5 Rox topics from Bridich’s ST opening presser | MLB.com
It’s been over three weeks since Jeff Bridich promised to respond to Nolan Arenado’s comments about feeling disrespected, and we’ve all been waiting to hear his well-crafted, measured response. Well, today is the day, my friends.
Here’s what Bridich had to say:
“Nothing. There is no comment. I haven’t had any comment to this point, so we’ll move past that. Next question.”
Oh.
I guess that’s also an option.
To be fair, Bridich also had a lot of nothing to say about the moves he didn’t make this offseason and the Rockies’ pitching staff.
Welcome to the 2020 season, fellow Rockies fans: It’s just like the 2019-2020 offseason, except that it’s technically not the offseason anymore.
The Rockies didn’t do much this offseason, so there’s really nothing new here in terms of the Rockies’ Opening Day lineup (although the article includes some info on nonroster invitees as well).
The only recent changes include the signing of Ubaldo Jimenez and the cracking of Tim Melville’s rib.
But good news: Daniel Murphy will be more flexible this year. Physically. Not in terms of his defensive abilities.
Raimel Tapia needs to leap forward in 2020 | Rox Pile
Or else what? The Rockies will be bad? They’ll lose more games? Tapia will be fired? The author of the article will be sad? I feel like this headline introduces a lot of questions that need to be answered.
Tapia will likely split time with Ian Desmond in left field this year, which could be an adventure. As a hitter, Tapia is sometimes good and sometimes bad. He strikes out a lot, but less frequently than Trevor Story, David Dahl, Ryan McMahon, Garrett Hampson or Ian Desmond. In 2019, his OPS and OPS+ were higher than Tony Wolters’ and Garrett Hampson’s, but lower than just about everyone else’s, including Chris Ianetta’s. He had streaks where he hit really well (.304 in July and .353 in August) and streaks where he hit really not well (.170 in September). So there are a lot of question marks in terms of what sort of leap we could reasonably expect from Tapia this year.
I know a lot of you have opinions on Tapia, so feel free to discuss among yourselves. In case you’re interested, here are my thoughts:
- He would win Best Hair if the Rockies had such a competition.
- He seems to genuinely care about how his performance affects the team.
- He has massive issues with pitch recognition and a huge, swing-hard-in-case-you-hit-it swing, which may suggest that hoping for a leap forward is overly optimistic.
Rockies Win Arbitration Hearing Against Tony Wolters | MLB Trade Rumors
Tony Wolters will be getting a raise from his $960,000 salary in 2019 to $1.9 million in 2020. He’d asked for $2.475 million, but alas, it was not to be.
The hardest-throwing rotations for 2020 | MLB.com
The Rockies are No. 5 on this list, behind the Rays, Yankees, Mets and Reds. Given how hard German Marquez and Jon Gray throw, this isn’t surprising.
However, I’m not entirely clear on who this article is projecting to be the fourth or fifth starters, since it only mentions Gray, Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, and Jeff Hoffman — “if he can snag a spot.”
But good news: Apparently Maybe Hoffman and TBD also throw hard, so that’s a plus.
Is it spring yet? Here’s the big story for each team | MLB.com
This article begins with an important question:
“So, what will dominate talk all the way through March? What is each team’s Big Story?”
For the Rockies, the clear answer to this question (especially given the capitalization choices) is Trevor.
But apparently the writers of this article are boring, because they claim the Big Story is something about Nolan Arenado trade rumors, which is not a thing any of us have heard anything about this offseason.
Cracking Crystal: The 2020 PECOTA Standings Projections | Baseball Prospectus
PECOTA has the Rockies fourth in the NL West at 77-85. This seems like a reasonable projection.
Of course, PECOTA also thinks the Mets will win the NL East (yes, they have a lot of good pitching and good young talent, but they’re still the Mets) and the Reds will win the NL Central (yes, they made a lot of improvements, but they’re still the Reds).
PECOTA also thinks the Dodgers will go 103-60.
So these numbers may need some more interpolation.