Colorado Rockies have too many good starters. Is that a problem?

Is too much of a good thing a problem for the Colorado Rockies? It depends on who you ask.

With Jon Gray expected to return to the rotation by the end of June and Chad Bettis working to join him on the active roster sometime in July, the Rockies could have a plethora of quality starting pitching at their disposal by the time the season’s final two full months begin.

Yes, you read that right. The Rockies actually have choices when it comes to who will make up their rotation and all of the choices are quality starters.

More from Rox Pile

This isn’t your father’s Rockies team that sometimes patched rotations together or might put a pitcher on the mound with the hope that Colorado could outslug the other team that day. No, this is a team where pitching is leading the way to the top of the National League West standings.

Right now, the Rockies are missing Tyler Anderson, Gray and Bettis, all three of whom were in the rotation when the 2016 season ended. Young pitchers such as Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland have excelled in their Major League debuts this year. German Marquez and Jeff Hoffman have shown improvement over what we saw from them in 2016. Tyler Chatwood is back in the rotation as well, although having an up-and-down season.

Do the math and you’ll see that that is eight pitchers who are competing to be a part of a five-man rotation. We discussed some of the options the Rockies might have in this recent article. Whatever the options through, Colorado is going to have a tough time figuring out which talent to use during a push to the playoffs.

Colorado manager Bud Black says the amount of talent the Rockies possess in the starting pitching department is by no means a negative.

"“It’s a good thing because you never know what’s going to happen,” Black said. “We didn’t know Tyler Anderson’s knee was going to swell up the other day. We didn’t know we were going to have to put him on the disabled list. You never know when these things are going to pop up. History tells you that things happen. The more reinforcements you have, the more options, the more good options, it’s a good thing. It tells you about the strength of our team as far as depth and talent. We feel where we are right now presently with our starting pitching group, we feel pretty good about it. That’s a good thing.”"

It is a good thing, and it’s something that Rockies fans are not used to seeing.

Next: A bandwagon fan's guide to the Colorado Rockies

There are some tough decisions ahead for Black and the Rockies. Luckily, they have plenty of pieces to a puzzle that they’ve been trying to solve at Coors Field for some time … how to benefit from good starting pitching.

Home/Colorado Rockies News