Yesterday, The Athletic published their yearly survey of MLB fandoms and where they are on the “Hope-o-meter.” (Gift link here.)
The Colorado Rockies finished 27th, ahead of the Washington Nationals, Los Angeles Angels, and Minnesota Twins. Some 25.3% of fans said they felt “optimistic.”
(Surprising no one, Los Angeles Dodgers fans are 99.7% optimistic.)
Here’s how the Rockies number have trended since 2022:
- 2025: 8.8 percent (29)
- 2024: 4.6 percent (30)
- 2023: 1.8 percent (30)
- 2022: 17.2 percent (23)
So, this year’s 25.3% marks a substantial upward shift.
Staff from The Athletic selected four
representative fan replies to represent the sample, going with three positive comments (mostly about the rebuild finally happening) and one negative one (the team is beyond fixing).
This survey arrived in my inbox at just the right time as I’d been pondering the Game Thread comments following the Rockies being swept in Miami and wondering if I needed to revise my thinking about the 2026 season.
Like everyone else, I was bummed out by the first three games followed by absolute elation after last night’s drubbing of the Toronto Blue Jays.
If the Purple Row Site traffic is any indicator, Rockies fans are engaged and eager to see what this team can do. (I’m not sure the national media fully understands this yet.)
Yesterday, Sam Bradfield wrote about some overreactions to the opening series, and I guess I needed to remind myself that this is, in fact, a rebuild, and rebuilds take time. We are going to see some lows — like last weekend — and some highs — like last night.
And I appreciate my fellow Rowers reminding me that we are embarking on a climb that’s going to take time and be pretty awful on occasion. I mean, a best-case scenario is that the Rockies lose just under 100 games, and that still means a lot of losing waiting around the corner for us.
As Mario pointed out, this rebuild should have started years ago, and the delay has put the Rockies in the deep hole in which they fine themselves now.
It’s also a weird time in the season when we just don’t have enough data to know much of anything, so it’s not yet possible to determine if there’s progress. There’s just the losing with an occasional blowout and the waiting to see what happens.
So here are some things that I’m going to be watching for when I start to feel some purple despair (because I’ll forget how awesome that first game against the Blue Jays felt).
Let me start with this reminder from Jason Collette:
Yes, that’s Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman on that list. The first games of the season are not indicative of a player’s potential.
Second, as a teacher, I know better than anyone that improving at anything takes time, and that’s going to be true of where the Rockies are right now. Let’s see what they look like next month and the month after that and the month after that with the understanding that the Rockies have a tough starting schedule by any measure.
Plus, it’s going to be a learning season not just for the players but for the front office as well. President of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and general manager Josh Byrnes are going to be learning, too, as is the coaching staff. Look, you can’t say of a pitching philosophy “Everything is on the table,” and not expect some failure. Solving problems means accepting and learning from failure. As a fan, I have to remember that.
And we are going to see incremental improvements both with the Rockies and on the farm.
But we need to prepare for a lot of lows and enjoy a few highs.
On top of all of that, I need to remember to be thankful for the Purple Row community. We all have our moments of overreacting, but I feel like we also help each other see multiple perspectives. We’re a community, and one can’t just do better than being part of a great learning community.
As wolf213 pointed out on Sunday, the Rockies are using the climb as a metaphor for a reason. It’s important not to forget that when you’ve just started the trip.
And so, I leave you with our 2026 theme song, which I will probably refer to from time to time:
Miley looks so young there. Meanwhile, being Rockies fans has aged us in dog years.
Still, grab your backpack, making sure to take your Hope-o-meter, and lace up your shoes.
Let’s do a rebuild.
This week on the internet
Check out what’s happening in Albuquerque this season:
I’m here for both the burger and the uniform.
Colorado Rockies top 44 prospects | FanGraphs
Mario left this in The Feed yesterday, but it’s worth sharing again here. Brendan Gowlowski’s analysis leaves much to ponder.
Keeping with the food theme, the Rockies now have an official “Smashburger.”
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