Building a roster in the thin air of the Rocky Mountains is difficult. The Rockies made the playoffs in just their third year with the “Blake Street Bombers” and they did win the pennant in 2007, falling to the Red Sox. But they have struggled throughout much of the rest of their history because of their unique location. Being a mile high makes it very, very difficult to develop a pitching staff.
The Rockies are on their way to an eighth consecutive losing season. They hired Paul DePodesta and Josh
Byrnes to turn the franchise around last year, and they have gone with a younger roster – Brett Sullivan is the only position player over the age of 30.
Kansas City Royals (46-64) vs. Colorado Rockies (42-67) at Coors Field, Denver, CO
Royals: 4.17 runs scored/game (24th in MLB), 5.03 runs allowed/game (27th)
Rockies: 4.72 runs scored/game (8th), 5.76 runs allowed/game (30th)
Baseballs at Coors Field are kept in a humidor to mitigate some of effects of playing in dry, thin air. But the park still plays as the best offensive environment in baseball. Rockies hitters are batting .270/.337/.442 at home, .237/.310/.393 on the road.
Hunter Goodman has taken over from Cal Raleigh as the “power-hitting catcher having a monster season”, with 31 bombs that are tied for third in all of baseball. Goodman also strikes out a third of the time, the second-highest rate among hitters, and he has the highest swinging strike rate in baseball at 18 percent. Rookie Cole Carigg is hitting .324/.390/.559 over his last 20 games. Mickey Moniak is hitting .312/.351/.681 at home with 13 of his 17 home runs at Coors Field. Left-handed hitting Jake McCarthy is hitting .337/.374/.535 against southpaws.
Ezequiel Tovar swings at 61.4 percent of all pitches, the highest rate among qualified hitters. Troy Johnston is hitting .189/.300/.230 over his last 29 games. Eduoard Julien is a career .246/.343/.393 in 23 games against the Royals.
The Rockies fare well defensively around the field except with Julien and Willi Castro at second and Tyler Freeman in the outfield. Goodman has thrown out 21 percent of would-be basestealers.
Tomyuki Sugano was signed as a free agent last winter and has put up the best ERA of all the starters. He has a reasonable 4.15 ERA in eight starts this year, and has won six of his last seven starts. He has a strikeout rate of just 13.8 percent, second-lowest in baseball for anyone with 90+ innings pitched. He mixes in a splitter, four-searmer, sinker, cutter, slider, sweeper, and curve.
Ryan Feltner has given up 17 runs in 11.2 innings over his last three starts, all losses. Opposing hitters are batting .271/.349/.576 against him in the first inning. Opponents are hitting .326 against his 94.9 mph fastball.
Kyle Freeland is the longest-tenured Rockies player with reliever Antonio Senzatela, with both having been with the team since 2017. He led the league in losses last year, and his 7.34 ERA is the worst in baseball for anyone with at least 90 innings pitched. His fastball is down to 91.7 mph, and opponents are hitting .376 against the pitch.
The Rockies have a 4.99 ERA from their bullpen, which is fourth-worst in baseball, but still better than the Royals. Jordan Roman was released by the Angels in late April, yet he still leads both the Angels and Rockies in saves with four apiece. Brennan Bernadino has not given up an earned run in his last 21 outings, covering 19.1 innings. Lefties are hitting .225/.287/.347 against Senzatela.
The Rockies have a terrible pitching staff, but they do have some exciting young hitters who can put up some runs at home. That is bad news for Royals pitchers, who have been struggling in the dog days of summer. No lead will be safe in this series, and you may see rosters further decimated over the weekend as both teams should be sellers at the trade deadline.
