Colorado Rockies 2020 Fantasy Baseball Preview | FantasyPros
An indefinite pause in the baseball world comes with at least one silver lining: if you aren’t in a fantasy baseball league and want to be, you’ve got plenty of time to set it up.
FantasyPros lists out the Rockies starting rotation with Jon Gray ahead of German Marquez, followed by Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela and Jeff Hoffman. They say Senzatela is the most likely to fall out of the rotation, and Chi Chi Gonzalez is the most likely to be brought in.
FantasyPros projects Wade Davis to be the closer when the 2020 season does commence, but they also label his job security as low. Their bullpen fantasy advice: “For now, draft Davis as the team’s closer, but make sure you have depth at the position.” They credit Scott Oberg as having better numbers and tout him as the top backup option, ahead of higher paid options like Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw.
There is also a “green light rating” listed for how ambitious the Rockies play the base paths (for the next-level fantasy baseball crowd). Manager Bud Black was “well above-average in terms of aggressiveness in his previous stint with the San Diego Padres,” but the Rockies are “closer to league average now.” Petco Park plays much differently than Coors Field, and those base running tendencies could be less Black’s personal preference and more a product of the hitting environment.
Regular season postponements bring about interesting decisions to make in a fantasy setting, and if a regular season plan like the Cactus/Grapefruit proposal actually does happen, all sorts of fine-tuned decisions could face a sharp change in direction. Park factors would suddenly exist for completely different ballparks, workloads for starting pitchers could adjust due to the impact of the Arizona heat, and even the expanded rosters could play a role in how people add and drop players.
Fortunately for fantasy owners, they would have time to fine-tune their rosters to such specifics during what could be a three-or-four-week on-ramp phase.
Colorado Rockies: Top Five Shortstops in Franchise History | RoxPile
In RoxPile’s order, first through fifth: Troy Tulowitzki, Trevor Story, Walt Weiss, Royce Clayton and Clint Barmes.
Tulowitzki’s 10-year career with Colorado featured three top-10 MVP finishes and five trips to the All Star Game. It also came with one of the harshest black clouds of injury misfortune. Bleacher Report put out a feature on Troy Tulowitzki in the early summer of 2018, highlighting an injury-laden star that in “his first five seasons, it looked as if the guy might be on a collision course with Cooperstown.” “Torn tendon in left quadriceps. Right hand laceration. Fractured left wrist. Strained left groin muscle. Fractured right rib cage. Left hip injury. Strained right quadriceps. Cracked left shoulder blade. Chip fracture in right thumb.”
Two others on this list suffered extended absences with the Rockies due to injury as well. Trevor Story suffered torn ligaments in his right thumb in 2016 and it shortened a stellar rookie campaign. Clint Barmes was tagged with an unfortunate broken collarbone in the summer of 2005, ending his season.
Barmes took over shortstop duties in 2005 after Royce Clayton’s only season with the Rockies. Walt Weiss played four seasons for the Rockies, and his lone All-Star appearance in a 14-year career came when Coors Field hosted the game in 1998—the year he left Colorado for Atlanta.
David Dahl went 1-2 on Monday in the MLB The Show Players League, saying “errors and base running mistakes killed us.” He pulled together his win against the Nationals’ Juan Soto, after trailing by one in the final inning and hitting a walk-off home run with Trevor Story to seal the deal.