The best thing that can be said about the current Colorado Rockies season: It’s not as bad as originally feared.
Sure, the Rockies’ home/road splits are an abomination. And, yes, they were well out of playoff contention by the time the trade deadline rolled around — a reality they failed to capitalize on in spectacular fashion (see: Story, Trevor).
But the foreboding countdown to 100 losses so many presaged back in March? That’s deader than Colorado’s lineup at sea level.
Connor Joe — A
There are many reasons why the Rockies have flirted with respectability the season.
Among them: the above-grade starting rotation, C.J. Cron’s bat (at home), Ryan McMahon’s glove (anywhere) and that unexplainable LoDo magic that had the Rockies sitting at 41-21 at Coors Field entering Friday night.
Let us offer one more bright spot: The play of Grading the Week favorite Connor Joe.
Anyone who paid attention to the 29-year-old rookie’s production in spring training could have seen this coming. Say what you will about the quality of arms in the Cactus League, anyone who hits .368 with three home runs and four doubles in 38 at-bats is probably worth paying attention to.
While Joe started off slow, eventually getting demoted to Triple-A Albuquerque in favor of Matt Adams (for some reason), he has done nothing but produce since getting called back up to the bigs in late July. His slash line in 23 games prior to Friday (89 plate appearances): .316/.375/.995, with seven home runs and 19 RBIs.
More than that, Joe, a testicular cancer survivor, has injected energy into a Rockies lineup that sorely needed it.
His glovework may be a tad suspect, especially at first base, but Joe’s bat is dependable enough to merit consideration as a piece of the long-term puzzle in LoDo.
Of course, some killjoys might suggest Joe will come back down to Earth once the league has a book on him. Don’t count the Grading the Week crew among them.
CSU soccer — Inc.
Add another chapter to the history of mutual disdain between Rocky Mountain rivals Colorado and Colorado State.
For those who didn’t catch the story from Thursday’s CU-CSU women’s soccer match that wasn’t, here’s the gist from the Daily Camera:
CU led CSU 3-0 a few minutes after halftime at Prentup Field when play was halted by lightning. About an hour later, the two teams returned to the field only for lightning to strike in the area again and trigger another delay.
This presented a problem: Prentup Field does not have lights, and darkness was certain to envelop the field not long after a proposed 7:22 p.m. restart that would have given the Rams a little more than half of the 30-minute warmup time they requested.
Thus, with the weather delay at two hours and 9 minutes, the Rams declined to return to the field. Instead, they stayed inside their bus and eventually headed back north to Fort Collins, with the game declared a no contest due to an obscure rule in the NCAA rule book.
There are two ways to look at the controversial ending.
The first: CSU saw an opportunity to avoid bringing an “L” back to FoCo and took advantage of a loophole.
The second: CSU, having sat around for a significant portion of the weather delay, didn’t want to risk injury to its athletes and pulled out of a match it was certain to lose anyway.
First-year Rams coach Keeley Hagen initially declined comment after the (sorta) match, but that her athletes’ health and safety was priority No. 1.
Whether you’re buying that explanation probably depends upon what colors you wear to the Rocky Mountain Showdown.
As neutral bystanders, we’ll just rule it an incomplete.
