If this is your first visit to Purple Row, welcome. We’re glad you found us, and we’re glad you’re here. But even if this isn’t your first visit, we want to welcome all of our community members back in anticipation of the 2019 baseball.
For everyone, here’s what to expect from us this season.
Daily content
Purple Row is about conversation and community. The daily anchor for that is the Rockpile post. Every day, one of our talented staffers scours the internet for the best and most interesting insight about Rockies baseball. They aggregate them all up, add some commentary, and provide a space for conversation in the comments. If you’re ever on Purple Row and think, “I want to say something about the Rockies but I’m not sure where to put it,” put it in the Rockpile. Starting this season, the Rockpile will also be the center for prospect news and discussion (the information that was previously in the daily Pebble Reports).
Every regular season game will have a game thread and a quick summary once it’s over. The game thread is where all conversation about the game taking place should go. The game summary is where the conversation should move afterward. We try to post the game summary within ten minutes of the final out.
You can also interact with us during games on Twitter. We can be found @PurpleRow. Renee Dechert is back for her second season tweeting games, and this season she’ll be joined by Ben Kouchnerkavich.
Weekly content
Every Monday, Sam Bradfield will review the week that was from the Rockies’ farm system in our weekly Pebble Report, with a particular emphasis on the Rockies’ top prospects. Longtime readers of Purple Row know that the Pebble Report has been a daily pillar of in-season Rockies coverage. That daily news from the farm will now be found in the Rockpile.
Each Friday, Eric Garcia McKinley’s This Week in Purple will look back at the good and the bad from the previous week of Rockies’ baseball. This will also be an open forum for community members to go off topic, get to know each other a little more, and talk about what’s been good for them.
Hayden Kane, Renee, and Eric will also have weekly features of analysis and commentary about the Rockies. You can find features under the Scaling the Rocks section of the site. You’ll read about everything from the state of the shift in the Rockies’ clubhouse to an inquiry about meaning of Jon Gray’s hair.
That’s just to start. Our other talented staff members who you’ll mostly see posting Rockpiles and game summaries — including Adam Peterson, Jordan Freemyer, Hannah Auringer, Nick Hertzog, and Nick Walsh — will also be featured heavily throughout the season.
Podcasts
Tyler Maun and Anthony Masterson host the Purple Dinosaur Podcast, which is entering its sixth season of weekly Rockies talk. Be sure to follow them on Twitter @purpledinocast and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
It was not a mistake to write “podcast” in the plural. You’ll hear more about this later this morning.
Community
Our comments section has some of the most knowledgable and passionate Rockies fans you’re ever likely to find. We pride ourselves on thoughtful discussion, and if you’re new here, we’d love for you to join in. Purple Row adheres to SB Nation’s Community Guidelines, so it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with those before diving into the comments.
If you ever find yourself in the comments and think, “this is basically it’s own blog post,” well, you can make it one. You can create a FanPost on the site, which comes with its own comment so you can start the discussion yourself. From time to time, we put the most thoughtful and interesting FanPosts on the front page.
Another community feature is our prospect poll. Twice a year, site manager emeritus Jeff Aberle organizes our community Purple Row Prospect Ranking (PuRP). The result is a top 30 with write ups of each player. This takes place around December/January before the season and July/August during the season. You can see the most recent list here.
That’s not all Purple Row’s community members create. Rockies Roster is an incredible resource created by Sage Farron and now operated by Tim Zappe. The site will tell you everything you want to know about the state of the Rockies roster, from the majors to Rookie ball. Want to know how many options Raimel Tapia has? Curious about how much service time Jon Gray has under his belt? You can find that information at Rockies Roster.
A new community project that’s starting this season is SB Nations FanPulse. Each week, you’ll get brief a survey about the state of the team, and the information will be collected into infographics that can shed light on the ups and downs of a season. The more people that sign up, the more fun it will be.
And, of course, we also meet up face to face. On April 5, we’ll be holding our third annual Opening Day breakfast at Wynkoop in LoDo. We’ll have a media Q&A, give away prizes, and talk Rockies baseball. If you were able to snag a ticket, we’ll see you there.
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And check out our preview of the 2019 Rockies for everything you need to know before the season officially gets underway.
That’s about all. We’re all here because we share a common interest: A passion for the Colorado Rockies. Let’s have a fun 2019 season together.