Nats Owner Mark Lerner All But Said Farewell To Bryce Harper. I’m Not Buying It.

This cannot be it. Otherwise, the Nuggets’ offseason becomes the finale of the Sopranos. Remember, Tony sitting in Holsten’s diner, waiting with his family when daughter Meadow walked through the door as a silent black screen popped up before the credits? Please tell me the Nuggets’ plans are not this cryptic, not this vacant. RELATED: Nuggets 2024 free agency preview: What Denver needs and why options hinge on KCP Following a heart-in-a-blender Game 7 loss to the Timberwolves in the second round, the Nuggets have responded by trading six-second round picks to draft DaRon Holmes and ship out Reggie Jackson to the Charlotte Hornets for $5 million in cap space. Nuggets Nation is starting to nibble its fingernails. There has to be more.

LAS VEGAS — It’s becoming clearer that without trading a significant player off the current roster, it could be a pretty quiet week ahead for the Colorado Avalanche. The Avs signed Casey Mittelstadt to a three-year contract to kickstart their offseason. They can sign Mikko Rantanen to a long-term extension for the 2025-26 season and beyond once the calendar flips to July. But the math is the math, and the Avs don’t have room below the salary cap ceiling to make a big addition to the 2024-25 roster without removing someone who was important in 2023-24.

Leave it to the 2024 Rockies to make the White Sox look like the ’27 Yankees. The White Sox entered the weekend series with a major league-worst 22-61 record. Then they beat the reeling Rockies, 5-3, on Friday night at Guaranteed Rate Field. On Saturday, the Rockies’ once-promising afternoon quickly derailed into a train wreck.

The Colorado Rockies have the third overall pick in the Major League Baseball draft on July 14. It will be their highest pick since they selected infielder Brendan Rodgers with the No.  3 pick in 2015. Over the last 10 drafts, the Rockies have had hits and misses with their top selection: RELATED: Rockies Journal: Power hitter or power pitcher, Colorado must hit home run in draft 2014: Kyle Freeland, LHP, University of Evansville, No.

On July 14, the Rockies will take a home run swing. They can’t afford to whiff. The Rockies own the third overall pick in a draft featuring two intriguing starting pitchers and some tantalizing power hitters at the top of the class. This draft gives the self-described draft-and-develop organization a golden opportunity to select a player who can help lift the franchise out of the cellar and become a star and fan favorite. General manager Bill Schmidt always plays it close to the vest when discussing whom the Rockies might select, but he’s not being coy when he says, “We are simply looking for the best player.” RELATED: How Colorado Rockies’ top MLB draft picks have fared over the last decade “That’s what we always try to do,” the executive said.

Your faithful pals on the Grading The Week crew are gamers and, full disclosure, have a love affair with EA Sports that goes back four decades now. (Tom Chambers’ “Fake Drive 2-Hand Slam” on “Bulls vs. Lakers” is still the most fun, unstoppable SEGA hoops move known to man, no matter what “NBA Jam” enthusiasts say.) But our crack staff was more than a little confused to see during the social reveals for EA Sports College Football 25, which drops on July 19, that the eighth highest-rated offense in the popular video game, ahead of Clemson, Penn State, Ole Miss, Arizona, Notre Dame, Florida State and Oklahoma was … your CU Buffs. Which we sort of get, on one hand.