Tuesday, April 25, 2017

This is It, Make No Mistake Where You Are

The Rockies are 14-6 which is their 2nd best start after going 15-5 in 1997.  They also were 14-6 after 20 games in 2011, but went on to a losing record.

The Rockies finally got their offense going outscoring their opponents 34-12 in this homestand.  They have their first four game winning streak of the season.  They are now 7-3 at home and 7-3 on the road.  After stopping the Nationals 7-game winning streak, they now own the best record in the National League and only trail Baltimore for the best record in MLB.

Through 20 games the Rockies pitching has held up pretty well.  Only five times have the starter failed to go at least 5 innings, and five times the starter has gone 7 or more including Chatwood's complete game shutout on April 15th.  The past week has eased the bullpen a little bit as the two off days, The relievers have only pitched 19 innings in the past 8 days.  It's still amazing that the Rockies have held their opponents to 4 runs or less 12 times and have a 10-2 record in One or Two run games.
German Marquez gets his first start filling in for Jon Gray tonight.  Gray is expected to be out until at least mid-May and the Rockies will need to fill in a handful of starts in his absence.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Where Has All The Offense Gone?

The Rockies are only 14 games into the season and have scored only 48 runs while giving up 55, which would generally equate to a losing record of 6-8 according to Baseball-Reference.com but actually have a 9-5 record.  To compare, in 2016 the Rockies had scored 66 runs but had given up 77 and had a 6-5 record after 11 games.  In 2015 they had a 7-4 record scoring 51 runs to 37 against.

The big difference is that the Rockies this year are winning the close games, going 8-1 in one and two run games.    The Giants meanwhile are 1-7 in One and two Run games which is why they are currently 5-9.

With the Rockies lineup, you know the bats will break out at some point, but for now the job by the starters and especially the bullpen has been lights out.  They are tied with Detroit for most Save Opportunies with 8 and have only blown 1.  

The Bullpen has worked 43 innings in 14 games which is just over 3 innings a game.   Their WHIP is 0.931.  The Trio of Adam Ottavino, Mike Dunn and Greg Holland have pitched 19 1/3 innings giving up 6 hits and 1 run.  Holland also has 7 Saves.

Even more encouraging is that in 10 of the 14 games the Pitching staff has held the opponent to 5 or fewer runs, and are 6-0 when leading after 6.  The only lead they lost late was in the 7th inning where Milwaukee tied up the game in the 7th off of Ottavino, but the Rockies came back to win it in the 9th.

Triumphs:  The Rockies won a 4 game series in San Francisco for the first time ever. 

Defeat:   Pitcher Jon Gray broke his foot on Thursday night and will be on the shelf for at least a month.  Rockies need to get Tyler Anderson's mechanics fixed quickly to fill the void.

Schedule Quirk 1:  The MLB schedule has each team play each team in its divison 19 times whcih means they play two teams 10 times at home and two teams 10 times on the road.  This usually results in a 4 game and 2-3 game series over the course of the season, and the other  two get three 3 game series.  For some reason this season is different.  The Rockies play the Giants and the Dodgers only 9 times on the road, but somehow they got a 4-3-2 schedule with both of them which is why the Rockies played 4 this weekend and only 2 in LA this week.

Schedule Quirk 2:  The Rockies have a total of 16 days off not including the All-Star Break which includes only 2 in April and 2 in May.   The two in April are both this week.  The next day off after is May 1st.

Schedule Quirk 3:  After the two game set in LA the Rockies play the next 17 of 23 at home with the road trip going to Phoenix and San Diego.  After that they play 31 out of 45 on the Road.   

Sunday, April 9, 2017

Is This The Real Life? Is This Just Fantasy?

The people surrounding the Colorado Rockies are optimistic as they head into their 25th Season.  And it's not just Beginning of Season Fantasy Optimism, it's real Optimism, which they have had since late last season.

The Rockies already boast a stellar lineup with a starting eight that can field and hit like very few teams can.  They also have a lot of up and coming Starting Pichers that may rival the Dodgers and Giants in a Pitching heavy division.  Jon Gray, Tyler Anderson, Tyler Chatwood, Antonio Senzatela, and Hometown guy, Kyle Freeland round out the opening day Rotation, with others waiting in the wings when they are needed.

The bullpen has 8 arms including four who have closing experience.  Greg Holland has opened the season with 4 Saves and Jake McGee got the 5th one as the Rockies have not won by more than two runs so far this year.  In 2016 they were 24-36 in one or two run games,

Highlights of the first week:
Won 5 Games by 1 or 2 runs.
Won 2 Straight games by a 2-1 score for the first time since April, 1995.
Had a ML Debut of two consecutive starters for the first time in Rockies History.  One won his game the other pitched 5 scoreless innings.
Hit Back to Back Home Runs off of Clayton Kershaw who had never given up 2 Consecutive Home runs to anyone.
Hit three home runs in a game against Kershaw who hadn't allowed three since April, 2013.
Beat Kershaw for the first time in 12 Starts going back to July, 2013.

It's only six games with 156 to go, but this could be the competitive season we've been looking for.