Colorado Rockies fans, baseball cards, and a desire for pitching

With Major League Baseball shelved because of the coronavirus (COVID-19) disease pandemic, we decided to try to temporarily fill the void with an experiment involving baseball cards and Colorado Rockies fans.

The method of the experiment was simple. I went to a local Walmart and purchased a single pack of Topps baseball cards. The pack contained 16 cards and I decided to open the pack and pull four of the cards representing players who might be a good fit for the Colorado Rockies roster if it was as easy as snapping your fingers and having that player appear on the roster.

Of course, it’s not that easy, but it’s an experiment we could try without a baseball game (or social gathering for that matter) anywhere in sight.

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It was a pure game of chance on which players would be in the pack. As it turned out, there were no Rockies players among the 16 cards that were included. However, there were four interesting players in terms of possible additions to the Colorado roster in a fantasy world as part of the pack.

The four cards I pulled out were Kyle Hendricks of the Chicago Cubs, Hunter Renfroe of the San Diego Padres, Nelson Cruz of the Minnesota Twins, and Gregory Polanco of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Three hitters and one pitcher was represented.

Now it was up to Rockies Twitter to decide which of these four players they wanted to see on the “what if” roster. The four players were submitted to Rockies Twitter in a poll. It wasn’t long before it was very obvious that, even in an experiment, Rockies fans want their team to have quality pitching.

Hendricks was far and away the winner of the poll, with one Rockies fan summing up the feelings of many of his colleagues.

When the Rockies return to the field in real life, there are still plenty of questions to answer about the rotation and the bullpen, including who will be the fifth starter for the team. Rockies fans are also anxious to see how Kyle Freeland, Jon Gray, and German Marquez can carry the front of the rotation.

A pitcher like Hendricks would answer some pitching questions for the Rockies. Even if it’s not real, it’s a good thought on a day when choosing a random pack of baseball cards is the closest thing to baseball happening.