Thursday Rockpile: Hunter Goodman is the face of the Rockies franchise

He wasn't assuming that they had a future Hall of Fame player — if so, he would have heard of them. It was more an attempt to understand which players Rockies fans would feel good about buying a jersey of and that he, as a baseball fan in general, should probably know about. For his Red Sox, the sudden departure of their franchise icon meant a new era headlined by some combination of big-money free agent Alex Bregman , burgeoning ace Garret Crochet, and/or potential superstar prospect Roman Anthony .

Fast forward to the end of August the following year though, and there is one clear and obvious answer.

There was a time when one could make have made the case that Kyle Freeland owned this designation for the Rockies. The national profile he earned with his early career success combined with both his hometown kid narrative and longevity with the team mean that he has earned a level of name recognition that has exceeded what his on-field performance has warranted in recent seasons.