Colorado Rockies: Our 2017 Season Predictions and Forecasts

Nolan Lees

What will Colorado’s 2017 record be (162-game regular season schedule)?

Most projections I’ve seen this off-season have the Rockies pegged as roughly a .500 team. I think that’s probably about right. We’d love to see Colorado back in the playoffs, but realistically, the bar for this team is 81-81. Anything better than that would be a good season. Anything below would be disappointing.

Who will be Colorado’s biggest surprise and disappointment?

It’s no secret that I’ve been enamored with Tom Murphy‘s game for a while now. The University of Buffalo product absolutely destroyed Triple-A pitching last season, and more than held his own in a brief call-up towards the end of last season.

Tony Wolters is probably a superior defensive catcher at the moment, which is why some have called for him to start. It appears he’ll get a chance at least at the beginning of the season, as Murphy will be sidelined into April with a broken forearm.

I am skeptical, however, that Wolters is going to hit enough to establish himself as the everyday starter behind the dish. With Murphy out to start the 2017 season, it may be easier to forget about him. But I predict he will have firmly established himself as the starting catcher in Colorado by the All-Star break.

I won’t go so far as to say this player will be a disappointment in 2017, but I think the expectations surrounding Tyler Anderson are getting dangerously high. He threw a career-high 145 innings in 2016. Given his injury history, the Rockies probably shouldn’t let him greatly exceed that in 2017, but in a rotation lacking proven options, the young lefty may be forced to shoulder a bigger load than you ideally ask of a guy with fewer than 20 MLB starts under his belt.

Why will or why won’t Colorado make the playoffs?

I think Colorado is still probably a year or two away from playoff contention. Keep in mind, this was a 75-win team last year, so the 2017 squad could improve by 10 wins (a big jump in one season) and would likely still miss the playoffs.

The NL West is no cakewalk either. The Dodgers and the Giants are a solid bet to win close to 90 games, and even Arizona should bounce back somewhat after a nightmarish 2016 campaign.

It’s not impossible, and no one who’s paying attention should be stunned if this team competes for a spot in October. But a lot of things are going to have to go right for it to happen this year.