The Colorado Rockies officially kicked off spring training Tuesday in Surprise, Arizona. Pitchers and catchers had their first workout — in purpler uniforms than usual, by the way — while position players took cuts in their street clothes.
Expectations are high for the Rockies this year. Coming off a 75-87 season, Colorado added Ian Desmond to play first base and relievers Greg Holland and Mike Dunn in free agency. The Rockies should have one of the best lineups in baseball. And for the first time in a while, there is genuine excitement about the team's starting pitching staff.
They are already getting the dark horse label.
To make the playoffs for the first time since 2009, the Rockies will likely at least need to finish with a win total in the high 80s. The Mets and Giants nabbed the National League Wild Card spots in 2016 by each going 87-75. For fun, I looked at how five different websites think the Rockies will fare in 2017. None of them project the Rockies to win more than 84 games.
USA Today — 81-81
Bleacher Report — 84-78
Baseball Prospectus — 76-86
Fangraphs — 79-83
VegasInsider.com — 79.5 (over/under win total)
Personally? I think the Rockies are going to win 90 games. But I must warn you that I'm basing my prediction on nothing more than the fact that Colorado was bumping "Still D.R.E." on the first day of spring training.
It's a little-known fact that Rockies second baseman D.J. LeMahieu actually penned the famous line "Still not loving police/Still rock my khakis with a cuff in the crease" at the tender age of 9.
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