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Sunday Rockpile: Arenado officially AFL MVP, Rockies interest in Jonny Gomes may rise now

MIAMI GARDENS, FL - SEPTEMBER 27:  Jonny Gomes #30 of the Washington Nationals looks on during a game against the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium on September 27, 2011 in Miami Gardens, Florida.  (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
MIAMI GARDENS, FL - SEPTEMBER 27: Jonny Gomes #30 of the Washington Nationals looks on during a game against the Florida Marlins at Sun Life Stadium on September 27, 2011 in Miami Gardens, Florida. (Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images)
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Nolan Arenado homered in the Arizona Fall League title game and claimed the league's MVP trophy (for real this time, not as myself and others prematurely gave him a week ago.) 

With Grady Sizemore approaching a new deal with Cleveland, and Michael Cuddyer and Josh Willingham looking for multi-year contracts Colorado's unwilling to give, the Rockies now may be pursuing Jonny Gomes. The lefty masher Gomes has been undergoing a bit of a career shift that leaves me a little hesitant to fully endorse this plan, as some of his appeal as a player in the past was home run power that's slowly been fading as he now takes more of a gap contact and take a walk type of approach versus southpaws. That said, he's solid enough that as long as you can avoid flukey low seasons like his 2008, you're going to have a worthwhile player in a platoon with Seth Smith

That said, I still think Gomes should be kept a "Plan B" for as long as possible. While I understand the pass on Willingham for three years, I think I'd still prefer Cuddyer at that contract length over a short term Gomes-fill as a way of bridging the current offensive gap that exists between the Rockies and the Diamondbacks and Dodgers within the division. A stagnant Los Angeles lineup isn't as much as a concern as the situation in Arizona, where the gap could widen over the next two or three seasons without a significant upgrade for the Rockies.

That last link to Troy Renck also includes his take on the playoff expansion, which I'm personally in favor of as a sudden death wild card. Many of baseball's most memorable games have been playoff play-ins, or games five or seven in playoff series, and guaranteeing that there will be at least two such all-the-marbles games each year will help maintain the current generation of fans.