The Colorado Rockies are one step away from being a dangerous team competing in the National League West. Offensively, Colorado is consistently one of the best teams in the league. Defensively, they are solid. The starting rotation has been surprisingly good this season. The bullpen, however, needs some restructuring if this team is going to make a run in the West.
The problem reared its ugly head again this weekend and Big, Little and Jeff of Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 had the full breakdown.
Their offense is present. Colorado ranks first in the NL in both runs scored and team batting. Nolan Arenado and Gerardo Parra each bring multiple Gold Glove awards to a defense with other stalwarts like D.J. LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon and Mark Reynolds. The young pitching trio of Tyler Chatwood, Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson have combined for 22 wins in 55 starts. All that’s missing is a consistent bullpen.
Relief pitching seems to be the reoccurring wound that cannot heal for this Rockies team. The ERA for the bullpen sits at 4.85, third worst in the NL. The two closers, Jake McGee and Carlos Estevez, who have split the role, have given up a total of 45 runs this season.
“They would have a decent team if they had a better bullpen,” Little said. “They’re up, they’ve got a lead, all they have to do is get these batters out and they can’t do it. The bullpen might be the easiest thing to fix. It’s hard to get good starters to come here.
“You’ve got two starters that you brought up through your system, in Jon Gray and Tyler Anderson, that are going to be good starters for a while. I believe they can be the number one and number two.”
The young starting pitching looks promising. Jon Gray continues to strike batters out with his 94-plus MPH fastball and leads the team with 129 strikeouts. Tyler Anderson has the lowest ERA in the rotation 12 starts into his big league career at 3.42.
“This team is going to be good for the next two years if they can fix that bullpen,” Little said. “It’s hard because you have Jon Gray going out, pitching quality games. You’ve got Tyler Anderson, going out, pitching quality games. Then they see their wins that should be wins, just fade away, and just turn to dust by the bullpen.”
This Rockies organization has been working on growing their young players to get to the big league level. They have the home-grown talent that is starting to make their presence known throughout the league with Blackmon and David Dahl continuing to consistently get on base. The power will continue to come from the proven hitting of Nolan Arenado and Carlos Gonzalez.
“They are a lot closer to greatness then people would like to admit,” Big said. “They have these leads and they just blow them. If they can find the one little piece to the puzzle that they’re missing, it’s going to go a lot smoother.”
The Rockies ended their weekend with a record of 56-62 on the season after being swept by the Philadelphia Phillies. A week ago the Rockies were only four games out of a Wild Card spot keeping hope alive that they were in contention from making the playoffs. The pitching has continued to falter and after the three losses handed to them by the Phillies, the Rockies are now six games back in the Wild Card standings.
Listen to the full conversation, including Big, Little and Jeff’s thoughts on Usain Bolt’s dominance, in the podcast below…
https://soundcloud.com/milehighsports/8-14-16-thankful-rockies-didnt-budge-at-the-trade-deadline-big-little-jeff
Catch Big, Little and Jeff every Sunday from 6p-8p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 or stream live any time for the best local coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.
