Know your enemy: Colorado Rockies

KEY ADDITIONS: Dereck Rodriguez, Austin Gomber, Greg Bird, C.J. Cron

KEY SUBTRACTIONS: Nolan Arenado, Wade Davis, Matt Kemp, Daniel Murphy, Chris Owings, Kevin Pillar, David Dahl, Tony Wolters

Remember that game I told you about in the Pirates “Know your enemy” article called “Name 3 Pirates”?

You could probably do that for the Rockies, too. Oh, sure, you know Trevor Story, but he seems likely to be traded by the deadline.

The trade of Nolan Arenado is the big story here. Probably, it’s the only story here, why this team felt it not only had to trade the face of the franchise but kick in $50 million to the Cardinals to do it.

And you think we have it tough as Cubs fans.

The Rockies still have a few good pitchers in Jon Gray, German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela, and that will probably keep them from being as bad as the Pirates will this year. It won’t help the Rox any having to face the Padres and Dodgers 19 times each this year.

A great Rockies story is Daniel Bard, who returned to the major leagues in 2020 seven (!) years after he last appeared with the Red Sox and had an excellent season, striking out over a batter an inning and posting six saves. (Incidentally, the Cubs tried a reclamation project with Bard in 2015, but he still had the yips.) He’ll close for the Rockies; it’s too bad they likely will not have many save opportunities. This is potentially a 100-loss team, especially if they trade Story in July.

The Cubs and Rockies are scheduled to play six times in 2021, all in August:

August 3-4-5 at Coors Field

August 23-24-25 at Wrigley Field