Look on the bright side. Thanks to Mookie Betts, thatap now , like a pirate chest, at the feet of Nolan Arenado.
Hey, itap Opening Day. We’re trying. Over 60 games, those straws you’ve been clutching might somehow be enough to keep things afloat.
On one hand, we’re thrilled. Thrilled that the Rockies are even here, bravely pushing the boat out into the swell and the fog. In the age of COVID-19, we’ve learned to wake up every day to the threat of a rainout, beholden to storm clouds you never see coming. Until itap too late.
We’re grateful, because if we’ve learned anything from 2020, itap that when it comes to positives, you take what you can get, when you can get it.
Come here, you gift horse. Big hug.
Embrace Nolan.
Embrace the asterisks.
Embrace the masks.
Embrace the weird.
Because none of us know how long any of it gets to stick around.
On the other hand, we’re wary. Wary because the fates, or a sneeze, could conspire to pull the curtain down on this production at any time.
Wary because the 2020 Rockies, on paper, remain largely as we left them in March: flawed, dysfunctional, top-heavy in talent and a crap shoot after the seventh inning.
If itap Kyle Freeland circa 2018? The Rockies, not the Padres, will be the NL West surprise that keeps nipping at the Dodgers’ heels.
Kyle Freeland 2019? Shield your eyes.
Wade Davis 2018? Letap watch a pennant race!
Wade Davis 2019? Letap watch election commercials!
Conventional wisdom says the Rox will go as far the top three guys in the rotation and the three guys on the back end of the bullpen can take them. Then again, there’s nothing conventional about the moment. Or about what we’re diving into.
Remember when Arenado vs. Bridich was supposed to dominate the headlines? When Nolan vs. Jeff was the most emotional topic of 2020?
Those were the days, my friend.
We don’t know how deep the hatchet has been buried. We know the world has bigger, much bigger, problems now.
Here’s to rolling out the red carpet. And rolling the dice.
Ten weeks. A universal DH. Extra innings that open with a runner on second. Locked gates in LoDo. Cardboard placeholders where hearts should be.
Embrace Nolan.
Embrace the asterisks.
Embrace the masks.
Embrace the weird.
Because manager Bud Black, in Year 4, is playing with house money. According to BetMGM, only the Miami Marlins Those same bookies set the over-under on Colorado wins at 26.5, or the equivalent of 71.5 victories over 162 contests.
We won’t do a Full Monfort, but we’ll meet him halfway. This roster isn’t 20-games-under .500 bad. The floor is high enough, if everyone’s healthy/available/present, to avoid a repeat of last Augustap capitulation tour.
Itap the ceiling that gives you pause. The ceiling and depth. Shedding bloated bullpen salaries is noble, but it doesn’t atone for failing to slot complementary pieces around franchise tent poles such as Arenado, Trevor Story, Charlie Blackmon and German Marquez, while you’ve got them. You don’t produce four All-Stars in a season and lose 90 games or more unless the supporting cast is a dumpster fire.
With roughly a third of the usual rope to play with, if Black manages this sprint like itap a marathon, he’ll be left eating everyone else’s dust.
“You might have to make some hard decisions (based on) performance, because you can’t wait for guys to potentially come out of a hitting slump or come out of a pitching slump,” the Rockies manager admitted earlier this month. “You don’t have the luxury of six months for a guy to come out of it … you have to really know your players, really know how they’re playing and how they’re going about it. And then some hard decisions, personally, might have to be made.”
In 2020, there’s simply no time. No time for egos, no time for pity, no time for favorites, no time for trust. With a schedule this brief, with a pandemic serving as the Joker card in everybody’s deck, every lineup card is precious. Every day, too.
