Football Friday Presents: The Winter Meetings, a play in four acts

Hello and welcome to Football Friday, a baseball column (by Connor). I am Connor. Each week I will dive into the previous seven days of baseball news, shout my opinion into the void, discuss some things about the Colorado Rockies, and eventually answer your emails. Well, some of them.

They're back again, you guys.

The four days of the year when all baseball's general managers and owners get together to talk shop, change rules, and have closed door parties full of whiskey and pizza (unconfirmed).

Yes, it's time for the Winter Meetings, baseball's version of a fraternity mixer with less Jäger and more nerds. This year, the Rockies are potentially in position to make a big splash in the market as they continue to move on from the Troy Tulowitzki era and into The Daniel Descalso Dynasty (The Three Ds of the Apocalypse). Carlos Gonzalez and Charlie Blackmon are both potential moves the Rockies can make with Nick Hundley, DJ LeMahieu, and Jorge de la Rosa potentially on the block as well.

This winter is a big one in Rockies history; as Jake Shapiro outlined in BSN this week the Rockies are attempting to replace a cornerstone of a franchise, which is never easy. They don't have to replace Tulo in moves made over the winter meetings alone, but their plan must continue to be to construct a team that can replace Tulo in our minds. The same way a new relationship can make you forget your ex and all the good times you had, a Rockies team that fills your heart with joy post-Troy can get you thinking about the future and the hope that goes with it.

While there is much debate on what the Rockies should do next week in Nashville, trading CarGo seems to be the best direction for a team in a full rebuild. But there's some discussion on the Rockies signing players in a stacked 2016 free agent class rather than waiting a year for the trash juice that will make up next winter's group of free agents (with my most sincere apologies to Stephen Strasburg).

Pitching remains the Rockies' main weakness. The team was last in ERA once again in 2015 and isn't looking overly dominant even with the departure of home run king Kyle Kendrick and the continued maturation of Jon Gray and Chad Bettis. Pitchers are plentiful on the free agent market right now, including guys that won't be too expensive, like Scott Kazmir and Ian Kennedy.

So what should Jeff Bridich do this week? Comment below with your thoughts or tweet me your opinion.

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The Good Opinion of the Week™

Each week, I will personally scour Rockies related twitter feeds for good opinions on food, music, movies, or even bottled water. I will feature anything that I look at and think "boy, that is a good opinion." This week, the good opinion comes from Rockies' top prospect Ryan McMahon (@Ry_McMahon), who tweets:

Ryan, I hear you. Growing old is weird.

People often criticize the current generation of 20-somethings when they say they feel old, and for good reason considering we're actually young as hell and have between 40 and 60 years left to live. But your 20s are probably the most confusing time of your life. You're entering an era of your life where your decisions start to actually matter, the next person you date might be the last person you date, you have to start actually dieting and working out, and you are forced to buy insurance. These are all things that hit you at once and Ryan is just voicing another facet of your 20s: the world starts to change.

When you're a kid things generally stay the same; you live in the most structured and planned life you'll ever live as a human. You go to school with the same people every day, you watch the same shows every morning, you generally eat one of like six different types of food which are all described as slices or nuggets of something, and you get used to that structure. The world seems safe.

Then, you grow up.

The world starts to cancel your favorite TV shows, your favorite bands break up, all the things you used to do with your friends suddenly aren't around anymore, and then your friends aren't around anymore.

The reason 20-somethings complain about feeling old is because for the first time in our lives we have to experience the world for what it is: a cold, unstructured wasteland where people don't cater to your every whim and where kale doesn't come in nugget form. It's different. It's not worse, per se, but it's different. Growing up is weird, it hurts, and you can't rely on the fearless foursome of Rocket Power to pick you up anymore.

Good and deep opinion, Ryan.

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Instead of the Rockies Club Status this week, that segment will be taking a week off due to the Rockies not doing anything for me to judge via club music.

Instead, we'll be filling in with America's favorite recurring periodical: DREW POMERANZ GOT TRADED!

Yes, yesterday our old friend Drew Pomeranz was traded for the third time in his young career as Oakland sent him back to the NL West and the San Diego Padres for Yonder Alonso (basically). You might remember Drew when he was traded to the Rockies in 2011 for our first good pitcher, Ubaldo Jimenez (That's "Gym-Eh-Nez" if you're reading this, George Frazier). The Pomzi Scheme struggled in Colorado, never really reaching the prospect heights we all created for him. The Rockies then traded him to Oakland for Brett Anderson, who the Rockies later traded for an ownership stake in the Macaroni Grill.

Yes, Brett Anderson was released by the Rockies after they declined a second year option for the pitcher worth $8 million. Weirdly enough, that's exactly what it cost for Monfort's ownership in Macaroni Grill as Nick Groke pointed out in an article in March (stay woke).

So essentially Drew Pomeranz has now been traded for an ace pitcher that didn't work out, a platoon first baseman, and delicious three cheese ravioli any time Dick Monfort wants it.

Tune in next year for more DREW POMERANZ GOT TRADED!

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Reader Mailbag

Welcome to the mailbag, every week I'll read what you degenerate jerks have to say to me... and maybe even an occasional letter about the Rockies. Better make it good.

"How about Trumbo at first base? Seems like a prime 'buy low' candidate right now. Former Rockie Jerry Dipoto has already traded him once, just sayin. What would it take to reasonably make it happen?

-Jarret"

Well, this question was sent to me prior to Mark Trumbo's eventual trade to Baltimore for Steve Clevenger, but it's a good question so I'm still going to answer it.

Long story short, I want the Rockies to go in on buy-low options right now. I think Trumbo would've been a great fit in Denver and if all it took was Steve freakin' Clevenger I want to know why Trumbo-to-Denver died off so quickly. We have plenty of Clevenger types. Heck, you want Daniel Descalso? You can have him.

Trumbo represents a low-risk, high-reward move to me, a player that is cheap and fills a direct need that can turn into more (or a trade chip!). I think they should've done it, but it doesn't kill me that they didn't.

"If you only had stats in front of you, no names, would you rather start a franchise with Nolan Arenado or Manny Machado?

-Connor G"

That's a dope ass name, Connor. I like it.

Well, let's pull up the blind stats and see for ourselves how these two players rank.

Player A: .281/.330/.458 134 wRC+ 16.5 career fWAR

Player B: .281/.318/.500 104 wRC+ 9.9 career fWAR

Just looking at the statistics blindly (the rule of the evaluation), the two are extremely comparable at the plate. With player A walking slightly more and player B having more extra base power. Player A's 7-win advantage is daunting but factor in the player's beyond elite level defense at third base. Based on this information alone, player A is certainly looking like the more completed player.

Which would you take with just those numbers? Player A or player B?

Has Connor Been Owned?

Each week, our team of investigators and officials here at Connor, Inc. will look into whether or not Connor was the victim of an "own." For the uneducated, an own is often a comeback or put down that renders the person speechless and unable to turn the conversation around. It's also described as a "serve" or "savage." I'm a medical miracle in that at no point in my life have I been owned by anyone online or in real life.

Here is what is being brought forth to the Committee of Owns this week as alleged evidence of my owning:

This week's own attempt comes from Mark, who turns a classic pickup line against me in an attempt to own me, while also inferring that I've been owned before. Of course, that has definitely not happened. This is a classic double-tap own attempt. I've seen them before and so has the committee.

After a long deliberation, the committee has found that I was not owned in this instance. Any attempt to disperse information to the contrary will be subject to civil litigation by the legal team at Connor, Inc.

As we do every week, let's update the own scoreboard:

Has @rockiesVSconnor been owned?	Owned	Not owned
November 13, 2015	-	X
November 20, 2015	-	X
November 27, 2015	-	X
December 4, 2015	-	X
TOTALS	0	4

Suckers.

Regards,

Connor

[Editor's note: real people are emailing Connor and you should, too. If you want to be included on next week's fun, email questions about sports, pop culture, or (almost) anything else to connorsmailbag@gmail.com or try to own him on Twitter.]