McMahon Overboard

 

What's very funny is that, in the argument that people like Mike Elias and Bob Nutting are in, where there's hesitance to extend players even if it means ensuring the team goes nowhere, they do have a valid point in their own favor, which is that sometimes, even if you do lock down a bunch of players to multi-year deals, it doesn't do anything because either the player themselves doesn't hold up their end off the bargain or those players alone aren't enough to lift the team.

Basically what they're saying is 'if we extend Oneil Cruz, Paul Skenes and Bryan Reynolds, they could become Charlie Blackmon, Ryan McMahon and Kyle Freeland.' And...I don't know if the threat of becoming the Rockies is an accurate fear, considering that the Pirates or the Orioles don't play in a park designed solely to torture pitchers.

It's really wild that no Denver-area scientists have tried to figure out a way of leveling the air quality at Coors Field. Would a domed stadium do something? Would there need to be a depressurization? There's got to be some way, short of moving this team from Denver, which actually has a nice market for them, of evening things up, because if not we're just gonna keep being here, in this basement hell, with this team of people trying their absolute best. It genuinely feels Sisyphean at this point. Anytime someone starts doing well for the Rockies, usually a pitcher, it's only a matter of time before the Coors Field starts catch up to them. It happened with Zach Agnos, the rookie reliever, who had a terrific start and now has a 4.43 ERA because he's had to play half his games in Denver. Even some of the decent rookies, like Carson Palmquist, Chase Dollander and Tanner Gordon, have high ERAs because they just can't keep runs down at home. And any attempt to solve the problem with better rookies and better players is going to keep the team here. Remember, bringing Kris Bryant to Colorado didn't work, and hasn't. 

And so what they have at the moment is Ryan McMahon, who's still contracted for another few years and I'm not certain it would make sense to trade at this juncture. McMahon, as he's prone to, is producing. He has 8 homers and 19 RBIs, which is Judge numbers for the Rockies, and continues to be an excellent defender at third. Between McMahon, Jordan Beck and Hunter Goodman, this team has some nice power pieces, and a good amount can be built on. I'm not sure what Goodman's strong start behind the plate means for Drew Romo, nor do I know what the set-in-stone OF of Beck, Doyle and Moniak means for Zac Veen, but at the very least a lot of the people starting for this team feel like they deserve to, even with Adael Amador, Nick Martini and Michael Toglia not doing much at all. 

The Rockies are likely going to keep grasping along at this pace, and might even chase last year's White Sox for the record. The problem is evident, and there doesn't seem to be any way to solve it, so they've figured that the better idea is to keep getting the shit kicked out of them. Maybe it's because I'm not an owner but that doesn't make any sense to me.

Coming Tomorrow- I still think the Mariners were really silly to give this guy up, and with all the bases he's stealing it's kind of confirming that.