Colorado Rockies notes: Greg Holland, bullpen, Carlos Gonzalez, and the offense

There are some news and notes from the past few days involving players on the Rockies and we run them down.

Fangraphs’ Dave Cameron had an article a few days ago talking about Rockies closer, Greg Holland, and his recent struggles. We all know that Holland has struggled in the month of August as he has had four losses since August 6 but Cameron suggests that Holland has been struggling for longer. He suggests that it has been down hill for Holland since June.

In the month of June as he walked nearly one in every five batters that he faced. He walked eight in just 10 2/3 innings pitched. His strikeout rate also dropped from 17.8 per nine innings in May to 10.1 in June (that’s still pretty good but it is only 7.8 per nine innings this month.

Cameron also mentions how since Holland has been as sharp, it leaves Rockies manager Bud Black with one less reliable bullpen option. Jake McGee hasn’t been as good and Adam Ottavino has had a few rough outings (although, he has only had one outing with more than one run allowed since July 4 and his ERA since July 26 is 3.00).

Gonzalez’s contract

It was speculated but Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post confirms in a mailbag post that the Rockies tried to re-sign Carlos Gonzalez this past off-season. Even though he has played better lately (he has been hitting .276 since the All-Star break and .278 in August), it looks like he will, most likely, not get a multi-year contract offer this season. Bob Nightengale, of USA Today, said in this article from a few weeks ago that it was a four-year contract that Gonzalez refused to sign.

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The Rockies offense

The Rockies offense has struggled for much of the month of August but Connor Farrell of Purple Row suggests in this article that the Rockies have had problems offensively all along and for many years but the concern was on the starting rotation. Now that the starting rotation is better, it is becoming more apparent that the Rockies offense is not good.

They have put up decent numbers but when you adjust to having 81 games being played at Coors Field, they are actually, according to OPS+, 10 percent below league average at 90. That number ties them for fifth-worst in the major leagues (tied with the Philadelphia Phillies).

Next: Why the Rockies won't make the playoffs

The only teams that are worse are the Arizona Diamondbacks, Toronto Blue Jays, Pittsburgh Pirates, San Diego Padres, and San Francisco Giants (and only the D’Backs are competing for a playoff spot).