D'you think they're sitting in the Coors Field clubhouse, prepping for a game which is likely gonna have multiple longballs and unstable pitching, going 'gather round, the Pirates have called the game due to an air quality concern. Can...can teams do that?' The Rockies have had an air quality concern for 33 years now. They somehow got to a World Series in 2007, even with said air quality concern. I mean the smoke in the Northeast is bad, maybe it'll screw up the Pittsburgh humidor yet again, but...the Rockies are hearing this going 'thicker air?? what a concept'. Kyle Freeland's gonna find something to burn down so he can pitch decently again.
Anyway, the Rockies are still last in the NL West and expected to stay there, but it's not without some fun performances from the hitters. Any way you look at it, this team has gotten great production from T.J. Rumfield, Hunter Goodman, Jake McCarthy, Cole Carrigg, Troy Johnston, Mickey Moniak and Kyle Karros. That's...more than a few. The issue with the 2025 team was not just the atrocious pitching, it was the anonymity of the lineup, the lack of power in a power park, all of the above. When you get guys who can mesh well with the park, and when they're all working, even if it's a bad team you're still going in the right direction. Cole Carrigg's been in the league for 31 games, and he has an .871 OPS, 22 RBIs and 4 homers. McCarthy is a .300 hitter after the D-Backs let him come over here, he's got 10 homers and a team-leading 53 RBIs. I did not expect Jake McCarthy to have more RBIs than Hunter Goodman, but here we are. Happy for him honestly, he was really struggling in Phoenix. Rumfield is getting some Rookie of the Year buzz, he's been skillfully on target without being solely a power bat; same thing with Troy Johnston. And then Goodman's 5 homers away from his 2025 total, so he's probably gonna be chasing 35+, maybe even 40.
That's half the battle right there, this team can put their heads together and score runs, and it's not a full on cop-out every game. The pitching still leaves a lot to be desired, and the early lead the bullpen had has been basically shattered, with Victor Vodnik, Juan Mejia and Zach Agnos all having very rough seasons. Somehow Jordan Romano hasn't shat the bed too greatly yet, but it's early. Tomoyuki Sugano's hurt, so now it's down to Ryan Feltner and Gabriel Hughes to be the only people in the rotation to seem to be able to keep runs down this year. Michael Lorenzen is 3-9 with a 6.22 ERA. YEESH. Even if the team's hitting, this pitching staff still isn't it, and bringing in young, efficient options hasn't helped because it's impossible to pitch competently if half your season's played in Denver. It's purely impractical at this point. At least the Vegas stadium is gonna be domed.
There's still fun to be had with this team. Maybe a trade or two, maybe some more breakouts, maybe some genuine promise from Carrigg, maybe even a Zac Veen appearance. But whatever happens will mostly be a side-plot to this already convoluted year, sad to say. Maybe some of this will carry over to next year, provided there's actually baseball next year.
Coming Tomorrow- Somehow one of the most consistent veteran pitchers left in the game if Verlander and Scherzer both retire.
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