games into the season Toglia expressed confidence that he would snap out of his early-season funk I had a stretch like this last year but at the time I had at-bats under my belt so it didn t get magnified he noted Now since it s at the beginning of the season it just looks a lot worse on the scoreboard So keeping that in mind I don t let it bother me I know I can go out and hit a couple of homers and the numbers will look right After a strong start veteran third baseman Ryan McMahon has also hit the skids He entered the weekend slashing with two home runs and a strikeout rate After a - loss to the Dodgers Tuesday night Black talked about the rough start This is tough for the gang Black narrated reporters in Los Angeles With this situation early in the year everything is magnified We want to win more games We have chosen things in perspective about where we are with our group But the expectation of every major league crew is to win tonight s meeting So we just keep teaching and let them grow There is going to be a school of hard knocks for a while until these guys gain experience and figure out what it takes to get it done in the major leagues The Rockies are hoping Hurdle will figure out a way to turn hard knocks into much-needed base knocks Want more Rockies news Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis