The Colorado Rockies are set to name Bud Black as their next manager, per multiple reports (Tommy Stokke was first). This will fill the vacancy that was left when Walt Weiss decided to resign after the season.
The Rockies hung around the periphery of contention late into the season in the NL wild-card race this season, eventually finishing 75-87. There are several reasons to believe that they have a real shot to make the playoffs next season, too, and I previously covered that subject with six of those reasons.
So Black finds himself in a nice position here. He's familiar with the NL West as well, having previously managed the Padres.
Black was the skipper in San Diego from 2007 into the early months of 2015, when GM A.J. Preller fired Black as a team with high expectations was 32-33. Of course, things got worse after Black was gone.
In his San Diego tenure, Black was 649-713. He never made the playoffs and his best season came in 2010 when the Padres went 90-72. They missed the playoffs by one game and would have been the second wild card under the current format. Coincidentally, Black's first season came in 2007, where the Padres lost a one-game (regular season) playoff to get into the postseason. They lost to the Rockies in Colorado.
And now that'll be Black's home, with a young and talented roster.
