Colorado Rockies: Road trip wish list for Opening Week

At last. It’s been nearly six months since the D-backs‘ Fernando Rodney delivered the final pitch of the Colorado Rockies’ 2017 season and short playoff run. If you’re like me, you’ve tried to put that memory away, so I looked it up. Nolan Arenado hit a ground ball to Arizona second baseman Daniel Descalso, who went the short way and threw Carlos Gonzalez out at second base to win the one-game playoff and advance to the National League Division Series.

Just 176 days later, Nolan, CarGo and company will step back into that same batter’s box as the Rockies kick off the new year with a three-game set against those same D-backs at Chase Field in Arizona. Afterwards, they will head west to San Diego for a four-game set with the Padres. The team will look very similar to the one that lost Game 163 last season, with a few notable differences.

The Rockies will sport a shiny new back end of the bullpen with the additions of setup man Bryan Shaw and closer Wade Davis. They’ll also have a new, yet familiar face behind the plate in Chris Iannetta, who is switching dugouts and returning to his old team after spending last season as a Diamondback.

But we know all of that. My reason for writing is to create a Wish List … a Road Trip Wish List. My goal will be to make one of these for each of the longer road trips the Rockies embark on this season.

I’ll lay out three goals for the team that I, and hopefully all Rockies fans, would like to see come to fruition before the squad returns home. We’ll also have some fun with a dream scenario as well as the dreaded (gasp) nightmare scenario. So without further ado, let’s get it started with the first, and so far greatest, installment of the Road Trip Wish List.