Colorado Rockies: What are the keys to winning at altitude?

For the 24 years Major League Baseball has had a home in Denver, Colorado, casual fans, sports writers, analysts, players, and managers have all talked about the thin air of the Mile High City. They have all talked about the flight of the baseball, and the 9% further distance balls travel at Coors Field.

What they haven’t talked about, until recently anyway, are Coors Field’s playing surface field dimensions. On March 26, 2014 Cork Gaines, a Contributor for Business Insider brought up an interesting point when he started putting together a chart of Major League Baseball Stadium Field Dimensions. In his study, he found Coors Field to have the largest playing surface among ballparks in Major League Baseball. This forces the Outfield Defense Players to where out sooner, as they are forced to cover more ground than the average park.

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In fact, his findings showed us just how much larger … try 0.18 ACRES larger than the average major league ballpark, and 0.33 acres larger than Fenway Park, which has the smallest playing surface of Major League Baseball stadiums. To put this into contrast, Coors Field, at 0.18 acres larger than the average field, forces players to cover 7,840 more square feet of surface space – making leg, hamstring, calf, and groin injuries more frequent

This creates more bloop singles, doubles, and triples, adding base runners to the home runs the thin air contributes to. Solo home runs are just that, a single run. Add in a couple of baserunners and you turn a 1-0 lead into a three-run deficit. Mix that in three innings, and you find yourself giving up nine runs off three simple mistakes.

Secondly, the Rockies have exceeded expectations only eight times. In each case, the pitching staff has produced at a higher level than expected. The pitching performance has always started with a veteran bullpen, consisting with a dominant closer, a power set-up, and great long relievers.

According to Baseball-Reference, in 1995, the Colorado Rockies bullpen was secured by a combination of Darren Holmes (166 ERA+), Bruce Ruffin (255 ERA+), Steve Reed (251 ERA+), and Curtis Leskanic (158 ERA+). They carried the franchise to its first postseason appearance. Combined, the quartet produced an average 207.5 ERA+. In total, the 1995 Colorado Rockies finished fifth in MLB (second in the National League) in ERA+, making this one of the most dominant Rockies staffs in franchise history.

Colorado Rockies

In 2007, the franchise’s first World Series Appearance was brought to the city because of the bullpen work from Brian Fuentes (156 ERA+), Manny Corpas (236 ERA+), Jeremy Affeldt (137 ERA+), Matt Herges (141 ERA+), and LaTroy Hawkins (141 ERA+).

This past year, the Colorado Bullpen was no different, with veteran relievers Mike Dunn (112 ERA+), Jake McGee (139 ERA+), Chris Rusin (189 ERA+), Pat Neshek (trade deadline acquisition, 206 ERA+) and Comeback Player of the Year Winner Greg Holland (139 ERA+) leading the way. The bullpen would go onto save 47 games, blowing only 14 opportunities all season, second-fewest in Major League Baseball to the Cleveland Indians (10).

This revelation proves, when the Colorado Rockies build a veteran-led bullpen, it improves their chances of reaching the postseason dramatically. In that bullpen, they must always have a reliable closer, a reliable set-up man, a reliable multi-inning long reliever, and a dominant specialist. When discussing their payroll, the bullpen must be the center point, as we have seen in the past big money starters are not they way to invest. But, strong, reliable, power arms are.

The third element to any great Colorado Rockies baseball team has began with a strong mix of homegrown starters and reliable veterans. In truth, the Colorado Rockies postseason appearances have been produced with the same model in every winning season.

In 1995, the organization signed San Francisco Giants All-Star Bill Swift (9-3-4.94 ERA, 109 ERA+), to join a rotation with Kevin Ritz (11-11-4.20 ERA,128 ERA+, acquired in the 1992 expansion draft), Armando Reynoso (7-7-5.32 ERA, 101 ERA+, acquired in the 1992 Expansion Draft) and Marvin Freeman (3-7-5.89 ERA, 91 ERA+, FA signing following the 1993 season). When you add in the contributions from homegrown rookies Bryan Rekar (4-6-4.98 ERA, 108 ERA+), Roger Bailey 97-6-4.98 ERA, 108 ERA+), and the trade deadline acquisition of Cy Young winner Bret Saberhagen (2-1-6.28 ERA, 84 ERA+), you see the Colorado Rockies used a combined total of 11 starters to compete in 144 games as the season progressed.

In total, the 1995 starting rotation combined to produce 47 of the team’s 77 wins, the same team tossed a combined 518 innings, the lowest for any Colorado Rockies rotation in the franchise’s history. Despite, the lower numbers of innings, the group combined for a 103 ERA+, making the first unit to tackle Coors Field slightly better than average.

As the years of Coors Field grew, and the organization began to avoid the failed experiments of former general manager Dan O’Dowd’s signings of dominant aces (Darryl Kile, Mike Hampton, Denny Neagle) to exuberant contracts, the organization began to see a new trend occur.

Since 2001, the organization has began to focus on building its starting rotations through a draft and development model. The first wave of talented arms arrived in 2001, when Colorado promoted top pitching prospect Jason Jennings to the major league roster. In 2002, he would join another great farm developed arm (albeit, he was acquired by trade, and promoted after starting at Triple-A) Denny Stark to produce a talented 1-2 punch in the top of the rotation.

Jennings established himself as a reliable starter in 2002 (currently, the Rockies only Rookie of the Year award winner), while Stark struggled in 2003 to regain the dominance he had the year before. When Jennings declined a 24.5 million contract extension in 2006, the Rockies dealt him away to the Houston Astros. At the time, he wasn’t sure if Rockies ownership would make the moves needed to ensure the organization would be competitive and strong enough to make the postseason.

Little did he know, his trade, would give the organization the final pieces (CF Willy Taveras, RHP prospect Jason Hirsh, and RHP long reliever Taylor Buchholz) to spring the organization into the World Series the following year. In 2007, he would be injury-prone for the Houston Astros, and by 2009, out of the game for good, following two years in relief.

In addition to the acquisition of Hirsh (5-7, 4.81 ERA, 100 ERA+), and his contributions to the 2007 rotation, homegrown starters Jeff Francis (17-11, 4.22 ERA,114 ERA+) , Aaron Cook (8-7, 4.12 ERA, 117 ERA+), Ubaldo Jimenez (4-4, 4.28 ERA, 112 ERA+), and Franklin Morales (3-2, 3.43 ERA, 141 ERA+) would be the catalysts who carried the organization down the stretch. When added to the mix of veteran savvy provided by the “Dragon Slayer” Josh Fogg (10-9, 4.94 ERA, 97 ERA+) and FA acquisition Rodrigo Lopez (5-4, 4.42 ERA, 109 ERA+).

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In 2017, just like the 2007 team, the Colorado Rockies started the season off with a solid mix of veterans and youth. Beginning with Jon Gray, and veteran leaders Tyler Anderson, Chad Bettis and Tyler Chatwood, the Rockies were only expected to have one spot in their rotation for a young rookie to compete for. The rookie competition was originally set between German Marquez, Antonio Senzatela, Kyle Freeland, Jeff Hoffman, and Harrison Musgrave.

Instead, the Rockies were given some bad mojo in spring training when Bettis (2-4, 5.05 ERA, 99 ERA+) was diagnosed with testicular cancer. By early May, Gray (10-4, 3.67 ERA-136 ERA+) was sidelined with a foot injury, Anderson (6-6, 4.81ERA, 104 ERA+) was sidelined in June with a knee injury, and staff road warrior Chatwood (8-12, 4.69 ERA, 107 ERA+) struggled with command issues, and eventually found himself in the Rockies bullpen.

Under the tutelage of Mark Wiley, the Rockies Director of Pitching Operations, however, the organization found itself in a very interesting position.

As injuries began to mount, the Rockies would bring up the organizations prized arms in Freeland (11-11, 4.10 ERA, 122 ERA+), Marquez (11-7, 4.39 ERA, 114 ERA+), Senzatela (10-5, 4.68 ERA, 107 ERA+), and Hoffman (6-5, 5.89 ERA, 85 ERA+) to fill the holes. What the organization did not expect, was the combined efforts these four young arms delivered, until the veterans would regain their strength in August.

Overall, the quartet of rookies, would combine to produce 38 of the organization’s 87 wins, with the bullpen contributing 23, and the veterans, led by Gray’s 10, combined to produce the other 26. In all, this was a year of the starting rotation, unlike in years past as the starters combined to produce 64 of the team’s 87 wins.

In conclusion, the three critical ingredients to any Colorado Rockies formula for success starts with:

• Great team speed
• A dominant bullpen
• A league average starting rotation

While the Colorado Rockies may never produce a Cy Young Award Winner, they can be the best team in baseball from start to finish. All they have to do is prevent runs defensively (team speed), make opposing pitchers sweat by stealing more (team speed), they can close teams out after their starters leave (bullpen), and they can pass the baton to the bullpen ahead on the scoreboard (starting rotation).

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If the Rockies follow this formula, they will win more than they will lease, creating a more dynamic culture at 20th & Blake for years to come.