Dexter Fowler wasnt gritty enough to be the Rockies center fielder

All this time I thought they played baseball games and then I read this from Mark Kiszla of the Denver Post and find out that Jiminy Christmas! theyre wrestling in gutters!

Thats how Kiszla puts it, anyway, after acknowledging that the Rockies have a hole in center field now that they traded away Dexter Fowler. But never fear: its fighting time:

The Rockies, however, are better off without Fowler.

My choice to play center: Corey Dickerson. You want the Rockies to bring a dirt-bag attitude that can wrestle with the Los Angeles Dodgers in the gutter, then Dickerson is your center fielder.

Kiszla can be forgiven, however, in that hes merely following Walt Weiss lead:

In our sport, more than any other sport, the ability to compete and grind and play with grit is extremely important, because we have to play at the highest level virtually every day for seven months. Theres no other sport like that, Weiss said Monday. The ability to compete through difficult circumstances and still believe you can play up here even when you get beat up by the game The self doubt, even though it does creep in, if you can deal with that and still succeed, its the X factor.

I have no doubt that attitude is a big factor in dealing with a long grind of a season. But if Dickerson couldnt hit the cover off the ball which he did in the minors, at least all the grit in the world isnt going to help him help the Rockies win baseball games. And if he cant handle center field, as opposed to his natural position in left, he can grind all he wants. Hell just be grinding two or three steps short of those balls in the gap which are his responsibility to track down.

Absent extreme attitude deficiencies, which Fowler has never been reported to have, what Dickerson does or Fowler could have done to help the Rockies win are functions of baseball skill and performance, not their gritty-grinding-gutter-wrestling-ways. But hey, if it helps people accept the trade of an otherwise effective player and the installation of a guy who may not be able to handle the position, well, any cliches at hand, I suppose.

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Dexter Fowler wasnt gritty enough to be the Rockies center fielder