Colorado Rockies: The Five Best Players of the 2016 Season

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Oct 2, 2016; Denver, CO, USA; Fans watch in the seventh inning of the game between the Colorado Rockies and the Milwaukee Brewers at Coors Field. Mandatory Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports /

The Colorado Rockies won 75 games in 2016, which was the most wins in a season since 2010. However, it was still only good enough for third place in the division and manager Walt Weiss is gone. There is no doubt the offense carried the team for nearly the entire season, but there were some pitchers who had good years also. Rox Pile takes a look at the five best Rockies from 2016.

No. 5: Trevor Story

With the trade of former fan favorite Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays last season, there was a sizable hole at the shortstop position. It seemed the hole would be filled by Jose Reyes, the $22 million dollar man.

But then Reyes got himself in trouble in Hawaii by (allegedly) hitting his wife in a hotel room. He was suspended by MLB and he fell out of favor with the organization who decided they wanted no part of him any longer, resulting in his release after his suspension ended.

Story played well in spring training, earning himself the starting job to begin the season. On the field, only his most ardent supporters could have foreseen the impact he would have, both with his bat and with the glove.

Before he broke his thumb sliding into second base, Story played in 97 games. He hit .272, hit a NL rookie shortstop record 27 home runs, had 101 hits and a slugging percentage of .567. In the field, he had some bumps and bruises with 10 errors and a .977 fielding percentage, but at the same time he made some highlight reel plays to highlight his talent.

Prior to his injury Story was a leading candidate for the NL Rookie of the Year award. If he had maintained the same level of performance he would have also been a good candidate for the Rockies MVP.

Furthermore, when he went out of the lineup the Rockies offense took a noticeable dip and the team went from contending for the NL second Wild Card berth to being also-rans once more. His replacements became a platoon between Cristhian Adames and Daniel Descalso, and even though they are serviceable players, they did not have anywhere near the same impact as Story.

Despite missing the last 65 games of the year, Story is a very deserving member on this list.

Next: No. 4: Tyler Chatwood

No. 4: Tyler Chatwood

Chatwood gave the term “road warrior” a great representation in 2016. A 8-1 record and a 1.69 ERA on the road showed his true dominance. Indeed, his production on the road was historic, as Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post noted:

That road ERA is the lowest in the majors this season (minimum 70 innings pitched) and the lowest in Rockies history (minimum 80 innings). Colorado’s previous road ERA king was Jhoulys Chacin, who posted a 2.44 mark in 2013.

Coors Field wasn’t as friendly to him, as he finished 4-8 with a 6.12 ERA in 14 starts. For one reason or another, he simply didn’t have the same control and command at home than he did on the road. The stats are interesting – 11 HRs, 34 walks and 56 strikeouts at Coors, versus just four HRs, 36 walks and 61 strikeouts on the road.

Overall, he finished 12-9 and a 3.87 ERA in 27 starts. His 12 wins were the second best on the team behind Chad Bettis.

Whenever you break a franchise record for pitching you have had a successful season and is a rare feat for a Rockies pitcher. His road warrior performance in 2016 makes him an easy choice to be on this list.

Next: No. 3: Charlie Blackmon

No. 3: Charlie Blackmon

There is little doubt Blackmon became one of the best leadoff hitters in ALL of baseball in 2016. He became damaging to the opposition. In 143 games, he hit .324, with 29 HRs, 35 doubles, 82 RBIs, a slugging percentage of .552 and 17 stolen bases (first on the team).

We at Rox Pile had a recent Colorado Rockies Roundtable discussion about who the MVP was for 2016. Nolan Lees made some very good points about why Blackmon is the team’s MVP for 2016. His road production was much improved this year:

Then 2016 rolled around, and all of a sudden, Blackmon is mashing the ball no matter where he’s playing. He has a .313 batting average in road games this season, just a shade below his .324 overall batting average. In fact, by some metrics, Blackmon has actually played better away from home. He has a higher slugging percentage and 17 of his 29 total home runs in road games this season. It’s hard to overstate what a dramatic shift that is. It’s not that Blackmon was a bad player before 2016, but his value was always limited by his meager production on the road. But now, it appears the sky is the limit for the 30-year-old. Blackmon has always had nearly identical numbers against left- and right-handed pitching, so if 2016 is a sign of things to come, the Rockies have themselves one of the most complete, “match-up proof” players in MLB.

Nick Kosmider of the Denver Post noted that he became just the fifth player in major-league history to hit 10 leadoff home runs in a season.

Blackmon has never been known as a center field defensive genius, but he had an outstanding season in the field this season with just three errors and a .990 fielding percentage.

Additionally, throwing in the fact he is on a $3,500,000 contract (though he is arbitration-eligible, and is likely to get a nice pay raise), he is still a relative bargain based on his 2016 production.

2017 may be the year for the opposition to start “fearing the beard”.

Next: No. 2: DJ LeMahieu

No. 2: DJ LeMahieu

I must admit, this was a toss up between him and my No. 1 selection. LeMahieu is one of the most underrated players in MLB. His 2016 season was nothing short of sensational.

DJ became the eighth Rockies player to win the NL batting title, finishing at .348. This average was the highest by a Rockie since Todd Helton hit .358 in 2003.

So what else did he do? He set new career-highs in HRs (11 ) and RBIs (66). He also had 192 hits (first on the team), 32 doubles and out of qualified hitters had the highest OBP of .416. His fielding was also sublime with just six errors and a .991 fielding percentage.

And he set a new career high with a WAR (wins above replacement) of 4.1 in 2016 per fangraphs.com, compared to his previous best of 1.9 in 2015.

Rox Pile’s James Keating delved deeper into more advanced statistics to show the value of LeMahieu in 2016:

… an advanced statistic called Weighted On-Base Average (wOBA) integrates all the varying aspects of hitting into one value, weighting each hit and time on base in accordance too their true value in creating run production. Put simply, wOBA shows offensive value more accurately than AVG, OBP, and even slugging percentage. I’m sure you can guess where I’m going with this. Heading into the weekend, DJ led the squad with an wOBA of .393 while Blackmon was second at .389, and then Nolan at .385. Still not sold? Well, if we control for park effects and weigh each offensive action, DJ again takes the cake with a Weighted Runs Created Plus (wRC+) of 129 whereas Blackmon has a wRC+ of 126 and Nolan comes in at 124.

No matter which statistic you look at or value higher, DJ had a superb 2016 season. He should be winning the Silver Slugger award for second basemen once this award is announced later.

Next: No. 1: Nolan Arenado

No. 1: Nolan Arenado

All my colleagues here at Rox Pile made fine arguments for their Rockies MVP in our Colorado Rockies Roundtable.

But I’m sticking to my guns and still arguing Nolan Arenado was the Rockies best player in 2016!

Earlier I mentioned Arenado tied for the NL lead in HRs (41) and his 133 RBIs led all of MLB. What else did he achieve? He had 182 hits (third on the team), hit .294, had 116 runs (led team), 35 doubles (tied for second) and out of all qualified hitters led the team with a .570 slugging percentage.

Per Fangraphs, he had an offense rating (Offense – Batting and Base Running combined (above average)) of 19.6, a defensive rating (Defense – Fielding and Positional Adjustment combined (above average)) of 7.5 and a WAR (Wins Above Replacement) of 5.0.

Arenado also became a team leader and became vocal with his frustration with the team’s losing back in June.

And if you are wondering if this was a good thing, it was. Rockies insider Ed Henderson told Mile High Sports AM 1340 his reasoning why it was a good move (h/t Michael Laudick of Milehighsports.com).

“I don’t mind seeing that every once in a while,” said Henderson. “One guy getting fired up and maybe chewing some tail in either the clubhouse or in the dugout may not be a bad thing.”

Plus:

“It lets the other guys know that, ‘Hey if your complacent about this, if you’re content to have this team going in the direction it’s going, that’s not acceptable,’” Henderson said about Arenado’s recent dugout outburst. “He is a very very competitive guy, as we know, and I think a guy that really really wants to win.”

I don’t believe the Rockies players have ever accepted the losing over the last six seasons. However, there hasn’t been much anger or disgust shown about it either. For Nolan to show this type of emotion, to show the anger, is a positive thing and re-affirms the belief the constant losing is not good enough and the team can be better.

We can all agree there is enough young talent on the current squad and with the right choice of manager, a few pieces added here and there and a revamped bullpen which can prove to be effective, the playoffs in 2017 is not out of the question.

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If you take Arenado’s offensive numbers out of the equation, simply put the team doesn’t lead the NL in RBIs, or in runs, or in hits, or in doubles.

We haven’t even spoke about his defense. His fielding did drop off in the second half of the season (he finished with 13 errors on the year), but his highlight reel plays still stand out, especially the ease he made the barehanded play look.

Furthermore, Arenado’s production in 2016 resulted in him becoming only the third player in baseball history to drive in 130 or more runs in consecutive seasons at age 26 or younger (Chuck Klein and Jimmie Foxx are the others). He is also only the third Rockie ever to have multiple 40-homer, 130-RBI seasons (joining Andres Galarraga from 1996-97 and Todd Helton from 2000-01).

Next: Colorado Rockies Roundtable: Who is the 2016 Team MVP?

So there you have it, folks. The five best Rockies players in 2016. There were several outstanding performances by different players. Offensively, the team is loaded. Pitching-wise, if the team can re-build the bullpen and have it be as successful as the one time the squad made the World Series in 2007 (3.85 bullpen ERA), we could see 2017 as the year to finally return to the playoffs.

And if we do the same list next season, from the top-five players we might see more than one pitcher on the list.

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