Mark Kiszla offers up a couple bold and provocative predictions here. First, he thinks Trevor Story will end up passing Todd Helton for the most home runs in Rockies’ history. He thinks Story will be the Rockies’ home run king. It’s easy to put Todd’s mark in Story’s sight because we know what that number is: 369? Will he pass it? Maybe. I dunno. But we can imagine it at least. But I’m not sure why Kiszla doesn’t think Arenado will have more home runs. Arenado’s eclipsed the 40 home run total twice, whereas Story has peaked at 37. And Arenado has about 100 home runs on Story and is only two years older.
Kiszla also suggests Story could end up with more than 500 career home runs, and it sounds like that’s built on a faulty premise. He writes:
No shortstop in major-league history has reached 100 homers faster than Story, who reached the milestone Friday. Let that sink in for a minute. Not Ernie Banks, not Nomar Garciaparra, not Alex Rodriguez.
That’s true if you are counting games, but games are less important than age when the question is how many home runs a player will end up with. Álex Rodríguez had just turned 23 when he hit his 100th home run, three years sooner than Story. Rodríguez already had 298 home runs through his age 26 season.
Story is still in great company though. There are only 10 shortstops in major league history to record 100 home runs through their age-26 seasons: Rodríguez, Cal Ripken Jr., Ernie Banks, Hanley Ramírez, Troy Tulowitzki, Nomar Garciaparra, Vern Stephens, Rico Petrocelli, and Francisco Lindor (Lindor accomplished this earlier this season at the age of 25).
I love Trevor, I do think he’ll go down as one of the best position players in Rockies history, and reaching 100 home runs in less than four seasons is a great accomplishment. But taking that nugget and imagining more career home runs than Arenado and maybe getting to 500 is a little much.
Nolan Arenado on Colorado Rockies’ season: “It’s not early any more” | Rox Pile
The quote in the title says it all. Nolan and the Rockies have a sense of urgency now, as the games pile up and the competitive field takes shape. Now, with a 24-27 record — which feels so much better than the 23-28 record they could have had if they lost yesterday — the Rockies need to break through their win one/lose one trend and start winning consistently. Where things stand, they need to go 67-44 the rest of the way to get to 90 wins.
Brendan Rodgers seeking to become Rockies’ next great infielder | Mile High Sports
Aniello Piro has a nice story about Brendan Rodgers and the potential he brings, not just to be a high caliber player, but to form part of what could be a monster of an infield. Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story already form what could be the best left side in baseball. If Rodgers figures things out early and comes into his own, the infield could be a terror to opposing pitchers.
On the farm
Terrin Vavra had a couple more hits, including another home run, for the Tourists. The two hits raised his season batting line to .312/.387/.514. While it’s a hitter friendly environment, it’s still appropriate to say that the 2018 third round draft pick is, indeed, terrin up the South Atlantic League.
Triple-A: Sacramento River Cats 16, Albuquerque Isotopes 8 | MiLB.com
Double-A: Hartford Yard Goats 8, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 6 | MiLB.com
High-A: Lancaster JetHawks 13, Rancho Cucamonga Quakes 12 |MiLB.com