Colorado Rockies: Who Was the Most Improved Player in 2016?

The Colorado Rockies improved their record by seven games from 2015 to 2016 ending the season with a 75-87 record. The team certainly could have finished the season with a more impressive record but their record plummeted in the month of September. The September record of 11-16 was their worst winning percentage in any month of the season.

The contributions that the rookies made towards success has been well documented, but the improvements of the core group of talented position players also played a major role.

Here on Rox Pile, we have already debated who we think deserves the MVP title, so I want to delve into the battle for most improved player.

Charlie Blackmon

The big change for Blackmon came in terms of his ability to hit for power. As mentioned above his home run total increased by 12. He lowered his at bats per home run from 36.1 to 19.9. This showed in his slugging percentage, which rose over .100 points from .450 to .552. Blackmon’s ability to draw walks stayed about the same and the rise in his OBP from .347 to .381 was due mainly to an increase in batting average.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

Also impressive from Blackmon was his ability to put together solid at bats … and make the pitcher work. He increased his pitches per plate appearance from 3.98 to 4.08, which is .25 better than the league average. Chuck also saw added to his line drive percentage, which sat at 35 in 2016, 12% over the league average of 23.

The power surge this year was coupled with a decrease in number of stolen bases. Charlie had 43 stolen bases last year compared to only 17 this year. His successful stolen base percentage also went down from 77 to 65%, explaining the 30 less attempts.

The advanced stats placing value on Blackmon also show improvements. His WAR according to baseball reference was 4.4 in 2016, much higher than 3.2 in 2015. Fangraphs saw Blackmon similarly with a WAR of 3.9 in 2016, an even larger increase compared to the 2.1 value he compiled in 2015.

Nolan Arenado

Nolan Arenado is the popular pick for MVP of the Rockies in 2016, and it is easy to see why. His power numbers remained essentially the same from 2015. He hit 41 home runs, and drove in a MLB-leading 133 RBI. He compiled these numbers while manning the hot corner for the Rockies in almost every game, as he appeared in 160 of 162 contests. That durability is a facet of his game that cannot be ignored.

Also hard to ignore was the biggest weakness of Arenado in 2015. He didn’t get on base as much as you would expect from a guy putting up such gaudy power numbers. He was a very aggressive hitter, walking only 34 times in 665 at bats. This left his SO/W ratio at 3.24 and his OBP was only .323, leading to criticism from those outside the Rocky Mountain region.

Nolan clearly made this a focus in 2016 and the statistics show just how much he improved this part of his game. He doubled his walk total in 2016, aggregating 68 in his 696 at bats. He walked in 9.8% of his plate appearances, well above the league average of 7.9 and almost double of his percent of 5.1 in 2015.

This also led to him slashing his SO/W ratio, lowering it to 1.51 this season. This added patience also showed in his OBP and OPS. His OBP improved from .323 to .362 and his OPS rose from .898 to .932. This was good for 10^th in baseball, a hundredth of a point less than his teammate, Chuck Nazty. Like Charlie, Nolan also saw more pitches during his plate appearances in 2016, inflating it from 3.49 to 3.94 this season.

Arenado, of course, continued to produce unforgettable web gems at third base this season, and may add to his Gold Glove collection. His value increased from a WAR of 5.8 to 6.5 on baseball reference and from 4.5 to 5.2 on fangraphs. These values are the highest of any Rockies players, and he has to be considered the cornerstone for the Rockies to build around for years to come.