O'Dowd got his start in the Baltimore Orioles organization which led to a position in player development with the Indians. He left Cleveland after six years as assistant GM and signed with Colorado as Executive VP and General Manager in October of '99.Since his signing (though it can also be argued that it has lasted since the organization's inception), Rockies baseball has been defined by mediocrity. Only two of O'Dowd's nine seasons at the helm have resulted in winning records. This includes 2007's World Series team that earned him an extension. A lot of the clubs inadequacy had been attributed to the famous "Mile High" air. A game at Coors Field is known to have a score you're more likely to see at a Broncos game. Naturally this leads to making it difficult to recruit pitchers for your staff. Nevertheless, that is no excuse for O'Dowd making Byung-Hyun Kim an anchor to the Rockies rotation for two seasons.
This is another intricacy in O'Dowd's career, that of roster construction through the trade market. Some trades have been poor, such as the immediate flip of future All-Star Jermaine Dye at the 2001 trade deadline to Oakland for Jose Ortiz, Mario Encarnacion and Todd Belitz - three players who never played in a game past the 2002 season. Others have worked out favorably, like the 2006 deal that sent Jason Jennings and Miguel Asencio to the Astros for Willy Taveras, Jason Hirsh and Taylor Buchholz - all big pieces of their 2007 playoff run. This years offseason acquisition of Jason Marquis for veteran reliever Luis Vizcaino has been a big part of the Rockies success.
As far as contract signings go, he's given out a couple bad contracts. Most notably to Mets fans would be the 8 year / $121 million monster handed to great public school system proponent Mike Hampton. The other being the 9 year / $142 million extension he gave to franchise favorite Todd Helton in 2003. In O'Dowds defense, Helton has performed at a greater value than his yearly salary in 4 of the 6 seasons according to Fangraphs. Obviously the length of the deal is more the question as Helton is regressing at his age. Devoting 25 - 40% percent of your teams salary over the course of 6 seasons to one player also isn't the smartest of moves.
Now while major-free agent signings and contract extensions have not been a strong point of O'Dowd's career as Rockies GM, one cannot deny his department's record of scouting and player development. Naturally a top first round pick in almost every season of your tenure will help, but it never guarantees success. Notable players drafted (round, year in parentheses) and developed since 2000 include Garrett Atkins (5th, '00), Brad Hawpe (11th, '00), Jeff Francis (1st, '02), Troy Tulowitzki (1st, '05), and prospective '09 ROY candidate Dexter Fowler ('04, 14th).
There are a lot of pro's and con's to O'Dowd. Some of the pluses, including being a big name and the ability to come aboard with a scouting and development team that has had far greater success than the Mets over the last decade, make him a prime candidate. Why is he so low on the list? Well the Rockies are playing awfully well so far this year and have a shot at the Wild Card. If they make the playoffs I'm sure he'll inevitably receive another extension, just as he did in 2007. This is also essentially a team he built from scratch. Despite a down year in 2008, this is a good group they have. I'm sure he wants to see the damn thing through to a championship for the city, and will lobby for an extension himself.
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