Rockpile

Those pesky Nolan Arenado trade rumors that nobody cares about right now because we all just miss baseball so much

Rockies news and links for Wednesday, April 1, 2020

By AJ Hendrickson@ProbablyAJ Apr 1, 2020, 6:00am MDT

Today is April Fool’s Day.

Good one, 2020. You got us.

Baseball’s delay means dwindling chances for Rockies fans to see the franchise’s greatest player, Nolan Arenado, in purple pinstripes | Denver Post ($)

Well, this is a dismal take. “Yeah, there’s no baseball right now, but even when baseball comes back, here are the reasons it’s going to suck.” Is Kyle Newman okay? Should we check in on him?

Friends, I’d like your take on this. Is this something you’re worried about right now?

Personally, while I’d obviously love for Nolan to be with the Rockies forever, I’m so desperate for baseball that I think my current wish list goes something like this:

1. Baseball. Any baseball. For the love of god let’s just have some baseball.

2. Nolan playing baseball.

3. Nolan playing baseball for the Rockies.

This is how bad it’s gotten: I just thought about Nolan being a Dodger and was like, “I guess I could watch the Dodgers.”

DO YOU SEE WHAT YOU’VE DONE TO ME, COVID?

Anyway, all of this leads me to an important question. In the spirit of Rockies Madness (and in memory of March Madness), let’s take a look at the Championship Round of Who Would You Rather Have?

Poll

Who would you rather have?

This poll is closed

90%

Nolan Arenado

(326 votes)
9%

Thor without hat

(35 votes)

361 votes total Vote Now

Q&A: Dick Monfort Dishes on the Challenges of Running the Rockies in 2020 | 5280

Dick Monfort explains the two main reasons he doesn’t sign a lot of free agents:

1. The Rockies don’t have a lot of money.

Key points:

The Dodgers make way more money.
Sure, the Rockies sell a lot of tickets, but a lot of them are cheap tickets.
It was going to cost them way more to maintain the land over the next 30 years than McGregor Square will bring in, so they’re not really going to make money from that.

There’s a lot to interpolate here.

But I call no way.

2. Dick Monfort falls in love with his players and doesn’t want to trade them.

Key points:

That one time, he didn’t trade Pedro Astacio.
The Rockies were one of the first teams to say, “We’re going to be a draft-and-develop team.”
His three-year plan includes keeping Ryan McMahon, Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, David Dahl, Tony Wolters, Kyle Freeland, and Germán Márquez.
His three-year plans usually don’t come to fruition.

Some of this is definitely true.

Is it just me, or do all of Dick Monfort’s interviews come off as a little defensive?

Rockies’ Top 5 first basemen: Harding’s take | MLB.com

The top two are obvious here. But after Todd Helton and Andrés Galarraga, who else is there? Only seven Rockies have played more than 100 games at first, so there aren’t really that many to choose from. Thomas Harding went with Justin Morneau, Mark Reynolds, and Jason Giambi.

Fun fact: I originally typed “Justing” and “Giambia” because my brain shut off somewhere around the time baseball went away.

New study says 2019 playoff balls were de-juiced, but MLB still has no answers | New York Daily News

MLB and Rawlings have assured us that the 2019 playoff balls were the same as the 2019 regular season balls. Science disagrees. Turns out the playoffs used a random assortment of balls from 2019, 2018, and earlier years.

This sounds like a great idea! I would have thrown in some Wiffle balls and Super Balls just for fun.

Dr. James Andrews Halts Tommy John Surgeries During Coronavirus Pandemic | Sports Illustrated

Were you wondering how all these players kept getting Tommy John surgery despite all the restrictions on nonessential medical procedures and surgeries? Well, rest assured that Dr. James Andrews is complying with Florida’s executive order (issued March 20) and will not be performing any more Tommy John surgeries for the foreseeable future. The executive order obviously did not apply to Thor, who had Tommy John surgery last week, because he is not of this world and thus not subject to the laws of mere mortals.

★ ★ ★

Time to dish out some awards. First up: last week’s winners.