Before the start of the season we asked you, our loyal Purple Row readers, to grace us with your bold predictions for the 2019 Rockies season. We had five responses this year (thanks to RoxRock4, TropicalChrome, RockiesLifer, biondino, and kingoftherockies for your submissions). The predictions fall into a few general categories.
Gimmies
It’s hard to predict baseball. As such, I’m surprised more people didn’t grab gimmies like TropicalChrome did: that All-Star Game announcers mention Coors when the Rockies come to bat, and that our Regional Sports Network broadcasters would miss a significant play because they’re distracted by something else. This may have already happened, now that I think about it.
Reasonable
These are the predictions that you don’t even have to squint to say, “Yeah, I could see that happening.” From a make-or-break year for Jon Gray, to a Tony Wolters top 10 catcher finish, from the bullpen actually being pretty good to trading for a catcher. These aren’t locks, but it’s not hard to imagine they’ll take place.
Bold
Four of our five FanPosters predicted a division title. This prediction feels hopeless after 12 games but it’s a long season. The reason this falls in the “Bold” category is because six-straight division titles for a Dodgers team that still looks pretty good is a streak that’s tough to break, even if one makes the reasonable prediction that the Rockies will be good.
There were a lot of bold predictions for individual performances. RoxRock4 and TropicalChrome put German Marquez and Kyle Freeland in the Cy Young conversation while biondino thinks Jon Gray will finish with the best WAR on the team. There’s the NL MVP Award for Nolan and an All-Star appearance for David Dahl, according to kingoftherockies.
RockiesLifer went a little more micro in player performance predictions: a cycle for Ryan McMahon, a no-no at Coors for Jeff Hoffman, and September’s closer not making the Opening Day roster.
These are the kinds of bold predictions that make these posts fun. But some folks got even bolder than this.
Outrageous
I’ll admit “outrageous” is a bit of a hyperbole, but these predictions go beyond bold and caused me to raise my eyebrows a little bit. Ian Desmond a .300 hitter? The Rockies clinching the division in a Game 163 at home against the Dodgers? The first one is a little too out there from RoxRock4 and the latter, from kingoftherockies, gave me nausea just thinking about it.
Impossible
5. Goodman says something negative about Ian Desmond
C’mon, RockiesLifer, let’s take this seriously.
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Thanks to everyone for participating! We’ll have a prompt about once a month through the season so stay tuned for more.