Colorado Rockies Draft Challenge

[Saevel]

2026 August:

This was a strange month. We started the month off by losing 8 of our first 12 games, and it felt like the team was in free fall. There were multiple issues going on- we were leaky defensively, highlighted by an abysmal 2-25 loss to the Yankees, where just about every pitcher we put on the mound gave up several runs. We also had lots of games where we just didn't produce offensively either- 9 games this month with 2 or fewer runs, which is not characteristic for this Rockies team.

Fortunately, we also had some good spells in there, and ended the month on a high note, winning our last 6 games, and finishing over .500 (14-13). We now sit at 73-58, .557%. The Padres have been in steady decline since July, and are only one win ahead of us, and even though the Dodgers are regressing towards their usual division winning mean, we could be in for an exciting September.


Our top performers this month were Zac Veen (of course), Elehuris Montero, who keeps doing well in his limited role, and Drew Romo, who is finally picking up the pace offensively. Cole Tucker also made his comeback after over two months, and made an immediate impact with a 3 hit game. His defense will add stability at 3B for the remainder of the season, a position that has been a weakness for us this year.

Nolan Jones was awful, and often ended up being replaced at 3B by Bryant and Amador because of it. Brian Serven was equally bad in the 8 starts he got, barely getting a hit in. Ezequiel Tovar had quite a poor month as well, and his declining defense makes it increasingly important that he delivers at the plate.

Unfortunately, at the very end of the month, Kris Bryant went down with an inflammation in his shoulder. He won't be back this year. Bryant still has 2 years left on his (very large) contract, and we might have to limit his fielding even more to ensure he remains healthy.


Our starters were up an down all month, none of them really giving us consistency. Ryan Feltner continued his bad form, his strikeout rate in August only about half of what he's usually at.

Our scouts think Justin Lawrence has regressed since his injury, so he was put to the test this month, getting a lot of innings when we were in difficult situations. He held up surprisingly well, though.

Angel Chivilli is looking better and better, and his only earned run was in a 5 inning relief of Feltner. Having him locked up for 8 more years still looks like a good decision, although a lot obviously could happen with injuries and such.


Down in AAA, Sterlin Thompson won Best batter of the month, posting .346% avg. and 10 homers. He will be called up for the start of September, and get some shots at 1B or DH.

Austin Overn, our first rounder from 2025, tore his groin in the beginning of August, and will be out for most, if not all, of the season. As a result of this, his speed is waning, and he's looking more and more like a real bust.

George Wolkow, our giant of a first baseman from the 3rd round of the 2023 draft, unfortunately fractured his hand, and will also be gone for the season. He's been steadily improving, and will most likely move up to A+ next year.

Juan Guerrero has had yet another solid year in AAA, but suffered an injury about a week ago, which will keep him out for 5 weeks. We'd probably have given him some games in September, but it looks like he will have to wait until next year.

Finally, our 4th round pick from 2023, Levi Wells, has been called up, and will get to throw some pitches for us in September. He's recovered from his torn UCL in 2025, has played well at every level, and per now is the one of our starter prospects that looks the most ready for MLB.

[Saevel]

2026 End of Regular Season:

The Colorado Rockies have made the playoffs!


A single win behind the Dodgers, the Rockies and Padres will now face off in the Wild Card Game.

The Rockies went 17-14 in the final stretch, and ended up with a 90-72, .555% record, in our best season since 2018. Absurdly, this was the Rockies' 3rd best record since they joined the league. We were 2 games ahead of the pythag. record, for those interested in that.



We had some good games here, and again, it felt like most of our losses were narrow- we were rarely completely out of a game.





Over the season, we've gone 17-24 in One-run games, but 9-3 in Extra-inning games. We also seem to have managed to solve some of the Coors conundrum, going .629% there with our plan of high strikeout pitchers and high contact hitters.



Our hitting this year was generally good, carried by Zac Veen, who had an absolutely amazing year. He will no doubt be in contention for MVP and Silver Slugger awards.

Kris Bryant was great when injury-free, and Elehuris Montero much improved in a role where we limited his starts against right handed starters.

Brenton Doyle, Drew Romo and Michael Toglia all had rough patches over the season, but ended up with decent stats in the end.

Amador and Tovar did well offensively. As we've mentioned, Tovar has lost a step defensively. He's not terrible, but is he worth the 25 million a year he demands in a long term deal?

Perhaps we had too high hopes for him, but Nolan Jones was a bit of a disappointment, lackluster both offensively and defensively.

Daza and Tucker performed well for us as role players, often coming in towards the end of games to solidify the LF or 3B position, defensively.

Ryan Ritter and Benny Montgomery were our rookies this year, and were in the team almost exclusively for their defensive contributions. Both did what they should and little more. We will see if they are able to improve next year.

Brian Serven was bad, and will likely be replaced by Ronaiker Palma, who was consistent when called upon.


Several youngsters were called up over the season:

Yanquiel Fernandez looked the most at home, and was great in the 30 games he got for us.

Juan Guerrero only got 2 games, but he had 2 hits and a home run. Unfortunately he was injured for a good part of the season.

Coco Montes got 6 games as an emergency infield filler, and did admirably.
Sterlin Thompson, Jordan Beck and Will Taylor all got games, but never really shone.




Pitching was improved from last year, especially the bullpen, who had the 5th lowest ERA in the league.


Helcris Olivarez played his first full season in the majors, and did much more than what we could have hoped for. He was our best starter, especially up until September, where his form tapered off a bit.

Connor Seabold had a great year statistically. His performance wasn't that different from last year, but he racked up a 16-5 win record, and a fantastic (for Coors, with this team) ERA of 3.76

The rest of our starters struggled with consistency, which probably just reflects their ability. We still have hopes that Will Sanders can improve, as he's only 24, but he actually took a small step backwards from his rookie season, in most areas.

Levi Wells came up in September, and was stunning. He had only 3 earned runs over 8 games, 2 of which he started. We're very excited to see what he can bring next year.


As mentioned our bullpen was great all year long.

Gavin Hollowell, Justin Lawrence, and Angel Chivilli were especially solid.

Jaden Hill was called up in May, and played extremely well in the first half of the season. His SIERA of 2.02 is the best of all our pitchers by some margin, and his 34% strikeout rate is just what we want for Coors.
Juan Mejia also got his debut, and played well enough to stick around for the whole year.

Reagan Todd, Stephen Jones, and Jacob Kostyshock all spent some time with the Isotopes, but will probably be back at some point. Todd actually finished the year with the Rockies, and was stellar.
Lucas Gilbreath and PJ Poulin struggled a bit compared to last year. A lot of this was because they probably faced right handed hitters more than they should.
Lastly, Jake Bird had a rough season. He got injured in May, and never really got back into it- re-injuring himself again and again.




Lastly, some award news: Michael Harris won the NL batting crown, with an absurdly good season, where he hit for a .353 avg, with a 1.055 OPS. Evan Carter won the title in the AL, with a .322 avg.

Juan Mejia won Rookie of the Month in September, posting an ERA of 1.29 over 14 innings. Well done, Juan.

The Orioles was the best team in MLB, going 94-68. Onto the playoffs!

[Saevel]

Wild Card Game 1:

Helcris Olivarez started our first playoff game in 8 years, facing off against Nestor Cortes.
He did more than we could expect, but in the end, our hitting let us down, and we couldn't produce a single run at Coors.





Wild Card Game 2:

Connor Seabold started this one for us, facing Blake Snell.
Seabold was chased in the fourth inning, leaving the bases loaded for Pierce Johnson, with no outs.
Johnson struck out two of the batters he faced, but allowed a home run and a hit, leaving us 4 runs down.

We clawed our way back, and in the 6th inning, we grabbed the lead, 8-6.
It was not to be, though, as our bullpen let up 3 runs in the 8th inning, and we could never recover from there.
We out-hit the Padres 19 to 13, but the dream is over.

[Saevel]

2026 Season Wrap-up:

The MLB 2026 season is over, and the Braves beat the Mariners in 7 games to take the World Series.




Now for some award news:

Drew Romo took home his second Gold Glove.

Tovar and Veen each won their first Silver Slugger.

Alex Mooney won Rookie of the Year in the NL, having a very decent year at third base for the Phillies. None of our guys (Jaden Hill and Juan Mejia) were even close in the voting.

Jonathan Clase won in the AL, playing Right Field for the Mariners. His 5.5 WAR season and 36 home runs made sure it wasn't really close.

Spencer Strider and Shane Baz won Cy Young, in the NL and AL respectively.

Wander Franco won MVP in the AL with a good margin (next were Josh Lowe, Julio Rodriguez and aforementioned Clase).


And finally, in the NL, winning the vote in a landslide, the Most Valuable Player award was won by none other than our own Zac Veen! Well done, Zac, what a season it's been.

[Saevel]

2027 Season Planning:

Winter is coming, and we've had some decisions to make.


Brian Serven was very good for us in our first season. After that, he's just been a backup for Drew Romo. His catching ability and arm have waned, he hit for .215 avg this year, and he's due to earn close to 3 million dollars, so his time at the club is over.

Austin Gomber actually had his best year, ERA-wise. His strikeout rate is steadily decreasing though, and our scouts think that his current shoulder injury has set his stuff back even more. He will have to step aside, and let one of our youngsters get a chance.

Justin Lawrence has been a good and faithful pitcher to us, and one we've relied upon a lot. His last two seasons have really been solid, and he probably could have done a fine job for another year, but his UCL injury last year has taken it's toll. It saddens us, but it's probably time to let him go.

Another reliever that was not renewed is Jake Bird. He's had a lot of injuries over the past two seasons, and never really hit his stride. I suspect he will do well on another team, if he manages to stay healthy, but we've decided not to take him to arbitration.


Let's run through our position players for the coming year:


Designated Hitter:
Kris Bryant has two years left on his gigantic contract. He's injury prone, and will be protected as much as possible in a DH role.

Catcher:
Drew Romo is our captain and one of the league's best catchers.

Ronaiker Palma will back him up. He's got a good arm, and has proven he can hit in the big leagues.

First Base:
Michael Toglia is locked up for 6 more years at 6 million. He will get on base and give us home runs. This year he was soild defensively, committing only 4 errors in 154 games, and providing a lot of range his with large frame.

Elehuris Montero will play some first base, and probably some DH if (when) Kris Bryant goes down with injury. He was much improved this year, facing mostly lefties, and is probably a good enough player to be relied upon more, going forward.

Second Base:
Ezequiel Tovar had another great offensive season for us at second base. He probably isn't an ideal fit, defensively, but he will be back this year, and he will play a lot of games.

Shortstop:
Ryan Ritter will play solid defense and not generate a lot of offense. If he can improve his hitting just a bit, we will be satisfied.

Third Base:
Adael Amador is good enough to play shortstop, and that's probably where we should start him. Unfortunately, we don't have a good third baseman, so it's looking likely that Amador will get a fair share of starts there.

Cole Tucker was out for almost two months with a hamstring strain, but did well when he was around. His defensive play, especially at third base, meant he was often slotted in to protect leads in late innings, and we foresee a similar role for him this year.

Nolan Jones did not impress at bat or infield this season, and we're still not sure what to do with him. We will probably wait until April before making a decision.

Left Field:
Zac Veen was our best player this year by a country mile. .997 OPS, 78 stolen bases and a WAR of 8.0. He's locked up for 9 more years and has a chance to make himself a real Rockies legend.

Right Field:
Brenton Doyle had another good year. He's very solid defensively, and seems to thrive when being the leadoff man.

Center Field:
Benny Montgomery barely hit, but was good defensively and ended up with a positive WAR.

Yonathan Daza had an excellent year as a utility player. He returns this year as a defensive substitute, as well as in center field when Montgomery is unable to play.


On the cusp:
Yanquiel Fernandez played really well in his 30 games, getting 10 home runs and an OPS of .913. Should Bryant get injured, he will be the first to get called up.

Will Taylor took some time to get used to MLB pitching, but was sound defensively. Should Montgomery get injured, he could get more time in the majors next year.

Dyan Jorge is looking like a solid infielder- he's sound defensively and gets on base. We've been giving him time to develop, but he could get a look this season if we get injuries.

We've tried forcing both Sterlin Thompson and Jordan Beck a bit, but they haven't really broken through. Beck, in particular, looks to have what it takes, but might be held back by Doyle and Veen, who are locking down the corner positions. This is the last option year for these guys, so they will soon sink or swim.

Juan Guerrero was looking good in his two games last May. He still has a couple of option years left, but it looks like he could be developing some health issues.

[Saevel]

2027 Winter:

No new players inducted to the Hall of Fame. Todd Helton (2025) is the only one to be inducted since we took over, with Mauer, Ichiro and Beltran on the cusp.


There were three amazing looking Japanese free agents this winter, and they all signed with teams in our division. The Giants signed Hisashi Mizuno, who enters the league as pretty much the best defensive Shortstop, as well as a being a great power hitter. Oh yeah, and he's 22 years old, with tons of potential.



The Dodgers picked up both the other two, and now look absolutely ridiculously good. These are both power pitching aces in their late 20s- Tokimune Onoda and Toyokazu Matsuda.


We signed a handful of international amateurs, with the most promising (and expensive, at a 2.2 million bonus) probably being Juan Herrera.




As we did with position players, we'll go through our pitchers:

Starters:
Connor Seabold and Ryan Feltner will be back for another year. These are our veterans, and have been decent for us, since the new regime took over. Feltner probably staying in the back of the rotation, as he's a bit more inconsistent.

Youngsters Helcris Olivarez, Will Sanders, and Levi Wells round out the rotation. Olivarez had an amazing 5.0 WAR season, almost good enough for Cy Young. Sanders regressed slightly from his first year, and Levi Wells did excellent in his debut in September. All of these three have room to grow as players.

Our starters in AAA are a bit underwhelming. We know we can call upon Will Ethridge again if we need to. There's Victor Juarez, Brayan Castillo and McCade Brown, who all look promising, but have very poor movement. There's Joe Rock and Jordy Vargas, who have control issues. Finally there's Bryan Perez, who seems like the most solid option, but is only 23 years old, and started last year in A+. We will show off these players as we call them up.


Relievers:
Pierce Johnson returns for yet another year, as he's been decent. Together with perhaps our best pitcher, Angel Chivilli, and Juan Mejia, he will be in charge of closing.

Lefties Lucas Gilbreath and Reagan Todd are back, as is Jaden Hill and sidearmer Gavin Hollowell. All these 4 are strikeout pitchers that we have some confidence in. Todd is even a candidate to close against leftie heavy teams.

That leaves one slot, who we have some candidates for. Jacob Kostyshock might be the most likely, with Extreme Groundballer Stephen Jones and leftie specialist PJ Poulin in competition. All these three have plenty of MLB experience. So does Nick Mears, who seems a step behind the others.

Competing prospects worth mentioning are Riley Pint, and 2023 draftee from the 15th round (with the great name) Will Cannon.

[Saevel]

2027 Spring Training:

Spring Training is over, and we're about to start our 5th season since taking over. Last year went great, and the owner expectations this year are that we reach the playoffs. Our own expectations are more modest. We'd love to repeat last year, but realize that we were quite lucky in terms of injuries, and that our rivals have strengthened their teams tremendously over the winter. We will do our best, of course, but should we experience a down year, it won't be the end of the world.


Fan interest is up since last season, season ticket sale is up about 15%, and our owner has increased our budget by 20 million. We've allocated 35 million to player development, significantly more than in 2026. The White Sox, Angels, Marlies and GIants are the other teams investing big in this department, along with the Phillies, who are spending a massive 30 million this year.


Preseason predictions have us at 73-89, .451%, so the market is down on us quite a bit from last year, despite our overachievement. It also has the Nationals and Pirates at 93 wins, most in the League. Veen is obviously predicted to do well, along with fellow youngsters James Wood and Robert Hassell from Washington. Spencer Strider has developed into an incredible starter, and is the consensus number one after his Cy Young-winning season last year.


For what it's worth, the Rockies went 12-13 (with 3 ties) in spring training. Ezequiel Tovar was absolutely crazy, hitting like a demon, homering 9 times. Doyle was also excellent, while Romo and Amador were generally poor. As we all know, though, this probably doesn't matter much. Perhaps the most important takeaway is that no one suffered significant injuries in March this year.





The opening series is against the predicted division winners, Arizona. We will be back with an update in May.

[Saevel]

2027 April:

After a bit of a turbulent start, the Rockies sit at 13-14, .481%. We had a really rough first couple of series, going 1-5 against divisional rivals Diamondbacks and Dodgers. Things improved, though, and we're in an ok spot now, going forward.





Statistically, we're pretty much looking like we usually do: good batting average and runs scored, bad starting ERA. Our bullpen ERA is good (for the Rockies), we're first in the league in steals, but quite far down the list in terms of home runs. A positive this month, which I don't think we've seen before, was that our Zone Rating was among the best, at +5.8. In a way this makes sense, as we've more or less eliminated all the weak spots, using Amador at 3rd base and sticking to our glove-first players at CF and SS.




Zac Veen had another Zac Veen month, outperformed only by Kris Bryant. He hit 8 home runs in April, and won Batter of the Month in NL. We've managed to keep him almost exclusively playing DH, only filling in for a single game in left field. Tovar, after his absolutely crazy spring training, has cooled off significantly, and was the worst of our regular players, except for Ritter and Montgomery, who have really struggled to get going.




Will Sanders has a high ERA, but has perhaps been our best starter. On the opposite end of things, Ryan Feltner hasn't been able to last for 5 innings in a single game, and has had a sky high walk rate. Rookie Levi Wells has also been prone to walking batters, but has had quite a good start to what will probably be his first full MLB season.

The bullpen has been good, as we've come to expect. Our best pitcher in April was probably Angel Chivilli. He played well in relief, and actually started two games, where he put up 19 strikeouts and 0 walks. The pitcher that actually won NL's Pitcher of the Month, though, was Juan Mejia. His great ERA of 2.61 and 6-0 Win record caught the media's attention, although his SIERA and strikeout rate was actually worse than we've come to expect from him.


We had some prospects winning monthly rewards - Ervin Torres in A, Drayk Bowen in AA, and Alberto Pacheco in AAA. Torres has been steadily improving for several years, and finally took the step up from the Dominican Rookie League this year. It's still early days, but if he can keep improving his velocity, he could be a solid pitcher.



Last year's first round pick Jeff Alexander has been convincing on all levels, so far, and was moved up to play for Albuquerque in May. He could probably play in MLB already, and might get called up by the end of the year, depending on how he performs.

It looks like we're starting to stabilize our development system, as all of our minor league teams have had really good starts to the year.

[Saevel]

2027 May:

May is over, and what a month it's been!

The Rockies had a strong record of 20-8, bringing their overall standing to 33-22, .600%- the same number of wins as division leaders San Diego.





Our offense has been impressive- we're finally putting up a decent amount of home runs and just firing on all cylinders in general.

Only our catchers had a poor month, both hitting for just above .200 avg. Drew Romo suffered a strained oblique in the last week, and will be out until mid-June. During his absence, we will primarily rely on Ronaiker Palma. Coming up from AAA to back him up will be Cody Huff, a Rockies 7th round draft pick from 2022 who looks fairly well rounded.

Everyone else have been hitting really well. Kris Bryant was fantastic for 10 games, as he's been all year, before going down with a knee injury. We anticipated that replacing him would be challenging, but call-up Yanquiel Fernandez has surpassed all expectations. In 17 games, he's had 6 home runs, and 1.250 OPS, and he's even filled in at RF for a handful of games. He took home the NL Rookie of the Month award, but he's really been our best player.



In a similar vein, Benny Montgomery faced a shoulder inflammation early in the month. Will Taylor has come in at CF, and really looked consistent. They're similar players, but Taylor is better at the plate. Montgomery is currently on a rehab stint in the minors, and we might have a decision on our hands when that ends.



Among our regulars, Ritter has been good, Tucker has been good, Veen and Tovar have been very good. Amador has been very, very good, hitting for .421 avg. But - apart from Fernandez - the standout performer this month has been Michael Toglia. Awarded the NL Batter of the Month, he put up an OPS of 1.193 with 11 home runs, while being rock solid defensively. It looks like he's finally starting to realize his potential.




Pitching was fairly steady in May. The bullpen mostly did what expected of it, with Mejia and Chivilli leading the way, and Hollowell struggling a bit.
Our closer Pierce Johnson has hardly put a foot wrong this year. Since April 9th, he's allowed one single earned run, that came on a home run. Our scouts think he's regressing, his velocity and stuff continuously dropping, but we're certainly not seeing the effects of it in games, so far.

Helcris Olivarez had a great month, while our other 4 starters were underwhelming. We're still waiting for Sanders and Wells to get into a real groove. Feltner and Seabold are showing some disconcerting tendencies, but none of those two were really expected to have long careers at the club anyway.


In the minors, Ervin Torres is continuing his ascent, improving his movement and control, and playing well for Spokane in A+. Another starter looking good in Spokane is Luke McNeillie- 5th round pick from 2023. He's only 22, but seems very well rounded, and could be one to watch.



Just two days ago, we got some unfortunate news. Ty Evans, one of our most promising prospects, suffered a serious head injury, and will be out for 9-10 months with post-concussion syndrome. Evans had an incredible year so far, and looked poised to make his MLB debut soon. This will now have to wait, as we hope for a swift recovery.

[Saevel]

2027 June:

While the Rockies wrapped up May with 7 wins in the last 8 games, June started off with what seemed to be a harsh reality check. We lost the first 6 games, averaging just over 1 run scored per game, and it seemed like perhaps our luck had run out. After this initial rough patch, though, we had a great streak, winning 11 of the next 12, ending up with a 16-11 record for the month. This places us first in the whole National League, at .598%. There's obviously a lot of games left to be played, but considering the pre-season predictions had only the Marlins behind us, we have to be pleased with how things are going.






Just a couple of days into the month, the return of Kris Bryant forced us to make a decision: either send Yanquiel Fernandez down, or free up space for him on the roster. After spending a day fielding offers to other clubs and considering our options, we opted for the latter, resulting in a trade. In exchange for 5 million dollars in cash, we sent Elehuris Montero and marginal pitching prospect Aneudis George to the Athletics.

We had another promising prospect make his debut in June. Ryan Ritter got hit by a pitch, and suffered a concussion, paving the way for the call-up of Dyan Jorge. Dyan got 11 games, and had an excellent showing, making an impact both offensively and defensively.




Our batters started slow but gained momentum as the month went on. Amador and Toglia continued their good form. The aforementioned Dyan Jorge was one of our top batters, while he was up. Another pleasant surprise: Benny Montgomery has been scorching hot since returning from injury, hitting 5 home runs.

The standout performer for us was Brenton Doyle, who deservedly won NL Top Hitter for June. Doyle has been our leadoff hitter all year, and this month he scored 6 home runs, while posting a batting average of .415, and an OPS of 1.146. His 4.6 zone rating is also the best of all our players by a large margin. We've had Jordan Beck waiting in the wings for a while now, for a shot at right field, but Doyle just keeps on delivering, making it very difficult to phase him out.

Yanquiel Fernandez and Will Taylor eventually cooled off, and are now back in AAA. Kris Bryant took a while to get going, but at the end of the month he was producing at a high level again. He had to play defense for a few games while Fernandez was up, to make sure we could get both of them in the lineup, but he's now back in his protected DH role. Our biggest weak point was at the catcher position, where Kody Huff and Ronaiker Palma could hardly hit the ball all month. Luckily, Romo is back, so we're back to leaning on him as often as we can.


In the pitching department, things were more or less as expected, again. Olivarez is still our most important starter, while the rest of our rotation keep being a mixed bag. Jacob Kostyshock played very well for us, and was our best pitcher in June. Stephen Jones is also back up with the club, and did all we could expect from him, and more.

Pierce Johnson has been our closer since we took over, and he's largely been good and reliable. At 36, his age is catching up to him, though, and after seeing a sharp decline in his velocity and general performance, we've finally made the hard decision to let him go. Pierce was released on the 12th of June, and the closer role will now be shared by Angel Chivilli and Juan Mejia.


Down in the minors, Jordan Beck fractured his foot and will be out for a month. Ervin Torres is now out for 3 months with an ulnar nerve entrapment injury- which could be trouble. Our fallen prospect Cade Kuehler also suffered an injury- he tore his UCL and will be out for over a year.

[Saevel]

2027 Draft:

This year’s draft class looks like a good one, especially for outfielders. In a somewhat surprising first overall pick, the Cubs went for a high schooler Mike Davis. He’s got a good personality, but he’s not a good defender, a very poor baserunner, and will have to do a ton of development to live up to expectations.

The next three picks will probably be frequently mentioned names around the league in years to come, though. Three power hitting prospects went 2nd, 3rd and 4th: Speedy outfielder Bobby Lambert to the White Sox, catcher Burke Mabeous to the Yankees, and the player who was tipped to go first overall in most mock drafts, right fielder Mike House, surprisingly fell to Kansas City.

With the 26th pick, the latest first round pick so far in the existence of the Rockies, we selected starting pitcher Brad Cloer. Like last year’s picks Jeff Alexander and Norm Kell, he’s a groundball pitcher, which isn’t necessarily what we’re looking for, but we like his command and his intangibles.



With our second rounder, we picked up 23 year old shortstop Charlie Oury- the best defensive infielder we were able to find. He probably won’t be an all-star, but he fills a need in our system, and could be able to step up in not too long.



We then took three high schoolers with our next picks.

First, we then went back to pitching, taking a chance on high school prospect Ben Kaufman. Quite a lot will have to go right for him to pan out the way we hope, but we really like his arm strength for an 18 year old.



Next, we chose Josh Yoder, a short stop or possibly 2B with some potential to develop good power.



Wrapping up our top 5 picks, we went for Alan Reader, an outfielder with good range that could have the makings of a good hitter.



We spent a lot of the remaining picks on building infield depth. In summary, we took:
7 pitchers, 3 or 4 of which can be considered starter prospects.
Two catchers.
8 infielders.
3 outfielders.

11 of our draft picks were high schoolers.

[Saevel]

2027 July:

It's the 1st of August, and despite a month where we played very inconsistently, we're still on top of our division. We went 12-10, and our overall record now shows 61-43, .586%.


As usual, we're doing well when hitting and worse when pitching, as is to be expected.

On the defensive side, our bullpen ERA is really good, and our zone rating and number of errors is acceptable. We strike out a lot of opponents, but walk a lot of them too.

There's definitely still room for improvement when it comes to home runs, although this year has seen an uptick in production for several players, especially Bryant and Toglia.

Our base running is really bad- worse than last year. We made some adjustments this season, relying more on base running skill than speed. That doesn't seem to have worked, so we're going to revert those changes now, going forward.






We lost quite a few close games this month, and struggled to get going offensively on the road on more than one occasion.


Our best hitters were Brenton Doyle and Kris Bryant. Both had 7 home runs, 15 runs and 20 RBI's. It seems Bryant has regained his early season form, and it's good to see that his injuries have not slowed down his offense.

We had a few hitters struggle as well- Adael Amador and Ryan Ritter has a miserable July. The latter will have to improve to keep his spot, considering how well Dyan Jorge during his stay with the team.


Our starting pitchers seemed more stable than the previous months. Both Levi Wells and Will Sanders were able to string together several good performances, and Ryan Feltner looked much improved.

An injury to Jaden Hill after the all star break meant the debut of a new pitcher. Isaac Rudecindo has been steadily improving for several years now, coming up through the ranks from our team in the Dominican Rookie League. Isaac is a high strikeout reliever that throws a fastball around 90 mph, but has one of the best changeups you’ll ever see. He got to pitch in three games, and looked at home in the big leagues right away.

[Saevel]

2027 August:

Well, after a great first half of the season, the wheels have come off.
Rather than something specific going wrong, we've simply struggled putting everything together, resulting in a pretty horrendous August record. We went 9-19, and have now fallen to 3rd in our division, sitting at 70-62, .530%, not even good enough for a wild card spot.





One bright spot was that base running improved, after we made some adjustments a month ago. Benny Montgomery also continued to hit well- he’s contributing well enough that he’s not a huge liability for us. Sadly, the same can’t be said for Ryan Ritter. His hitting has not improved since last year, but his fielding has been much worse. In a similar vein, Drew Romo has not put up the performance we've come to expect from him, and the catching position has been a real weak point this year.

Another concern- all of our depth players were abysmal in August, from Daza and Jones to Tucker and Palma. With the additional roster spot, September will bring with it some changes to try and rectify the situation.

Dyan Jorge has been brought up to challenge Ritter, and offer more offense at short stop (or defense at second base) when needed.

Chris Carden, our hope for the future at center field, has been promoted to AAA. Because of this, Will Taylor has been brought up to MLB, and Yonathan Daza has been waived, and will be sent down if he accepts it.

Jordan Beck has been brought up as well. It's his final option year, and we really want to try and make him part of our team, going forward. He will be rotated in at left field, right field and first base. The casualty of this move has been Nolan Jones, who has been waived once again.




Elsewhere in the system, this year's first rounder Brad Cloer has started his ascent through the ranks, moving up to A+. Luke McNeillie has been promoted to AA. Drayk Bowen has been spectacular all year in AA, and has finally been moved up to AAA, although we don't necessarily see him as a future MLB-er, he's been raking in awards, and deserves his promotion. Jeff Alexander has still not adjusted to AAA, but our scouts thinks he looks better than ever, and we're crossing our fingers he'll be ready to play for the Rockies next season.

Lastly, we've decided to release former first round pick Austin Overn. Selected 9th overall in 2025, in a very poor draft class, he hasn't developed as we had hoped, and has revealed some personality traits that has made us elect to go separate ways. Overn will go down as our first true flop. We wish him the very best.

[Saevel]

2027 End of Regular Season:

It seemed our misery would continue into September, with the Rockies losing 5 of the 6 first games. Luckily, we managed to steady the ship, and finish 16-11 for the month, and 1-2 in the last series spilling into October. Perhaps more importantly, we did alright against our divisional rivals, winning two series against the Giants, and splitting the series against the Dodgers.

In the end, we managed to save our season. With just one more win we’d be the winners of our division, but, frankly, we’re just happy to make the playoffs.







Ezequiel Tovar took the Batter of the Month award for September. He was our best hitter by a country mile, hitting for a .452 average. Brenton Doyle was great, racking up 8 home runs for a season total of 33, and wrapping up his best regular record since his incredible rookie season.

Toglia and Amador also had a good end to the season. So did rookie Will Taylor, who really solidified his position at CF. Dyan Jorge also had a decent showing, and will almost certainly be on the roster next season. Although technically not a rookie anymore, Jordan Beck had a very good month, with an OPS of .915 and 7 home runs.

On the other end of things, our catchers were, once again, awful. Palma now has a season batting average of .208. Unfortunately, we don’t really have a lot of alternatives, but Kody Huff might be in the mix next year, if Palma doesn’t step it up.

Zac Veen and Kris Bryant also had their worst month this year, with wRC+ in the 70s.


Again, our defense and starting pitching let us down. We had too many games where we gave up 5 runs in the first inning. Will Sanders and Connor Seabold were particularly bad, the former giving up 8 homers in 5 games.

Our best pitcher was Angel Chivilli, who unfortunately injured himself in the penultimate game, and will start the playoffs on the injury list. Rookie Rudecindo was also excellent, striking out a third of all batters he faced.

Because of injuries and double headers, Chris McMahon and Will Ethridge got a single start each, both giving us good games.


Some quick news around the league:
Riley Greene of Detroit and Dylan Crews of the Nationals took the batting titles this year.

Spencer Strider, still in Atlanta, took the Triple Crown, and will surely be the favorite for a second Cy Young in a row.

The best regular season team this season was the Seattle Mariners, finishing with 105 wins.


Onto the playoffs, where we will face the Nationals, a team we swept in May, and who then swept us back in July.

[Saevel]

2027 Playoffs:

Game 1 against Washington:

In the first game, Helcris Olivarez faced off against MacKenzie Gore. Olivarez, our best starter, had a really poor showing, allowing 4 runs in just over 3 innings, walking 6 batters and giving up a home run. He was relieved by Jaden Hill, who immediately walked three batters and allowed two more runs. Although Hollowell, Kostyshock and Gilbreath did their job for the rest of the game, we could never recover, and only managed to score one run in the 4th inning. A weak game by the Rockies, and a deserved loss.



Game 2 against Washington:

Levi Wells, set to make his first post-season appearance, would battle Ranger Suarez. We went back with the exact same lineup as in the first game, and it immediately paid off. Doyle and Veen got on base in the first inning, and Jordan Beck delivered a home run to send us to a 3-0 lead. Wells struggled with walks, and gave up 4 runs, but we lead 6-4 going into the bottom of the 6th inning. Stephen Jones and Reagan Todd threw the lead away with walks and wild pitches. The game then went on and on- Mejia pitched 3 great innings for us, Gilbreath then another, Kosyshock then another. But in the 12th inning, after striking out the first two batters, he allowed a walk, and then a home run. In disappointing fashion, we were swept out of the wild card round for the second year in a row.

[Saevel]

2027 Season Recap:

While not the step forward that we were hoping for, we can look back at this season and be reasonably satisfied. Our .691 record at home, in particular, stands as a testament to the effectiveness of our overall plan. We managed to get to the playoffs again, and to raise our attendance by about 15%, while recording a season profit of 18.4 million.




There is reason for optimism. Next year, we will try to bring up Jeff Alexander, and Chris Carden will be another step closer to playing Center Field for us. We also have at least two pitchers that could play in MLB now, in Ervin Torres and Luke McNeillie, but we will try to be patient with them.

We will see how he recovers from his serious concussion, but Ty Evans could also be a dark horse to make the team next year. Along with Doyle's great season and the emergence of Beck, he might make the decision on whom to field at RF tricky.

Our biggest concern is the infield defense. We don't really have any brilliant defensive prospects at 2B or SS, and had a hard time finding one, yet again, last draft. Tovar, while having a career season offensively, posted a -3.8 Zone Rating at 2B. Unfortunately, it's not looking like Ryan Ritter is able to keep up with the pitching in MLB, so we might have to send him down to Albuquerque again, and see if he has some more potential for improvement.

Nolan Jones' time with the Rockies has come to an end. We had high hopes for Nolan, but he hasn't been convincing enough when he's had the opportunity to play for us, and his defensive skills aren't good enough to keep him around anymore. We hope he has success wherever he heads next.

[Saevel]

2027 Post-season:

The Washington Nationals have won the World Series, narrowly defeating Cleveland.



Awards:

Drew Romo won another Gold Glove, despite being markedly worse defensively than last season.

Amador and Veen won Silver Sluggers.

In the NL, Spencer Strider won Cy Young, as expected. In the AL, the award went to Reese Olson of Detroit.

MVP in the AL was Jonatan Clase, who had 46 homers and a 7.7 WAR for Seattle.
In the NL, Dylan Crews took the honors, with a league best AVG, OBP and OPS. Giants catch Hisashi Mizuno came in second, but had to make due with Rookie of the Year and a Silver Slugger. Doyle, Veen, Tovar and Amador all got votes.


Bryant Betancourt won the MVP award in the Pacific Coast League, with Jordan Beck also getting a fair amount of votes.

In the Eastern League (AA), our reliever Alan Perdomo won reliever of the year. The MVP award in the same league also went to one of our own- Drayk Bowen, who also hit really well after getting promoted to AAA.


Contracts:

We resigned all our players before arbitration, with the exception of Connor Seabold, who was released.

We have some (often mentioned) concerns about Tovar's defense, so he was only signed to a 1 year deal. He's currently looking for something like 9 years at 30 million a year, so we're probably better off preparing for life without him.

Doyle was also only signed to one year, partly because we have lots of competition for the RF position, and partly because he had his best season in four years, so he might be cheaper to sign at the end of next season.

With Drew Romo it's kind of the opposite. He's in decline, offensively, and should either continue to get cheaper, or pick up production again and actually be worth the money. Either way is a win, but we don't want to commit to many years with him now, at the money he's asking for.

We have a lot of money left on this year's budget, so we've done some cost management where we signed Wells, Olivarez and Mejia to front loaded deals. On closer expection, their arbitration estimates for the future have increased because of this, so it might not have been the best idea.

[Saevel]

2028 Pre-season:

We’ve signed a new Scouting Director- former MLB reliever Juan Padilla. Our previous director Michael Hill has done a good job, but we need that position to be the very best possible, and Padilla is a definite improvement. For what it’s worth, he also happens to gel perfectly with the rest of the staff. Padilla assumed the position January 4th, and immediately began the task of going through our whole system, creating reports on every player.

Albert Pujols was inducted into the Hall of Fame this year, rounding up votes from a rather convincing 98.9% of the ballots.Pujols is the first inductee since Todd Helton in 2025.

We’ve also signed some international amateurs. None of them are super exciting- the most promising is probably 16 year old left handed pitcher Edgar Jara, who we decided to splurge 3 million on. He’s already got a high velocity, he’s durable, and he’s got an excellent personality.

[Saevel]

2028 Spring Training:

An unfit and unready Rockies team showed up for training camp, much to the dismay of the management. Several players had let themselves go over the winter, and seen physical and technical decline. Of course, there’s a possibility of our new scouting director being stricter than our last, but either way, we were not impressed.

Both Dyan Jorge, Zac Veen, and Will Taylor looked slower than last year, which could be a real problem for our defense. Taylor and Jorge are now below our minimum threshold when it comes to range to play the key defensive positions we were hoping to use them in.

Our veteran Kris Bryant is having a harder time making contact this year, and it looks like time might be starting to catch up with him. At this point, we’re pretty satisfied with what we’ve gotten out of his contract. He’s given us several really good years, and we might still be in for some surprises in his swansong year.


The Rockies ended up going .600 in Spring Training, for what that’s worth. After a horrific start, where we struggled to score, and won just one of the first 7 games, we eventually got into a rhythm.

Ronaiker Palma still struggled to hit, but will nonetheless start the season with the team. Jorge, Taylor, Ritter and Montgomery were all very underwhelming. Toglia, Beck and Amador were excellent. So were Ty Evans and Chris Carden, who we will get back to.


We had some injuries during Spring Training that will affect the start of the season. Brenton Doyle and Jaden Hill suffered sprains, and will be out a few weeks into the season. So did Brayan Castillo, though he wasn’t really penciled in for a spot in our team. The biggest blow was suffered in the penultimate game, though, where Will Sanders injured his elbow, and will be out for over a year after he undergoes reconstruction surgery.

The Sanders injury puts us in an unfortunate position. Jeff Alexander will start for us this season, and might very well be our best pitcher, but he’s still a rookie. Olivarez, Wells and Feltner will also be back in the rotation. That leaves us with a choice to make for the last spot, where we have several alternatives.

Luke McNeillie is probably the best pitcher, but he started last season in A+, and has a grand total of 1 AAA game. He’s also 23 years old. He might be pitching for us later this year, but we feel it’s best for him to start the season in AAA and get a bit more experience there first.

Will Ethridge has been a starter for us before, and he’s been decent.. He’s also out of option years, which would make it convenient for him to start with us. He was a reliever all of last year though, and hardly got to pitch for us in spring training. He’s also not a strikeout pitcher, and we feel like he’s probably reached his peak when it comes to stuff, so we will send him down and give another pitcher a chance.

That means that Joe Rock gets to start the season as part of the rotation. We have tempered expectations, but we’re excited to see if he can continue improving. He’s a leftie that throws over the top with fine velocity and a 4 pitch arsenal.




Our relievers will be the same crew as last year. Mejia will be the closer, after Chivilli’s injury has left him unfit for the job. Todd and Gilbreath will be our lefties. Kostyshock, Hollowell, Jones and Rudecindo will be back. Jaden Hill will be back in the fold in about a month, when he’s recovered from his injury.


As for our hitters, we will see Jordan Beck return, and we have two other notable additions.

Ty Evans is now looking like an absolute beast. He’s been out for almost a year with post-concussion syndrome, and this is something that will probably need to be managed throughout the rest of his career, but he’s really improved while he was away. It’s going to be very exciting to see how he tackles major league baseball this year.



Chris Carden will be our center fielder on opening day. He could probably do with another year of seasoning in Albuquerque, but he hit very well in spring training, and the defensive decline of Will Taylor has forced our hand. Carden’s range at center field will be very valuable for us, and it should surprise no one if he’s already a better batter than Montgomery.



Unfortunately, this means there is no room for Will Taylor and Dyan Jorge. Their defensive range is now too low for us to be comfortable to play them at CF and SS, and we have much better options at the corners and second base.

Once Doyle is back from injury, we will have to make some decisions, but for now, with Beck rotating into 1B, LF and RF, like he did in September, the depth charts look like this:

[Saevel]

2028 April:

Technically, the opener was in March, so let’s get that out of the way first. We won that 5-0 against Toronto, in a game where Jeff Alexander went 6 scoreless innings in his debut, and Zac Veen hit 5 for 5.

We then went on to have somewhat of a spectacular start to the season, going 18-10, for a win pct. of.642%. In stark contrast to last year, we won just as many games on the road as we did at home, which is a good early sign. Our base running has been much improved, and Ryan Ritter and Chris Carden are really playing well defensively in those key positions they inhabit.






Hitting

Our hitting this month has been fantastic, with Zac Veen and Ezequiel Tovar leading the way. Incidentally, they are the two worst defensive players in our lineup, so it’s great to see them contribute. Romo and Ritter are looking like they’re going to have another defense-first year, both with an OPS around .570. Jordan Beck is the last player who’s not really gelling yet, but we will give him some time to come to grips with things.

Chris Carden is settling in nicely, with above average hitting and stellar defensive play. Ty Evans is also enjoying a good rookie season, so far. He’s mostly been hitting from the DH slot, protected due to his concussion history, and he’s been good enough to win NL Rookie of the Month, with an .281 avg and 6 home runs.


Pitching

Pitching has mostly been solid, but in his fourth start, Jeff Alexander suffered a shoulder injury that will keep him out for the rest of spring. Very unfortunate, and scary, as we’ve had some tough luck with injuries like that to our earlier draft picks that did not end well. In the starts he did get, he pitched very well, though, with an ERA so far of 1.29.

The Alexander injury forced our hand a bit, and Luke McNeillie was called up earlier than we would ideally have liked. He had an incredible debut, going 7 innings with 10 Ks and no earned runs. Since then, he’s had two additional starts, where he’s looked more human, but he’s definitely the third best pitcher in our rotation right now.

Joe Rock and Ryan Feltner were not good, but managed to give us some decent performances here and there. Rudecindo had a rough start to the season, and was sent down to the Isotopes to regain his form, while PJ Poulin got his first MLB innings since 2026.


Trade

On April 3rd, Brenton Doyle returned from his upper body injury, and presented us with a roster puzzle. To solve it, we decided to pull the trigger on a trade. Michael Toglia has been a steady player for us since we took over, steadily increasing his HR count and his defensive play, but his time with the Rockies is over. He was traded to the Houston Astros, along with a 26 year old non-prospect from our Dominican team, in exchange for 3 million dollars. It was not something we really wanted to do, but we decided to go with youth, potential, and a more contact-oriented profile, and let Jordan Beck be our first baseman. We also have a promising George Wolkow coming up through the system, in case Beck somehow doesn’t work out.


Prospects

Down in the minors, Yanquiel Fernandez won player of the month with a whooping OPS of 1.406. It’s a big shame that we don’t have room for him right now, and we can only hope he will stay patient.