Atrocious Pitching Continues to Plague the Colorado Rockies

We have seen this story before, I believe. After starting the season out with an impressive 7-2 record (my last post), the Colorado Rockies have only won four games since that time, sporting a 4-13 record. Looks like I need to get my priorities straight and write more frequently.

I broke down in my last article highlighting just how good both the Rockies starting rotation and bullpen had been. In those first nine games, Colorado’s pen’ collected a 3-1 record over 33.0 innings pitched, yielding seven earned runs – five of which belonged to veteran reliever LaTroy Hawkins who was dismissed from the closer role shortly after in favor of Adam Ottavino, who will likely undergo Tommy John Surgery. That’s a huge blow.

While Colorado was riding high during the early portion of April, the team is now toward the bottom of the league in bullpen ERA. Surprise, surprise. Colorado’s bullpen is one of the most overused pens in the game of baseball, only behind Boston, Texas, and Toronto. Colorado has logged 95.1 innings in relief, giving up 59 runs, 50 of which were earned which is second-worst in all of baseball.

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The overuse of the pen can be attributed to Colorado’s porous starting rotation. There’s not an ace on the roster, let alone a number two. Jorge De La Rosa, in my opinion, is a number three starter on a playoff team, a good one might I add. The rest of Colorado’s rotation, Jordan Lyles, Tyler Matzek, Eddie Butler, and Kyle Kendrick are all players that are a four or five starter on any staff.

Believe it or not, Colorado’s starting rotation ranks last in the Major League’s with an abysmal 5.23 ERA. Boston, the second-worst staff in baseball in terms of ERA, sits at 4.86. It’s a huge drop off from the 29th ranked team to the 30th. Colorado also ranks last in a lot of categories, but none bigger than the quality starts department. We are 26 games into the 2015 season and Colorado’s starters have mustered just five quality starts, five! Colorado has also given up the most runs in baseball, 149 to be exact.

Colorado has a strong, young nucleus of players such as Nolan Arenado, Corey Dickerson, DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon ect. If they can ever get this whole pitching thing figured out, that would be great. But until then, the starters have to give the team a chance to win. Tyler Matzek’s performance the other day vs. Arizona was a spitting image of just how bad the rotation has been of late.