Colorado Rockies: putting the anemic offense in perspective

The offense was an unforeseen issue for the Colorado Rockies heading into the 2017 season. However, it has actually been worse than the pitching staff this season. Particularly lately, the offense has been awful. There’s no other way to put it. And it is coming at the worst time possible.

The Colorado Rockies offense has struggled most of this season but they have particularly struggled against the San Francisco Giants and San Diego Padres in the past six games (two teams they should be beating rather easily).

The offense in the past six games

In the past six games, the Rockies are 1-5. The offense has scored a pathetic 1.7 runs per game and they have been shutout in three of the six games. They are hitting .223 with a .285 on-base percentage and a .294 slugging percentage in this span.

In the one win that they got, they scored four runs…off of Jordan Lyles. As Rockies fans saw earlier this year when he was on the Rockies, if you score four runs of Jordan Lyles in six innings, that’s ridiculous. He has an ERA of 7.23 on the season. It was only his fourth appearance with the Padres and in the previous three starts, he had an ERA of 8.78. Batters hit .345 off him in those three starts. The Rockies went 5-for-23 against him, or a batting average of .217. On the whole season, his opponent’s have hit .314 against him.

Yesterday, the Rockies faced Jhoulys Chacin and they got their first hit off of him in the sixth inning. They got five hits total.

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The offense this season

If you just look at the numbers, you would think that my claim that the Rockies offense is not good is a bit unfounded. In the National League, they are third in runs, first in hits, fourth in doubles, first in batting average, third in on-base percentage, and third in slugging percentage.

However, they play half of their games in Coors Field. If the Rockies don’t lead the National League in every single category by a decent margin, they aren’t above league average in OPS+ (which is park adjusted). The Rockies OPS+ on the season is 89 (100 is league average). In comparing that number to every other team, that would mean that the Rockies offense is fifth-worst in baseball.

The four teams that are worse than the Rockies are (in order of best to worst) the Toronto Blue Jays, the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Padres, and the Giants. The Blue Jays are the best team of the remaining four: they are eleven games under .500 entering Sunday’s action as they are 72-83.

Final Thoughts

Obviously, pitching is something that needs to be address in the off season but the offense, in reality, needs to be more of a priority. Especially if the Brewers and/or Cardinals over take the Rockies in the next week of play, the offense will be to blame. In their recent six game skid, the pitching staff has an ERA of 3.40.

Next: Be thankful for the Rockies early season success

The pitching staff has an ERA+ (which is also adjusted for the parks played in) of 111 on the season (again, 100 is league average). That just shows that the pathetic performance of the offense is the thing that will be to blame.