Colorado Rockies' Moment of Truth

In Denver, the beginning of September is a ritualistic transition from non-Broncos season to Broncos season.

But, in 2007, there was an interloper on this generation-old trend. The Rockies made an improbable and incredible run to the World Series.

Amidst all of the "Rockies fever" was the gentle sensation from many Denver baseball lovers that it was about time that this city recaptured its baseball glory and reasserted the national pastime at the core of Denver’s sports culture.

Though the Rockies lost the Series, the effects of their run lasted into the winter, sometimes even competing with the Broncos for attention on the sports pages.

The 2008 baseball season started with an unusual amount of excitement, as many national publications had the Rockies pegged to return to the playoffs or even win the division. Players like Troy Tulowitzki and Matt Holliday were seen as potential national superstars. ESPN even scheduled the Rockies for a Sunday Night Baseball appearance.

And they flopped.

They squeezed the bats too tight. The young pitchers failed spectacularly. Tulowitzki, then Holliday, and then team leader Todd Helton got hurt. The Rockies fell to 18-games below .500 at one point.

But the rest of the division wasn’t any better, which kept them within dreaming distance of the playoffs and kept people talking about them in Denver and, inexplicably, around the country.

Baseball people realized that the Rockies were a good team, a disappointing and underachieving team, but one with talent at numerous positions, a deep farm system, and one that should be competitive. Even at Coors Field.

Which means that the Rockies had better understand what the rest of the baseball America is also sensing. Whether they make the playoffs or not in 2008, it is now their moment of truth.

Do they become a competitor, a team that can vie for the playoffs more often than once-in-a-miracle, or do they fade into the pseudo-minor-league irrelevance and exist as merely a summer diversion for Broncos’ Country?

The Colorado media has been floating Matt Holliday and Garrett Atkins trade rumors for months now. This is a precarious position. Holliday makes $9.5 million this year, with $10 million in 2009, and Atkins makes almost $4.4 million and will be a free agent at the end of the year.

Holliday is in the league’s highest echelon of stars and will command a deal around $120 million, starting in 2010. Atkins has been one of the league’s finest third basemen for the past few years, and he will likely lead the 2008 Rockies in RBI. He has also done a fine job of filling in for injured Todd Helton at first base. 

Ironically, his fill-in at third, rookie Ian Stewart, has played so well that talk of Atkins’ departure has accelerated. Trading Atkins seems like a reasonable idea; Stewart is making the league minimum.

Colorado owners Charlie and Dick Monfort consider the team a small-market one and operate with that assumption. They are 20th in payroll this year, 13th in total attendance, and, according to Forbes magazine, are ranked 21st in total value as a franchise, despite ranking eighth in operating income.

So they fit the mold of a small-market team.

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