Colorado Rockies Old Friend(s): That Awful 64-98 Team From 2012

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Aug 27, 2013; St. Petersburg, FL, USA; Los Angeles Angels third baseman C. Nelson (8) against the Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. Los Angeles Angels defeated the Tampa Bay Rays 6-5. Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

The 2012 Colorado Rockies were pretty damn bad, but that doesn’t mean some of them haven’t gone on to find big league success elsewhere in 2015.

The Position Players

Todd Helton. After 2012, Helton took his victory lap in 2013 and retired at the end of the season. The Toddfather (yes, it’s his nickname, sorry Todd Frazier), slashed .316/.414/.539 in 9,453 plate appearances with 592 doubles, 369 home runs and 1,335 walks against just 1,175 strikeouts.

Marco Scutaro. Scutaro left the Rockies mid-way through the 2012 season, finished it with the Giants, was their catalyst in the playoffs, and promptly won a World Series in October of that year.

After a very strong 2013 (.297/.357/.369 in 127 games), Scutaro began 2014 in San Francisco, but couldn’t hack it, and the then-38-year old was out of a job just a few weeks into the year.

Josh Rutledge. The Rockies traded Rutledge in the winter of 2014 to the Los Angeles Angels, who stashed him in AAA Salt Lake most of this year, without seeing much success from him at the plate in the Pacific Coast League.

At the trade deadline, the Angels shipped Rutledge to Boston for Shane Victorino, and Josh has been playing consistently for the BoSox as a utility infielder.

Chris Nelson. Nelson’s had a tough go of it since the 2012 season where he slashed .301/.352/.458 in 111 games. Between 2013 and 2014, Nelson played in the bigs for the Rockies, Yankees, Angels, and Padres, as well as seeing minor league time.

In 2015, he played in AAA in the Phillies, Brewers, and Nationals organizations, but as of August 21 he’d been cut loose from each club and was again a free agent.

Dexter Fowler. Fowler, traded to Houston after the 2013 season for Jordan Lyles, was traded again after the 2014 season to the Chicago Cubs.

The everyday center fielder at Wrigley this year, he’s slashing .254/.350/.418 in 116 games for the presumptive playoff team, and even though his average is down a bit, he’s getting on base as much as his career averages, and his 13 homers and 22 doubles are decent power numbers for the 29-year old.

Michael Cuddyer. Cuddyer turned down the Rockies’ qualifying offer in 2014 after winning a batting title the season before, and is now with the New York Mets. He’s missed a good deal of time this season with injuries, so it looks like him turning down the Rockies’ one-year deal was a good miss for Colorado.

The Pitchers

Alex White. After 2012, White still hasn’t appeared in another big league game, missing time with elbow surgery in 2013, and then struggling to regain his form in 2014 (with the Astros’ AAA affiliate) and 2015 (split between the Astros’ and Braves’ AAA affiliates). The Braves released him on July 19 of this season.

Drew Pomeranz. Pomeranz, who failed miserably with the Rockies as a starter, has found a home in Oakland as a reliever and occasional spot starter.

After a solid 2014, Pomeranz is 4-5 with two saves, a 3.67 ERA, 3.38 FIP, 1.181 WHP, and 69 strikeouts in 73.2 innings this year.

Jeremy Guthrie. Guthrie had one really in his career, and it was 2012 with the Rockies. After he left Colorado, he settled down with the Royals and was a decent back-end rotation member the last few years… up until 2015.

He’s struggling again this year, throwing to a 5.65 ERA, 5.30 FIP, and 1.574 WHIP in 129 innings (while allowing 21 home runs in 23 starts) for the Royals this season.

Jhoulys Chacin. Chacin, of course, was released by the Rockies in Spring Training before the start of the 2015 season after struggling with arm troubles for much of 2014. He caught on with the Cleveland Indians, threw well in AAA, and was ultimately released when there were no opportunities for him at the big league level.

Now, he’s caught on again with the Arizona Diamondbacks and is, again, throwing very well in AAA — there’s no reason he couldn’t be back in the big leagues very soon in Arizona.

Josh Roenicke. Roenicke, who put up decent relief numbers for the Rockies in 2012 and overall has decent big league relief number sin his career, hasn’t appeared in the big leagues since 2013 — but he has been close to Denver.

In 2014 he spent part of the season with the Sky Sox when they were a Rockies affiliate, and this year, he’s made 20 starts for the Sky Sox as the Brewers’ AAA affiliate, going 6-10 with a 6.75 ERA and 1.77 WHIP in 103 innings.

Matt Belisle. Belisle moved on to the St. Louis Cardinals’ bullpen for 2015, and though his numbers are overall fairly decent, he’s also missed a big chunk of the season with an injury this year (though that — nor any other injury — has impact the Cards’ success this year).

Matt Reynolds. Reynolds, who moved over to the Arizona Diamondbacks after a few decent years in the Rockies’ bullpen, saw his career derailed by injury when he missed all of 2014 with elbow reconstruction surgery.

He’s back in AAA Reno in the Dbacks’ system in 2015, racking up a 5.58 ERA and 1.44 WHIP across 45 games/50 innings.

The 2012 Team

What lessons can we learn from the 2012 team? Well, for one, don’t do the six-man rotation any more. It didn’t really work for the starters, even with the extra day of rest, and it obviously never developed the two highly-touted prospects (Pomeranz is now a reliever with the Athletics, starting rotation be damned, and White’s career has completely derailed).

Also, mid-level free agents like Jeremy Guthrie are actually a big risk, because if they can’t hack it at Coors Field — even if they aren’t making tons of money in the process — they stand out like a sore thumb taking the ball every fifth (or sixth!) day.

Gee, you think the Rockies would have learned from that mistake, but Kyle Kendrick kept getting the ball in 2015 until he literally couldn’t pick it up any more…

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