Colorado Rockies Quick Hits: Story, Arenado, Black, Harper

One week from today, the Colorado Rockies pitchers and catchers will, mercifully, be having their first workout of Spring Training. However, there are still plenty of hot stove notes and rumors in the air.

On Tuesday, Andrew Simon of MLB.com published an article on the 10 best position player duos, based on their 2019 WAR projections. A duo that you may expect to be in there is

Nolan Arenado

and

Trevor Story

but, based on the projections, they would not be in the top 10. The snubbed duo is an honorable mention on the list as they would be 11th. Simon used Steamer projections, which is also featured on Fangraphs and their projections have

Arenado’s WAR at 4.8

and

Story’s at 3.5

, which would be an 18 and 30 percent drop off from last season to this upcoming season.

More from Rox Pile

Speaking of Arenado, you’ve probably heard or saw about how Rockies owner Dick Monfort is optimistic that the Rockies and Arenado will sign a long-term extension but Bud Black was a guest on the Dan Sileo Show on 97.3 The Fan in San Diego, which is the Padres flagship radio station. He said, “I don’t know whether [an extension will come] next week, next month, or during the season, but I’m thinking very optimistically on this one.” In the interview, he compared Arenado to Hall of Fame third basemen Mike Schmidt and George Brett, who was actually Bud Black’s teammate on the Kansas City Royals for parts of seven seasons from 1982 to 1988, which included a World Series championship in 1985. “Nolan is headed that way, he can do it all,” said Black. Black added that “he’s probably better than those two defensively. Offensively, he’s got some years ahead of him to do what they’ve done. But like Mike and George, he’s got a passion to play, a passion to work, a love of the game, they’re baseball rats. They love being at the ball park.”

According to Randy Miller of NJ.com and Jon Heyman of MLB Network (both on Twitter), the San Francisco Giants have entered the Bryce Harper sweepstakes but, as Heyman noted in his tweet, it is not known how interested they actually are in Harper. The Padres have also been linked to Harper as one of his top potential suitors so, for the Rockies, there’s a good chance that they could find Harper to reside in their division, since two of the five teams mentioned of late are in the NL West.

Next. Rockies: Potential 2019 batting orders with a designated hitter. dark

It’s been a slow offseason for Harper, Manny Machado, and many other free agents but with Spring Training right around the corner, they could find themselves a home soon.