Colorado Rockies Reliever Christian Friedrich Is Fading Down The Stretch

Apr 20, 2015; Denver, CO, USA; Colorado Rockies pitcher C. Friedrich (53) gives the ball to manager W. Weiss (22) after being relieved during the fifth inning against the San Diego Padres at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Rockies’ left-handed middle reliever is fading down the stretch — but take it from one of the Rockies of 2014, that isn’t the end of the world.

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Ok, so Christian Friedrich is fading fast in the Colorado Rockies bullpen, and soon might be getting to the point where the club needs to give him a breather and get somebody else up here.

In his last 30 days entering Sunday, Friedrich’s covered 9.2 innings over 11 games, allowing seven runs (six earned) on fourteen hits and six walks while just striking out four hitters. That’s a 2.07 WHIP, a .350 batting average against, and a 5.59 ERA, plus two losses in relief.

So that’s tough. It’s dragged his season stats down, too — Friedrich is now 0-3 with a 5.01 ERA and a 1.63 WHIP across 48 games this year, even though his ERA was 3.91 on June 1, and still as low as 4.33 by July 7. So what gives?

Well, obviously, it seems like he might be fading; these are, after all, the dog days of August. Friedrich, who was drafted and developed as a starter by the Rockies, only transitioned into relief in the middle of last season — and after just 14 relief outings in AAA in 2014, and 13 more in the big leagues, he was thrown into the every day grind of a bullpen.

That’s not excusing him; it’s tough to see a big league reliever fall apart in July and the first week of August, when you might expect it to happen more in September. But there is a comparison for this, and it’s a guy who turned out OK after struggling through a dead period around the same time in 2014: Tommy Kahnle.

Kahnle started 2014 hot as a Rule 5 Draft Pick trying to stick with the Rockies, and through August 3 (and his 43rd game of the season) he had a 2.61 ERA. From that point to the end of the year, in his final 11 games, Kahnle allowed 15 earned runs in just 10.1 innings pitched, raising his season ERA to a more unsightly 4.19.

The Rockies stuck him on the disabled list for part of that stretch, as well as working him far more conservatively as the rosters were expanded in September, appearing in just seven games that month.

In other words, the Rockies went with Kahnle until they couldn’t — which was on August 13, 2014 after 43 games — at which point they put him on the disabled list and let him regroup until September.

Now, Christian Friedrich has tossed 48 games, and is coincidentally surprisingly close to that August 13 date while fading quickly and maybe needing a similar move to that which Kahnle received.

Kahnle and Friedrich aren’t perfect parallels, and different issues may have befallen Friedrich than did Kahnle in 2014.

But it’s worth thinking about whether Friedrich could use some kind of breather like what Kahnle had last season — and then if Friedrich can learn from the grind of his first full big league season in relief, like Kahnle clearly did coming into 2015.

Does this all mean Friedrich is going to close next year? Of course not. And it doesn’t even mean Friedrich might be a decent reliever the Rockies can ever use beyond 2015.

But it’s at least worth considering there’s a past parallel to what Friedrich is currently going through in his own personal dog days of August. If he can work around it, some level of success may wait on the other side.

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