Colorado Rockies: 2 reasons why 2018 is a particularly important season

As the ground thaws in baseball cities around the country, including in Denver, home of the Colorado Rockies, optimism is never in short supply. Every team, no matter how long the odds, is a World Series contender in early March.

Because of this, it is not uncommon for hyperbole to dominate headlines during spring ball. It will almost surely be the “best group of guys” for one team, the “closest-knit group” for another, and the “hungriest team” another city has seen in years. Needless to say, every team is ready for the upcoming 2018 campaign and hopes to contend.

For the Colorado Rockies, however, I think this season is of vital importance for two main reasons. One is to establish themselves as a perennial contender league-wide. The other, which we will dive into in a moment, is to garner some long-overdue respect from the mainstream media.

Becoming a Perennial Contender

I was born a few years before the Rockies arrived in Major League Baseball. I certainly consider myself a lifelong fan who has been through the highs and lows of baseball in Denver since it arrived. As all Rockies fans know, it hasn’t always been easy. In 24 seasons, there have been just four postseason appearances: 1995, 2007, 2009 and 2017.

Colorado Rockies

Of course, only one of those postseason trips culminated in a trip to the World Series (2007), and none of them in a world championship. That part in and of itself is not something to be too disappointed about. In reality, about half of Major League Baseball is currently in a longer World Series drought (CLE, TEX, MIL, SD, WAS, SEA, PIT, BAL, DET, NYM, LAD, OAK, CIN, MIN have all gone longer without a WS title). That being said, I think it’s time to start stringing those playoff years a little closer together.

To be clear, I am certainly not calling for a World Series appearance every season, but this season is extremely important for the Rockies in establishing themselves as perennial contenders for a playoff spot. Teams like the Giants (2017 excepted, holy cow that was a bad year) and Dodgers in the NL West, the Cardinals and Cubs in the Central and the Nationals out east are good examples of teams who, year in and year out, are at or above .500 and fighting for a playoff spot. These are teams who are more often than not reloading and re-tooling at the trade deadline and every off-season, rather than rebuilding.

This season is a chance for the Rockies to place themselves right back in the thick of things where they left off a season ago. It’s time for other teams to get used to seeing the Rockies on the schedule and knowing that’s a series against a playoff-caliber team. Making the playoffs two years in a row obviously wouldn’t grant us the “perennial power” title just like that, but it’s a start.

Establishing that tradition of playing good baseball starts this year. It would not only be a blast for Rockies players and fans everywhere, but would also potentially assist the Rockies in landing some of the bigger name free agents down the line, who today tend to always seem to end up in New York, Boston, Chicago and LA, where they see themselves having more success.

National Media Respect

Reason number two I find this upcoming season especially important for the Rockies is the opportunity to FINALLY start building up some respect in the eyes of the national media. I know, this is superficial and I know that what “they” say doesn’t really matter, but gosh it would be nice to see the team and players get more national recognition than they do.

I’ve got to throw in a disclaimer here. I am what one might consider a bit more old school when it comes to evaluating talent. In other words, the insane metrics that are being kept today are extremely interesting and surely helpful, but I guess I just haven’t completely abandoned attributes such as the eyeball test, intangibles, heart, want-to, etc. So pardon me if I appear ignorant of advanced sabermetrics or projections in this piece. Last week I had to shovel 6 inches of snow when projections had it at zero, so maybe I’m just bitter. Anyway, back to my point.

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Much has always been said about Coors Field and its effect on the statistics and performance of players who wear a Rockies uniform. I could write a book, let alone an article, on how I feel about all of that (In short: IT ISN’T OUTER SPACE). I feel that a lot of the national media sees Rockies baseball as a sideshow, a tainted brand of baseball because they play at altitude. Making the playoffs is great for many reasons, but one is that it serves notice to national media that hey, the Rockies must have played pretty darn good on the road too. Throw in some nationally televised playoff games where national writers who never see the Rockies get to see them play, and it’s even better.

FanGraphs projections have the Rockies finishing 79-83 in 2018, good for fourth place in the NL West. They aimed their computers at us and based on hundreds of variables and algorithms, that’s what the computer spat back out. These projections, and those like them, seem to be the primary source of information for national pundits these days. The problem is that last year, FanGraphs projected the Rockies at the exact same record: 79-83. The Rockies beat that projection by eight games and made the playoffs.

At the end of the day, there’s a reason the games are played. I think if the Rockies can have a good year and continue to defy the computers that national writers and analysts so dearly depend on, the more respect they will receive on both the airwaves as well as for national awards such as the MVP (don’t even get me started on neither Nolan nor Charlie being in the top three last year), Cy Young, and Hall of Fame.

Ex-Rockie great Larry Walker recently made a statement on a radio program in Montreal that echoes my thoughts on the national media misconception of Coors Field and how it robbed him of a Hall of Fame induction earlier in the year.

I played for a major-league team that happened to be in Denver. If that’s a problem, and there’s going to be an issue, then get rid of the team and move it elsewhere if it’s going to be that big of an issue. No needles went in my a**, I played the game clean, but I played in a ballpark. And it’s almost like Coors Field is my PED.

Now, of course we want Larry to cool it on the “get rid of the team” talk, but his sentiments and frustrations are the same as many Rockies fans. Having another successful season in 2018, which will include, by the way, two match-ups with the world champion Houston Astros, will continue to alert those with a say (however ignorant or biased I feel that say to be) that the Rockies are for real, and do not play a gimmick style of baseball.

Winning cures all, and that is as true as ever for the 2018 Rockies. But with perennial and traditional contention on the line, as well as respect for deserving players in national circles for awards such as the MVP and Hall of Fame, this year seems to be bigger than most for the Rockies, who will look to come out firing March 29 and establish themselves as a legitimate contender and power in Major League Baseball.

Next: Why bullpen depth is a key in 2018 for Colorado

Season Prediction: 90-72 Record, Top NL Wild Card Spot, Host Brewers in NL Wild Card Game