2015 Season In Review: Albuquerque Isotopes

All of the Colorado Rockies’ minor league affiliates have wrapped up their seasons. Today, let’s review 2015 for the AAA affiliate Albuquerque Isotopes.

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The Albuquerque Isotopes finished their 2015 season in pretty disappointing fashion, losing 11-0 on the final day of the season in Sacramento against the hated San Francisco Giants’ AAA affiliate.

That was only one of 82 problems for the Isotopes — the club finished 2015 at 62-82, a cool 20 games under .500, and in the basement of the Pacific Coast League. In fact, only two teams in the entire PCL had worse winning percentages than the ‘Topes, who were roughly equal opportunity offenders at home (32-40) and on the road (30-42).

Let’s take some notes on the ‘Topes as we wrap up their 2015 season over the next few slides. Oh! And a heads up out there — we’ll be handing out all of our minor league end-of-season awards for every single affiliate throughout the next couple weeks, so… look out for all that, too.

Next: The 2015 Isotopes' Offense

Jul 16, 2015; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; United States catcher T. Murphy (19) throws out a baserunner in the fifth inning against the Dominican Republic during the 2015 Pan Am Games at Ajax Pan Am Ballpark. Mandatory Credit: Tom Szczerbowski-USA TODAY Sports

2015 Albuquerque Isotopes: Defense

The good: Jon Gray and Aaron Laffey, in very different ways, put together decent years in the starting rotation. Each was in the big leagues for part of the year too (Gray more than Laffey), but both pitchers were consistent in an inconsistent starting rotation at a very hitter-friendly home ballpark.

In the bullpen, Simon Castro turned heads with a good year and eventually earned himself a call-up to the Colorado Rockies, while Jario Diaz, Justin Miller, and Miguel Castro all followed suit with their own decent seasons in 2015 and call-ups to the Major Leagues. Besides them, though, the staff was a disaster. The Albuquerque Isotopes finished third-from-last in the Pacific Coast League with a 4.97 ERA.

The bad: Jair Jurrjens and John Lannan didn’t impress at the end of the year, leading to the release of one (Jurrjens) and the quiet end of the season for the other (Lannan). Jurrjens allowed 105 hits in 70.2 innings, picking up a 6.88 ERA and 1.81 WHIP while striking out only 39 and walking 23. Lannan, who was throwing well in the middle of the year, faded hard at the end, and finished 6-10 with a 5.39 ERA and 1.64 WHIP allowing 40 walks and 209 hits in 152 innings. Yikes.

[ Related: Colorado Rockies prospect Jon Gray shows upside vs the Padres ]

Noteworthy: Tyler Matzek ended up with terrible numbers across the entire AAA season, but he threw much better in his second turn through Albuquerque than he did in the first. In 10.2 innings at the end of the year, he allowed just four runs, and even though he did walk ten batters (!), he gave up just four hits and struck out 16, too. Hopefully, he’ll start 2016 with the Albuquerque Isotopes and build on that as the Rockies figure out what he can do in the future.

Big league ready: Nelson Gonzalez. Nobody has made much of Nelson Gonzalez over the last few years, but he did make the Arizona Fall League last October, and he followed that up with a nice year with the Albuquerque Isotopes this summer. In 51 innings across 30 games, he went 4-3 with a 3.53 ERA and 1.24 WHIP, striking out 51 while allowing just 17 walks. He’s certainly worth a shot as bullpen depth next summer.

Next: Looking ahead to 2016

Oct. 14, 2014; Scottsdale, AZ, USA; Colorado Rockies shortstop T. Story plays for the Salt River Rafters during an Arizona Fall League game against the Surprise Saguaros at Salt River Field. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

2016 Albuquerque Isotopes: Looking Ahead

Keys to success: Wins and losses don’t matter at any minor league level, of course, but it will be interesting to see how the Albuquerque Isotopes develop players. They’ll have at least two big prospects to start the season (in all likelihood) in Story and Murphy, and there is of course the chance that Gray, Adames, Eddie Butler, David Dahl, Jordan Patterson, Kyle Parker, Miguel Castro, Jeff Hoffman, and Harrison Musgrave may all spend tim with the ‘Topes in 2016.

Obviously, with names like that, there’s a lot of pressure riding on the Albuquerque Isotopes to develop talent and the Colorado Rockies to analyze it during the big league club’s rebuild. This should be fun!

Biggest challenges: Pitching in Albuquerque. The Pacific Coast League is an absurdly hitter-friendly league, and it’s always tough to determine exactly how good a pitcher is despite questionable numbers in Albuquerque (hey, just like Denver!). Gray made it through. Matzek and Butler didn’t. Can the next crop of guys, like Musgrave and Harrison, figure it out in Albuquerque? Only time will tell.

[ Related: Down on the farm: Trevor Story ]

What to expect in 2016: As is always the case in AAA, expect the Colorado Rockies to sign some veteran former Major Leaguers for depth next year, just like they did in 2014 with Roger Bernadina and John Lannan, to use two notable examples.

More than that, though, there’s this to think about: in 2014, the Asheville Tourists won the South Atlantic League championship series. This year, many of those players spent time between Modesto and New Britain, moving up levels in the Rockies’ minor league family tree. Next year, many of those players (some listed just several paragraphs above this) will likely spend at least part of the season with the Isotopes.

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