It Was A Very Good Year

It wasn't fun to go out after one game, and I'm not a fan of one game "Series" in baseball, but that's another story.

In the end, outside of the Wild Card Game, the Rockies were let down by their hitting, more specifically their run scoring.   The Rockies had 8 Starting Pitchers, 4 Rookies and 4 "Veterans", and if this year is an indication, the near future could be pretty bright.

The Rookies combined for 93 Starts with 552 Innings Pitched and a 38-28 Record.  The Veterans only had 69 starts for 390 innings and a 26-29.  That of course includes Chad Bettis who amazingly came back for the last two months of the year, and barring any more setbacks should be stronger next year.

But if I told you in February that the veterans who were expected to make up 80% of the rotation this year would have less than 400 innings pitched this year, you probably would have told me this would be a down season. But the Rookies got their chances and made the best of it, and now the Rockies have 7 experienced starters going into 2018 before the hot stove league heats up. 

The Rockies were exciting, getting off to a 47-26 record in the first 2.5 months, and staying in the thick of a three-way race with the Dodgers and D-Backs.  Then came the 8 game losing streak part of a 5-15 stretch that saw the Rockies fail to win more than one game in a row. while the Dodgers went on a winning run the likes of which haven't been seen in a long time.  By the end of July, the Rockies were 14.5 games behind, but still in contention for the home wild card and comfortably ahead of Milwaukee for the Visitors Wild Card.

In the end, the Rockies finished with an 87-75 record--third best record of all-time behind 2009 and 2007.  They never had a losing record and for the 2nd time had a winning road record.

There's plenty to improve on in 2018, but there is a good core to start with pending the Free Agents, Trades and signings

Free Agents (from 40 Man Roster):

Greg Holland
Carlos Gonzalez
Jonathan Lucroy
Pat Neshek
Jake McGee
Tyler Chatwood
Mark Reynolds
Ryan Hanigan
Alexi Amarista

The Rockies have offered Holland a Qualifying Offer which preserves their rights to a draft pick if Holland is signed by someone else.

The Rockies will likely pursue Lucroy, and a couple of the relievers like Neshek or McGee along with Holland.  It's also likely they will move forward without Reynolds who has made great contributions at first the past couple of years.

All in all the Rockies had a very good year, and will look to make it a great one in 2018.