The Nuggets probably won’t get LeBron; the Rockies definitely didn’t get Lebron.

LeBron James is a longshot. Tyler Bell is a shortstop.

And the Rox weren’t able to draft the first pick – Roch (pronounced Rock). The Dodgers drafted a Bo.

Despite being the worst team last season in baseball, the Rox were demoted to 10th overall Saturday and selected at the same position – shortstop – as they did in 2025 when Ethan Holliday was fourth.

Could the switch-hitter become the next Mickey Mantle or Cool Papa Bell, or another Troy Tulowitzki, Trevor Story, Walt Weiss, Neifi Perez and Ezequiel Tovar? Will he soon be competing with Holliday as the starter at short, or should both young players move to other positions?

LeBron James hasn’t made his Last Decision yet. Justin Lebron, who was projected Saturday morning by one ESPN analyst as a possible pick for the Roxbottoms, fell like a lumberman’s log to 18th.

Bell, a sophomore at Kentucky, was the third shortstop chosen after No. 1 Roch Cholowsky of UCLA and No. 2 Grady Emerson, a Fort Worth prep prospect, and before three more shortstops found homes in the first round.

Check back in four seasons for the results.

Later, with the last prize in the first round and the first pick in the second round probably because the MLB felt so sorry for them, the Roxbottoms, last again in the National League just before the All-Star intermission, grabbed a catcher, then a pitcher – the primary position of desperate need.

The Rox also would have a third (another catcher) and a fourth (relief pitcher and former catcher) before the first day evaporated.

Paul DePodesta, the Rox president of baseball operations, is back in the MLB draft after a decade with the Browns in the NFL draft. He and general manager Josh Byrnes are trying to clean up on Aisle Rockies, who rank 27th in farm system evaluations. The Monfort tagalongs left a mess, even though Dick always believed he was the smartest man in the game. Now he will be dragging the sport into a work stoppage before next season.

First, though, was Tyler Bell, who already had been drafted in 2024 66th by the Rays after he had graduated from high school. Instead, he fulfilled his commitment to Kentucky. Good call. He moved up 56 spots by waiting, although Bell tore his left labrum grabbing a grounder in the Wildcats’ first game the past season. He returned in a month and played hurt, but still has to undergo off-season surgery.

Bell’s father persuaded him to hit from both sides in Illinois when he was only 3, the same age as Mickey Mantle, born 96 years ago in Oklahoma and taught to switch-hit by dad Mutt.

Mantle was a shortstop when the Yankees signed him in ‘49 for a paltry $1,150 bonus. Bell’s bonus as the No. 10 pick is valued at $6,393,000.

Mantle became the greatest switch-hitter ever and was switched to center field. It’s quite possible that the 19-year-old Holliday, a left-hand-batting shortstop from Oklahoma chosen fourth overall (out of high school) last year and signed for $9 million, or the 21-year-old Bell end up in the outfield eventually. Holliday had surgery after fracturing his left foot May 29 with the Fresno Class-A team.

Holliday and Bell will meet in spring training and probably will meet Tovar, a Gold Glove shortstop who is only 24. But he’s hitting just .200.

The Rox could have a crowd at the position someday, or somebodies would have to go.

Who’s on second?

The Rox will be sellers, unlike in most seasons when they are sitters, at trade deadline, and catcher-DH Hunter “Homer’’ Goodman certainly will be in multiple discussions. Thus, the club’s Podesta-Byrnes duo, replacing the former draft doofuses, selected a pair of catchers – Georgia’s Daniel Jackson at 37 and Jack Natili of Cincinnati at 76. Jackson won the Golden Spikes Award after hitting 25 home runs and 25 stolen bases.

The lone pitcher chosen early (first in second round) was right-hander Logan Reddemann from UCLA. Logan’s run in ‘26 was eight straight victories, but he didn’t throw after April because of arm fatigue. He might not like pitching at altitude.

The Rox declined the potential headline “Lebron Comes To Denver’’ rather than “Bell Rings”.

Paul, please pick pitchers Sunday.