Earlier this season, the way the Rockies opened things up was getting people really worried that not even a year after the White Sox set the new record for a losing season it'd be surpassed. Because of the lack of pitching, the troublesome defense and the flaws of even the people set up to be stars, the Rockies were barely even expected to win 40 games, which would have been below the 41 that the Sox were able to win last year. But ultimately, the Rockies sort of mellowed into a regular bad team, and are at 41 wins now, with 9 games left to be played this year. They will not be the new standard for ineptitude. Though seeing as, for their last new custom of regulation, I've been forced to go for Jimmy Herget, a fairly decent reliever, rather than a name guy or a breakout rookie, should tell you everything you need to know.
What do the Rockies have to take with them next year that they know will be good? Not much. Jordan Beck, Ezequiel Tovar, Warming Bernabel I suppose...and that's it. Look, I'm sure that Tanner Gordon, Carson Palmquist, Chase Dollander and McCade Brown could be good pitchers, but I literally cannot tell how good they are at rest because they're forced to pitch for this godawful Rockies team in Coors Field. How do you tell if a rookie is good in Coors Field? Everybody gets lit up there, even the people who are good at pitching. Fundamentally it is difficult to not give up runs in Coors Field. Maybe if it was domed or something you'd level things but I don't think they have the money for that.
And even with that handicap, you also have to factor in that despite this being a hitter's park, only one person on this team hit 30 home runs this year. Hunter Goodman. And we're still not sure whether or not he's a fluke, cause Michael Toglia hit a lot of home runs last year and then this year he completely switched off. There's a chance Mickey Moniak hits 25, but that's not really a building block, is it? The big young guys who this team is trying to build around are not 30 home run guys, at least not yet. And so the team that is supposed to be an inherent power team had basically no power this year...and I don't even know how much power they're gonna have next year.
I can see why this team was looking like they were gonna past the White Sox for a while. Not that Andrew Benintendi's power was much better last year.
I suppose there's a chance things pick up eventually for the Rockies, but honestly it's just not gonna be pretty for a couple years. This is the deal, sadly. Lots of years like this where nobody shows up until they agree upon a formula that avoids it.
Coming Tomorrow- At last, his team has enough pitching to outlast the Yankees. It's just a shame it took them this long.
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