Strike One: After the Nolan Arenado trade, it was all doom and gloom for the Colorado Rockies. It’s going to take more than a decent month to change that.
But…Colorado isn’t going to lose 100 games, as most of the naysayers have been predicting. There are a few reasons why.
First, as currently constructed, they aren’t that terrible. Aside from seven games (1-6) against the powerhouse Los Angeles Dodgers, Colorado has held its own during the first month of the season. After a winning homestand, they’re 7-7 against everyone else. They played the New York Mets – a probable play-off team that threw two All-Star starting pitchers at them – on even terms, swept two games from the perennial contending Houston Astros and beat the mediocre Philadelphia Phillies two out of three.
The Rockies starting pitching as been really good, actually. They have the most quality starts in the National League after 21 games. There’s no reason to believe the good starting pitching can’t continue, especially when they get Kyle Freeland back off the injured list.
Colorado has holes in the bullpen and the line-up isn’t going to scare anyone. But considering that most of the roster is made up of guys who are what some in baseball term “4A” players – meaning they’re better than Triple A quality, but not really established every day big leaguers – it should be expected that they’ll find it hard to score runs against the topflight pitchers in the National League. And the ‘pen is certainly going to blow some games.
But the thing about 4A players is that they tend to be scrappy – hungry – with something to prove every day. This Rockies team, while short on talent, isn’t going to be short on desire. Fans shouldn’t expect to see them fold their tent – even after the inevitable trades of Trevor Story and Jon Gray before the July 31 trade deadline. Whomever is brought in to replace those two players – each in the last year of his contract – will also be hungry and have something to prove. That’s a positive.
The other big reason Colorado won’t lose 100 games is that there are a lot of below average teams in the National League this season. Only the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres stand head and shoulders above the Rockies in the NL West right now. While the Arizona Diamondbacks and the San Francisco Giants are off to better starts, record-wise than the Rockies, Colorado has played LA seven times already, and the other two have yet to meet the defending World Series champs. By the end of the season, the gap between second and third place in the NL West could be 35 games, and any of the other three in the division could be that third place finisher.
The Rockies will also play teams like Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and several others who – like the Rockies – also spent the unique off season cutting payroll after the massive financial losses of 2020. Only a handful of teams in all of baseball actually got better this past winter. Most are in survival mode this season. That means a lot of teams will be pretty evenly matched during the year.
So, while the Rockies aren’t going to contend for a play-off spot in 2021, they aren’t going to roll over and die, either.
And they won’t lose 100 games.
Strike Two: Will the last one leaving the football locker room at Colorado State please turn out the lights?
Okay, the Rams are far from the only school watching the revolving door of transfers come and go now that the NCAA has decided to allow free agency in college football. It’s happening all over the place. The old line about “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard” didn’t use to be the case in a sport where players would enroll in school, stay three and even four years before moving on to the next phase of life (most “in something other than sports.”) You know, when it was actually “college” football.
So while everyone now has to deal with the infamous “transfer portal” and an ever changing roster of players, what’s happening in Fort Collins still seems a little over the top.
To date, 14 players have decided to depart the CSU program since the end of the abbreviated four-game 2020 season. That includes quarterback Patrick O’Brien (who will use his last year of eligibility at the University of Washington) standout receiver Nate Craig-Meyers, and most recently, defensive back Keenan Bailey, the sophomore-to-be (eligibility-wise) and son of former Denver Broncos Hall of Famer Champ Bailey. Bailey is one of seven members of the secondary to leave the program in the past four months.
If that sounds like a lot…it’s because it is.
So what gives? When did Fort Collins become a bad place to live and play football? Was it when Steve Addazio and his new, old-school staff arrived?
Addazio’s first year in Fort Collins didn’t go smoothly, and that wasn’t just because of the virus. There were off the field issues that included complaints about mistreatment of players and the skirting of COVID rules. Addazio’s old-school methods are well known. Is it possible that his gruff style isn’t all that popular with today’s players? Remember, after his final year at Boston College, shortly after he was let go, the best player he coached at BC, Heisman finalist and Doak Walker Award winner Andre Williams, basically told him to not let the door hit him in the butt on the way out.
Addazio – who reportedly talked with Urban Meyer about possibly leaving CSU himself to become the offensive line coach with the Jacksonville Jaguars – wouldn’t be the first old-school style coach to clash with today’s new breed of college football player. But with coaches’ salaries soaring every year, you’d think that maybe guys like Addazio would take the time to learn how to better communicate with today’s players?
With the rules the way they are now, recruiting a player no longer stops when he signs his letter of intent. Time for some of these old dogs to learn that new trick.
Strike Three: There’s no telling how deep the Denver Nuggets can go in the upcoming NBA play-offs. But whenever that play-off run ends, it will most likely mark the end of basketball – including summer basketball – for everyone on the team. And they’ll have earned the rest.
There won’t be rest for numerous NBA players who will be representing their countries in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Olympics. The games begin the day after the NBA Finals are over.
That means that the vast majority of standout NBA players – guys like LeBron James, Donovan Mitchell, Kawhi Leonard, Kevin Durant, Anthony Davis, James Harden and others won’t be representing the USA on the hardwood in Japan. The calendar – both the 2021 version and the condensed one from the fall of 2020 – is working against them. A lot of the superstars will opt for a full off season this time around.
Team USA will be just fine, however. Steph Curry figures to be the main man for Team USA. And he’s on an absolute tear right now, just in time for the NBA regular season to be over. Golden State may sneak into the one-year “play-in” round of this post season, but the Warriors figure to be a quick out. That’s good news for Team USA head coach Gregg Popovich (who’s San Antonio Spurs and in the same boat.) He’ll probably get Draymond Green to team with Zion Williamson, Zach LaVine and former Nugget Jerami Grant and in Tokyo.
As for the Nuggets best players? Nikola Jokic won’t likely be home in time to play for Serbia. Plus, he’s certainly earned a full off season. Canada lost out just like the Nuggets did when Jamal Murray got hurt. Michael Porter Jr isn’t a candidate for Team USA. In fact, the only Denver Nuggets listed among the 57 candidates to play for Team USA is…JaVale McGee.
If the Nuggets get past LeBron and the Lakers in the first round – and that’s going to be tough with LA getting healthy and Denver without Murray – then it’s not likely any of the members of the roster, including those from other countries – would be able to play in Tokyo. But if they lose in the opening round?
Perhaps Facco Campazzo suits up for Argentina? Remember, this is his first NBA season, so he isn’t as worn down as most of his teammates, who went deep into the 2020 post season in the bubble before getting that very short off season. Vlatko Cancar could very well be part of the Slovenian squad (with or without Luka Doncic) and maybe Zeke Nnaji has shown enough promise to get a last minute invite from the Nigerian Olympic team?
A whole bunch of maybes. But what’s most likely to happen is that no Denver Nugget will be playing in Tokyo. And while it may take some of the rooting interest out of watching for Nuggets fans (remember how well Joker played against Team USA in 2016?) it is undoubtedly what will be best for the franchise moving forward. The 2021-22 season could be a special one for the Nuggets, who will have Aaron Gordon for a full season and presumably Murray back around mid-season.
A full off season would serve everyone in the organization well.