Strike One: The signing of free agent outfielder Matt Kemp brought cheers from Colorado Rockies fans everywhere. A low-cost, low-risk signing – to a minor league contract – for a player who has tormented the Rockies for years and years. If you can’t beat ‘em, sign ‘em, right?
That’s the prevailing thought.
That prevailing thought is wrong.
Signing Matt Kemp in 2020 is a reach at best, a harmful long-term mistake at worst. It reeks of a desperate attempt by the Rockies front office to create a win-at-all-costs narrative around this year’s team.
For starters, this is not the Matt Kemp who hammered Rockies pitching as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers. This Matt Kemp is now 35 years old, coming off an injury plagued season in which he only played 20 games for Cincinnati, hit .200 (12-for-60) with a single home run. The Miami Marlins signed him in the off season and ended up cutting him before spring training was halted.
The current version of Matt Kemp is a has-been, nothing more.
Sure, the younger, Dodger-version of Matt Kemp crushed Rockies pitching at a .327 clip. He’s hit 21 homers at Coors Field in 86 games there over his career. He’s been a Rockies killer.
But that was then. This is now. The 2020 Rockies aren’t getting that Matt Kemp.
Most followers of the team acknowledge this, and are quick to note that the Rockies are investing very little in Kemp, so if he isn’t going to be able to help them this season, they can let him go – no harm, no foul, so to speak.
But they ARE giving him a precious roster spot. Even though he’s on a minor league deal (which is weird because there’s no minor league baseball this year ) Kemp is one of just 60 players who get to wear a uniform and practice and play for Colorado this year. Everyone else in the organization – including many top level minor league prospects – won’t get to play baseball at all in any organized fashion in 2020.
As of now, last year’s first round draft pick, first basemen Michael Toglia from UCLA, is not among the select 60. (He still may be since the 60-man roster has not been finalized yet. But for now, let’s use him as an example.) Fact is that Kemp – who has very little left and most certainly won’t be a Rockie long term – isn’t as important to the Rockies fortunes moving forward as Toglia is. But Kemp will get reps this summer while Toglia is sitting on his couch watching Rockies games after hitting balls off a batting tee in his garage.
That’s counter productive to the idea of better player development. And player development is THE key to Colorado’s baseball fortunes moving forward. The Dodgers let go of the Matt Kemp’s of the baseball world. They make room for key prospects and continue their dominance of the National League West not by signing over the hill sluggers, but by developing new ones.
Michael Toglia (and others) should be part of the Rockies 60-man squad this season, Matt Kemp should not.
Strike Two: A number of the safety protocols being put in place for this MLB season are designed to safeguard the more vulnerable members of each organization, including members of the coaching staff, who are typically older guys. But these protocols will most certainly make coaching more difficult.
The most visible changes will be the elimination of nose-to-nose arguments with umpires – which will eliminate some fun – and the virtual line-up card exchange before games. No more meeting at home plate prior to first pitch. But those things happen only after the real coaching is normally finished. Normally.
There will be nothing normal about this season.
Other years, coaches typically arrive at the ballpark well before lunch. Some even come for breakfast when the team is at home. They use this time to prepare their plans for the day – both pre-game work and in-game strategy. They bring players in for extra work on various days. They watch video. They immerse themselves in that night’s game with an eye on tomorrows.
This year, there IS no arriving early. There is no extra work. There are no in-person strategy sessions. They’ll watch video by themselves and have virtual meetings with players and other coaches. They’ll still try to prepare (as closely as they can) to the way always have, but regardless, they’re going to be held to the same standard by observers in terms of wins and losses.
On the field they won’t be able to talk to baserunners. They won’t be able to slap hands with a guy who just hit a home run. The have to social distance from everyone in the dugout.
They won’t be able to coach.
There are those who watch baseball who think that managers and coaches are overrated. That once a team is put together and takes the field, it’s talent that wins games. They say that great managers are worth perhaps 10 games in the standings each season. What they don’t see is all that goes on away from the cameras with these men. All the extra hours spent in preparation for just a single game. All the work that goes on that no one ever sees or even hears about.
And it all matters. A lot.
As we watch games this season and expect the players to play the game the way they always have, it would be helpful to understand the importance of what they do with their coaches before and during games, and what they won’t be able to do this season. It will matter.
Strike Three: Now that football coaches have come face-to-face with the issues other sports have been dealing with since last March, some are starting to waffle about playing football when the leaves begin to turn. That’s only roughly six weeks away. It looks dicey at best. The desire to play is strong of course, so some are looking for alternatives.
Some coaches are promoting the idea of moving the college football season to the spring. https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2020/07/04/lincoln-riley-moving-college-football-season-to-spring-is-very-doable/ Oklahoma’s Lincoln Riley for one, calls it “very doable” without offering up any sort of plan.
The whole notion is shortsighted to say the least.
No, college football should not, under any circumstances, move the season to the spring of 2021. While no one wants the upcoming season cancelled, it remains the lesser of two evils. Pushing the football season into the spring would have a negative impact on multiple sports – including college football – for more than a year to follow.
Consider the sports calendar: College basketball (which already saw last year’s March Madness cancelled) tips off in the winter months but culminates in the spring. Having the most important college hoops games of the year conflict with college football games for exposure – broadcast and attendance, assuming that’s allowable by then – would put fans in a quandary. Supporters of Dear ‘ol State U – or the University of Oklahoma – can’t be in two or three places at once. If it’s fan attendance and broadcast revenue that’s at stake here, having two sports – and a third, college baseball – all going at the same time won’t produce a good outcome for any of them.
With the NFL committed to having its annual draft on time in late April, a spring college season would have a negative impact on pro prospects, too.
And what about the 2021 season? Are we prepared to have college football players – still “student-athletes” last time I checked – have a contracted off season? We finish the college football bowl season/play-off in June (nothing like the pageantry of a Rose Bowl game on the first day of summer) and then start the next one again in August?
Then there are the other sports that will be going on. It’s already a crowded calendar. NBA and NHL in late season mode. Major League Baseball – the only sport thus far whose plan for 2020 doesn’t have negative repercussions on 2021 – will be back in spring training and on course for a normal, full season. All these professional sports will be demanding attention as they too, try to come back from a messed up 2020.
Yes, college football already exists on a crowded fall calendar, but this would be different. This time college football would be the outlier, rather than the thing people planned on having be part of their fall rituals. This time they’d be trying to squeeze into other sports spaces. They’d be trespassing, if you will.
Often times, bad ideas are born out of good intentions. No one disagrees with Coach Riley about the desire to have a college football season. But unless the medical community comes up with some very good news very soon, we may have to simply swallow hard and wait ‘till next year. In the fall.