The Colorado Rockies are playing well: What does it matter?
By Hayden Kane
The Colorado Rockies suffered a disappointing loss on Monday night against the New York Mets. To the surprise of nobody, this loss came thanks to the bullpen. To the surprise of many people (but not the author), the lead was lost after the Rockies handed the game to closer LaTroy Hawkins.
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Leading up that loss, however, the Rockies pieced together a nice home stand last week. They played the evil San Francisco Giants tough and then swept the feisty San Diego Padres over the weekend. As this season winds down, this Rockies team is quietly playing some decent baseball.
Nolan Arenado and Corey Dickerson are raking. The young guys are showing promise. Tyler Matzek and Jordan Lyles are providing hopefulness as options in future starting rotations. Jorge De La Rosa is the man. If nothing else, there are good reasons to watch the Rockies; you might even enjoy it when you do. (Pro Tip: maybe don’t get your hopes up if Franklin Morales is starting).
All in all, this team is playing better, certainly to the point that they look more competent than the worst team in the National League.
That brings us to an important follow-up question: What does it matter?
Big league teams have shown that improved play in the final months of a lost season can be significant as far as building positive momentum for the seasons that follow. I am not inclined to think that the Rockies are a strong candidate to be the bounce-back, big-turnaround team in 2015, but if they did somehow pull it off, you might point back to this stretch and say something like: “You know, you could see the starts of a solid baseball team when they played well last September.”
Other than that, a stretch of decent baseball can be positive in that it takes the edge off of potential off-season drama. Because any version of off-season drama in Colorado will not include much-needed changes in the front office, the Rockies would do well to operate with relative peace and quiet.
Some of the potential tension for this team went away because of injuries sustained by Troy Tulowitzki and Carlos Gonzalez; some other issues, like perhaps the job status of Walt Weiss, will quiet down with these wins. That’s not a bad thing.
This is not to invest in the false hope of a few wins in meaningless games. I do not think that a solid record for the remainder of September would all of a sudden make the Rockies contenders in 2015. But it is worth noting that stretches of good baseball matter in the long run; it will benefit the Rockies in some way if they find a way to keep playing better baseball in the final weeks of a nightmare season.
If you disagree with that premise because you are into that whole “Rockies need to lose 100 games” thing, please see yourself out.