No Church in the Wild

 

I'll give the Rockies this, with a lot of their teams failing recently, a lot of the storylines behind their seasons have just been 'which reclamation project is gonna win over the fans next?'

Cause think about it. You've already seen Daniel Bard, Connor Joe, Chad Kohl and now Wynton Bernard figure out their careers while playing for the low-stakes Rockies. Honestly, from a storytelling perspective, it's definitely still a step up from a lot of teams, because at least you can talk about how and why players find their stuff here. It's been fun following Daniel Bard's comeback, honestly.

But now we have Jose Iglesias having a similar comeback year. I remember him for his breakout 2013 that began in Boston and ended in Detroit, as well as his strong Tigers years as a perfectly strong offensive shortstop. The last few years he's bopped around everywhere, having decent years in Baltimore and Cincinnati, struggling in Anaheim and then having a bench support year for a Red Sox playoff run. And when I signed late with Colorado, I worried he'd sort of flame out here.

Not really the case. Yes, his defense isn't as strong as it was, but he's hitting .308, has 120 hits and 47 RBIs. In a season where there's been instability, especially with Kris Bryant, having a guy like Iglesias who can show up everyday and deliver in some way is pretty beneficial. This is why C.J. Cron has been such a success, he shows up, plays a solid 1st base, hits 25 home runs and doesn't let ya down. The Rockies are building the team up with contracted guys who don't let you down, and it's distracted a lot from the one contracted guy who HAS let them down.

And of course you can also see them locking up people like McMahon and Elias Diaz and the pitchers, and making sure they have a large base to rely on as they go forward. It does ensure that the Rockies will never be completely terrible, which does contract nicely with a lot of other last place teams.

I'm guessing next year will be a step up if everyone, including Bryant, performs to standard. I dunno if Iglesias will stick around, but they could use a guy like him.

Coming Tonight: A surprise pick for one of the best catchers in baseball.