Colorado Rockies: Show Us The Will to Win as 2016 Ends

Let’s be real and honest here. The Colorado Rockies won’t finish with a .500 record this season. While it’s not a complete surprise, it’s still a bit of a disappointment heading into an offseason of uncertainty.

Think back to where this club was as August dawned. There was talk of another Rocktober run and a possible Wild Card berth. The buzz was palpable as the Miami Marlins came to town for a big three-game series. Both teams chasing the Wild Card. Ichiro Suzuki approaching 3,000 hits. The Rockies were on a roll. There was a lot of excitement.

Then reality came crashing down hard on Colorado.

Trevor Story was lost for the season. Carlos Gonzalez was sidelined with an ankle injury. The bullpen reverted back into the Colorado bullpen. Dreams of a Wild Card spot quickly faded.

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Along with the dreams of a Wild Card, the dreams of a season near .500 dissipated as well. There have been moments where the Rockies could’ve reached that goal, but sweeps in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and Arizona were too much to overcome. Home losses against teams with worse records happened too often. The two bad losses to Tampa Bay right after the All-Star break when the Rockies were playing so well still floors me to this day.

Colorado grabbed its 70^th victory of the season on Friday night with a walkoff win over the San Diego Padres. It showed the kind of fight that you like to see in your team … and a fight that honestly wasn’t on display at times in the previous series at Arizona.

It’s that fight that Rockies fans want to see heading into the 2017 season. There are only a few games left for the team to demonstrate that.

There is plenty of talent on this team. There’s never a question about that. However, that talent can’t be put on the backburner when the team falls behind early. The Rockies have fallen behind too many times this season and you knew, you just knew, deep in your heart that a comeback wasn’t going to happen.

Nolan Lees from our team did an excellent job talking about the reasoning behind CarGo moving to first base next season. At the end of his article, he put together a possible lineup for the Rockies for 2017. Take a moment and look at that lineup. From top to bottom, it’s a lineup that could well win the National League West.

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But there is more to winning a division title than good names in the right place in the lineup. It takes heart. It takes passion. It takes desire. Those are the things that Rockies fans are hoping to see in the final days of 2016.

The talent is there. Please Rockies, show us the will to win is there as well.