Colorado Rockies 2019 Review
After making the playoffs in 2017 and 2018, the Colorado Rockies failed to make the postseason this year and have some work to do in order to compete in the National League West. Last year, the Rockies were one win away from winning the West for the first time in the team’s history and dethroning the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 2019 season started with very high expectations but ended in disappointment as the Rockies finished with a record of 71-91 for fourth place in the division. Here is a recap of the Colorado Rockies season.
The beginning of the season showed some good promise with the Rockies hanging in there with the Dodgers and the San Diego Padres, but too many injuries and inconsistent play would derail any momentum the team had going into the summer.
The Colorado Rockies could not seem to put everything together this season. Dick Monfort wrote in the Executive Update:
“as several players and staff pointed out as well, we never got consistent play: when we pitched well, we couldn’t hit, and when we hit well, we couldn’t pitch.”
Injuries
The injury bug hit the Colorado Rockies early and it hit the pitchers the hardest. Tyler Anderson only pitched 11 2/3 innings in 2019 and had season-ending knee surgery in June. He will probably miss the beginning of the 2020 season. Chad Bettis pitched less than 64 innings and ended the season on the 60-day Injured List. Jon Gray fractured his foot in early August and is considering surgery this offseason, and Scott Oberg (the real bright spot in the Rockies bullpen) was placed on the IL with blood clots right after he was awarded the closer role.
The position players were not immune to the bug either. Brendan Rodgers, the Rockies top prospect at second base, had surgery in July to repair a torn labrum in his shoulder. Also, Rockies perennial gold-glover Nolan Arenado was dealing with a bad back down the stretch.
Inconsistent Pitching
Again, it started with the pitching staff. Kyle Freeland, who led the team last year in pitching and finished fourth in the NL Cy Young award race, was so inconsistent he was optioned to the Triple-A Albuquerque Isotopes for two months. According to Manager Bud Black “There’s a reset that needs to take place for Kyle. He will be able to work on some things without working on them in a big-league game… to take a step back to regroup for a period of time.” Closer Wade Davis was awful at Coors Field, he had an 11.10 ERA and only 8 saves.
Offensive Woes
The Rockies moved players around to try to find a suitable second baseman before finally landing on Ryan McMahon. They have an aging first baseman in Daniel Murphy, who had the second-lowest batting average of his career. The team hitting was all over the map with a high slash line of .299/.365/.526 in May but a .251/.310/.418 in July when the team went 6-18.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS | TB | GDP | HBP | SH | SF | IBB | ROE | BAbip | tOPS+ | sOPS+ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| April/March | 432 | 30 | 1153 | 1038 | 125 | 241 | 57 | 11 | 33 | 120 | 12 | 9 | 86 | 287 | .232 | .293 | .404 | .697 | 419 | 14 | 8 | 11 | 10 | 4 | 8 | .286 | 79 | 87 |
| May | 379 | 26 | 1054 | 939 | 183 | 281 | 67 | 10 | 42 | 178 | 6 | 5 | 93 | 248 | .299 | .365 | .526 | .891 | 494 | 19 | 7 | 9 | 6 | 5 | 9 | .365 | 127 | 135 |
| June | 405 | 28 | 1087 | 989 | 167 | 276 | 57 | 7 | 36 | 160 | 10 | 6 | 72 | 260 | .279 | .331 | .460 | .791 | 455 | 15 | 9 | 6 | 10 | 6 | 7 | .341 | 102 | 107 |
| July | 346 | 25 | 940 | 854 | 107 | 214 | 53 | 6 | 26 | 103 | 11 | 4 | 72 | 232 | .251 | .310 | .418 | .728 | 357 | 15 | 2 | 9 | 2 | 3 | 10 | .314 | 87 | 90 |
| August | 392 | 28 | 1073 | 967 | 137 | 274 | 50 | 3 | 43 | 131 | 10 | 6 | 81 | 227 | .283 | .341 | .475 | .815 | 459 | 28 | 8 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 11 | .327 | 109 | 109 |
| Sept/Oct | 453 | 25 | 981 | 873 | 116 | 216 | 39 | 4 | 44 | 111 | 22 | 1 | 85 | 249 | .247 | .319 | .452 | .771 | 395 | 20 | 9 | 9 | 5 | 5 | 8 | .294 | 97 | 107 |
Concluding Remarks
This from Jeff Bridich, General Manager of the Colorado Rockies:
“Simply put, the 2019 Rockies season was a disappointment. The momentum built from consecutive postseason campaigns was not utilized in the way we envisioned. Though the months of May and June gave us a glimpse of the type of winning baseball this team could play, we ultimately came up well short of our goals. Over the course of a long season, certain bright spots confirmed that there is talent in this group. But too often this year we seemed to defeat ourselves and did so in a variety of ways.”
The Rockies are not expected to make very many moves this offseason as they try to regroup for the 2020 season. Bud Black will be staying aboard as the manager and leader of a pitching staff in need of serious work.
