Major League Baseball likely will not be back until May or June (or potentially even later). What are we to do to pass the time with no Colorado Rockies baseball? There’s no March Madness, no Nuggets basketball, no Avalanche hockey. There aren’t even any bars or restaurants to patron in Colorado.
Even the Purple Row Opening Day breakfast was postponed!
But we’re not going to stop covering the Rockies here at Purple Row.
Thanks to the miracle of technology, Purple Row will be simulating the regular season on MLB The Show 2020 and premiering the broadcasts on YouTube at the same time as the regular season games were originally scheduled. With graphics, crowd noise, walk-up music and PA announcements from The Show and play-by-play courtesy of yours truly, we will be attempting to produce as authentic of a Rockies broadcast as possible. I won’t be “playing” the game—I’ll just be calling the action as the computerized versions of the Rockies and their opponents face off. One area in which I do have control is over the 26-man roster, which will be as follows:
Rotation (5)
Jon Gray, Germán Márquez, Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Jeff Hoffman
Bullpen (8)
Wade Davis (closer), Scott Oberg, Jairo Díaz, Carlos Estévez, Jake McGee, Bryan Shaw, James Pazos, Yency Almonte
Catchers (2)
Elias Díaz, Tony Wolters
Infielders (5)
Nolan Arenado, Josh Fuentes, Ryan McMahon, Daniel Murphy, Trevor Story
Outfielders (5)
Charlie Blackmon, David Dahl, Ian Desmond, Sam Hilliard, Raimel Tapia
Infielder/Outfielder (1)
Garrett Hampson
I initially had Drew Butera making the roster as the backup catcher to Wolters, but a few of my Purple Row colleagues and the results of this Twitter poll overrode my decision and Díaz will be the backup catcher.
Against both left-handed and right-handed pitching, this will generally be the starting lineup:
- Dahl—CF
- Story—SS
- Blackmon—RF
- Arenado—3B
- Murphy—1B
- McMahon—2B
- Desmond—LF
- Wolters—C
- P
We’ll let the computer sort out pinch-hitters, defensive replacements and days off for starting position players. Ultimately, this roster and lineup was deemed the most likely to reflect what would actually come to fruition on Opening Day.
We will be offering game threads (with the embedded YouTube video of the live broadcast), game recaps and even Twitter coverage on @PurpleRow.
We would like to broadcast as many regular season games as possible and we will try to schedule games at the same time as the games were originally scheduled to be played.
We’re all extremely excited for this to happen and hopefully you are too. We’ll see you on Purple Row Thursday, March 26, 2020, at 2:10 PM MT for Opening Day baseball as the Rockies take on the San Diego Padres.