Hey fun fact, the Colorado Rockies currently have four players with a WAR higher than 1. The first place Cleveland Guardians have the same amount. The second place Tampa Bay Rays, an actual good team, have only two. But the Colorado Rockies, the punchline of the bigs last year, have four players worth at least a win by themselves. Tomoyuki Sugano, Mickey Moniak, Antonio Senzatela....and Chase Dollander. And a year ago, maybe one of them would make sense.
Dollander has been one of the Rockies' top pitching prospects, he was their 2023 first round pick, Baseball America ranked him the #8 prospect in baseball prior to the 2025 season, and he progressed through the minors in essentially a year and a half. Forgetting for a moment...how crappy his 2025 major league stats were...Dollander still had a high ceiling of potential, and he still felt like an organizational gem. Therefore, him eventually getting his act together and leading the charge? Very likely outcome. Heading into this year it was a large possibility. So far in 8 appearances he's got a 3.38 ERA, 42 Ks and 37.1 innings, all better than any starter.
Which is to say...the Rockies have not been starting him.
So what they've been doing...is using Jimmy Herget or Brennan Bernardino as an opener, giving them an inning, and then letting Dollander go long and essentially carry out a start. I assume this is to ensure he doesn't get chased in the first, and if you give the heart of the order to a specialist then start Dollander off with mid-order guys, that's at least a better way of breaking him in. It's a little psychological, a little strategic. Unlike the 2018 Kevin Cash stuff, by all accounts the Rox COULD start Dollander if they wanted to, but right now they're choosing to do this. And it's working.
So...that's the *reasonable* WAR leader. Now the other three...
Moniak becoming a hit in Colorado isn't surprising. What's surprising is the Angels cut this man to make room for Tim Anderson, and he ends up finding his swing and becoming a hero for a Rockies team that needs a hard-hitting outfield bat. Obviously Moniak isn't the guy the Phillies were looking for at the draft, but he's definitely got his uses. Right now he's got 11 homers and 21 RBIs. Jordan Beck and Brenton Doyle don't have that much combined. Moniak currently leads the NL in OPS with 1.123. Coors Field, man...
Then you have the return of Antonio Senzatela, who's gotten his ERA down to 1.21, and he has done this...by becoming a long relief guy who goes 2 or 3 innings an appearance. Somehow this has worked, and the awfulness of his 2025 has not appeared yet. Perhaps because he's finally recovered from his injuries, or maybe it's the same psychological thing that Dollander worked through? Who knows. And then Tomoyuki Sugano, another guy that shouldn't have been cut, has taken his low-velocity/all-craftsmanship stuff to Denver, and it's working! He's got a 3.41 ERA through 7 starts. As Michael Lorenzen can tell you, you could do a lot worse in Coors Field.
Is it weird to me that they're lifting the team past the levels of true awfulness? Or is it just weird that it's them and not Tovar, Goodman, Doyle and Beck as much? Little of both. Eventually a consistent young core is gonna form, and clearly it's not this year, but I'll take goofy stuff like this. It's more entertaining than the alternative.
Coming Tonight: A guy whose Hall of Fame case will eventually need to be discussed, which will really puzzle a lot of people I think.
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