Troy Renck leaving the Rockies beat

Troy Renck, the longtime Rockies beat reporter for the Denver Post, will be relinquishing his baseball duties to cover the Broncos for the publication, he announced in a blog post on Monday.

Given Renck was assigned to cover the Super Bowl and has been heavily involved in writing about the Broncos as of late, this doesn't come as much of a surprise in hindsight. However, it will be a bit of a shock to see Renck not writing and reporting on the Rockies come April 14, when he'll officially change jobs.

Renck has been on the Rockies beat since 2002. In the 12 years he covered the Rockies, he gave this site and many others constant content to which we could freely pore over, dissect, react and expand upon. He's a big reason why Purple Row -- and many other Rockies blogs -- have been able to make an imprint in the Colorado baseball community, and for that, we are forever indebted to him.

As if all of the wonderful content over the years wasn't enough, Renck is also a genuinely nice person who has privately and publicly expressed his support of Purple Row on multiple occasions.

Many veteran beat writers and other "professional" reporters and journalists are extremely hesitant to give us "bloggers" the time of day, and a lot of others have gone as far as to push teams' PR and communications departments to not ever allow our type in the press box. Renck was certainly not that way; last June, the Rockies gave Purple Row the tremendous opportunity to cover some games from the press box at Coors Field, and Renck was nice enough to seek me out, introduce himself and offer his praise and appreciation for the work we do here. It's something I'll never forget, and something that every person who has ever written for this site should be extremely proud of.

There aren't a lot of guys like Renck in the business, but thankfully, the guy filling his shoes is just as welcoming and interactive as Renck has been. Patrick Saunders will take over the lead Rockies beat reporter position with Nick Groke set to fill in on occasion. I had the pleasure of meeting Saunders at the Rockies' 2013 spring training finale in Salt Lake City, and like Renck, he was very supportive and complimentary of the work we put in.

And, like Renck, Saunders will no doubt give a whole new generation of Rockies fans constant content to which they can pore over, dissect, react and expand upon.