As teams report to spring training, tension in the Rockies organization has reached an all-time high.  Rumors are flying around that All-Star third baseman Nolan Arenado is unhappy with the direction of the ball club, and the treatment he is getting from General Manager Jeff Bridich, who has apparently offered up Arenado in multiple trade discussions. It is so hard for me to pick sides on this one. On the one hand, Arenado is a seven-time Gold Glove coming off another season in which he hit over 40 HRs, drove in more than 100 RBIs, while hitting over .300.  He’s the best player on the team,... Read More

As the final votes were tallied for this year’s Hall-of-Fame and the results confirmed, only two major league baseball players would be going to Cooperstown: New York Yankee great Derek Jeter and Colorado’s own Larry Walker. Both could be called a surprise. The selection of Derek Jeter in his first year of eligibility wasn’t too shocking considering his 20-year career as a Yankee in which he appeared in 14 All-Star games, won five gold-gloves, and won five World Series. The surprise was that the selection wasn’t unanimous as Jeter received 396 out of 397 votes, meaning one sportswriter... Read More

As we take the empty champagne bottles to the recycling bin and begrudgingly grab our gym bags, deep inside we know the inevitable is just days, or weeks away.  The New Year’s Resolutions we have made to give up drinking, or finally get back in shape, just aren’t sustainable. The general problem is that we tend to make our goals too lofty.  We can renew our gym membership, but our five-days-a-week turns into much less than that, and by the time February comes around our New Year’s Resolution is just a faint memory.  Giving up alcohol seems plausible considering the new year generally begins... Read More

It’s barely August. There are more than fifty games left in the regular season, and Colorado Rockies fans have seemed to have given up. Where is your faith? Where is your belief? Colorado has tasted the playoffs two years in-a-row and you sit there like the season is already over. Yes, the Rockies are nine games under .500, more than 20 games behind the Dodgers, and sit in last place in the NL West, but that doesn’t mean it’s over. Just because the Rockies won only 6 out of 24 games in July and gave up 100 runs over a ten-game-stretch from July 13th to July 23rd doesn’t mean it’s over. Sure,... Read More

How fun is baseball these days.  Major League players put on a show in the Home Run Derby last Monday, the All- Star game presented a pitching performance for the ages, and the Colorado Rockies were well represented with All-Stars Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon, and David Dahl. And yet, after 99 games the Rockies are one game under .500. After two years of playoff appearances, Purple Nation is scratching their collective heads over this year’s 44-45 start.  Traditionally, it would be easy to blame it on ownership, youthful exuberance, and skeptical trust in the process. But the... Read More

When your local teams are out of the playoffs and kick-off is still months away, the mind starts to wander.  Mine wandered to a routine afternoon game between the Colorado Rockies and the Chicago Cubs in which Nolan Arenado had his 15-game hitting streak snapped, despite the 3-1 Colorado victory. Arenado is having another sensational year hitting .332 with 16 HRs and 54 RBIs.  With six straight Gold Gloves and over 200 career homers, I thought to myself, is Nolan Arenado the greatest Rockie of all- time? To find out the answer I put it to my research department, meaning my laptop and the Starbucks... Read More

Baseball is a team sport.  A 40-man roster in which clutch hitting meets quality pitching, spin rotations and exit velocities are scrutinized to maximize player performance, and managers are asked to adjust strategy and personnel on an ongoing basis in order to win games. Baseball is a choregraphed dance of many.  Defensively, the entire team shifts in unison as a pull-hitter comes to the plate.  The catcher surgically frames the pitch asking for something low and inside, the shortstop signals to the second baseman that he’ll cover the open base if needed, and the right-hander continues to... Read More

The story became obvious as I sat down to write.  The Colorado Avalanche would eliminate the top-seeded Calgary flames in five games, and my fingers began to type.  Thoughts of Mikko Rantanen, Nathan MacKinnon, and Philipp Grubauer raced through my head.  Memories past were of Stanley Cups, Joe Sakic, Peter Forsberg, and Ray Bourque.  I would be sure to throw in Patrick Roy’s legendary playoff quote once said in response to an opponent’s trash talk. “I didn’t hear him because my two Stanley Cup rings were stuffed in my ears.” It was undoubtedly the story, the headline, the news of... Read More

The formula has been working for the Colorado Rockies over the past few years.  Hit a few homers, drink some microbrews, sprinkle in some pitching, and make the playoffs.  With Nolan Arenado sporting a bigtime contract, Kyle Freeland pitching gems, and the usual cast of characters mostly returning, 2019 should be a good one. But like Ian Desmond at the plate, I’m still not comfortable. DJ LeMahieu and Adam Ottavino are now New York Yankees, Wade Davis and Mark Reynolds are practically eligible for AARP, and our issues at first base . . . still have issues. Here are eight major factors that... Read More

When the San Diego Padres signed Manny Machado to a 10-year/$300 million contract last week, Joel Wolfe, the agent of Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado, must have been smiling.  The contract was the most lucrative in major league baseball history as the Padres set the price it takes to secure a young, talented, gold-gloved superstar. The only problem is that Colorado has one that is even better.  And now it’s time to pay. In the last four years, Nolan Arenado has averaged 40 HRs, 40 2Bs, 125 RBIs, grabbed 4 gold gloves (6 total), and played in 4 all-star games, all while leading... Read More