As I continue my midterm grading of the teams in the NL West the Colorado Rockies are the one team that is the hardest to understand.
On paper the Rockies should be doing far better than what they are. As we know they don’t play the games on paper.
Instead the Rockies find themselves percentage points behind the Padres for last place in the NL West.
Trades Likely For The Rockies
Rumor has it they are considering putting pitcher Jeremy Guthrie, second baseman Marco Scutaro, catcher Ramon Hernandez and veteran Jason Giambi on the trading block.
In most cases in situations like these all the Rockies could do is hope for some good prospects because trading these players will pretty much take them out of contention.
As it stands right now the Rockies are on pace for 100 losses for the season if things don’t change.
The Rockies have played some pretty sloppy baseball throughout the first half of the season and for that reason, baseball is very unforgiving and when you play sloppy baseball bad things happen.
A Season Gone Bad
At first glance, a record like the Rockies could be hard to understand considering the likes of Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and Todd Helton are on the squad. But even these long-standing icons have been facing a challenging season up to this point.
Offensively, the Rockies rank third overall in the National League.
All-Star outfielder Carlos Gonzalez leads the way and leads the team in batting average, .330, RBIs 58, runs 61 and OPS .967.
The fact that he leads the team in all these categories in and of itself might be what’s part of the problem for the Rockies this year. Contributions from any other players outside of Michael Cuddyer have been few and far between.
Tulowitzki was batting .287 which overall isn’t too bad but Troy has been on the DL for 47 games, and is not due back for several weeks.
Losing a player the caliber Tulowitzki puts pressure on everyone else.
Todd Helton is struggling at .235, having been been a career .300 hitter and is always dangerous when he comes to the plate, however, father time may have caught up to him and he has really struggled.
It has left a lot of coaches and fans scratching their heads, as far as what is wrong with the Rockies.
They are not in a rebuilding mode and they should be playing better than what they are.
If the Rockies to go on and trade the players they have on the block, they could realistically be wrestling the Padres for the worst record in the NL West for the rest of the season.
It’s not exactly what this franchise had in mind in the spring of this year.
Rockies Pitching
Starting pitching in Colorado has always been a challenge for the Rockies. This year is no exception.
Christian Frederich leads the team with four wins, and Rafael Betancourt leaves the team in saves with 15.
With a team ERA of 5.26, the offense has to score more than a few runs to keep the Rockies competitive.
The Rockies rank 30th in all of Major League Baseball, in team ERA, quality starts, WHIP and BAA.
Rockies Outlook for the Rest Of The Season
What they do by the trade deadline could determine how good of a second half the Rockies have. Obviously pitching is their greatest need and trading for pitching at the deadline is often difficult.
Personally I don’t see the Rockies doing a fire sale and unloading most of their good players. Being 13 games out of first place is not the best place to be but it could be worse.
Putting together a couple of good series against inter-divisional teams could put the Rockies right back in the hunt.
The past few seasons have been a huge disappointment to the Rockie fans, which have been very supportive of their team.
Say what you want about Rockies fans, they are very loyal and that is an admirable trait. But posting a losing season year after year can wear on even the most patient of fans.
It’s hard to say what the Rockies will do and what their approach is to the rest of the season will be.
The trading deadline should be a barometer for what they intend to do, but I would look for any major acquisitions.
Winning will always silence the critics and it’s also clear that the teams from the NL West will give ample opportunity for one team to step up and take the division.
It’s almost whoever steps up first and puts together a solid, sustained run could win the division.
Who that is, is anyone’s guess, but it sure can keep us sports writers writing!
So for this midterm grade for the Colorado Rockies I give them a D .
Please let me know what you think of this article and what you think the Rockies can do to right the ship by leaving a comment below.
