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

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DENVER, CO – MAY 05: Sunset falls over the stadium as the Atlanta Braves face the Colorado Rockies at Coors Field on May 5, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /

Success at 20th and Blake has not always been an easy accomplishment. In 24 seasons, the Colorado Rockies organization has experienced only eight winning seasons to date, and just four of those include postseason appearances.

Ironically, no one has found a way to duplicate their success from one season, and transfer it to successive years. The closest experience the organization has come to this achievement, was produced from 1995-1997, though the Rockies were more than five games out with consecutive 83-79 finishes in 1996 and 1997, despite the home field advantage they had at Coors Field.

Following this season’s wild ride to Rocktober 2017, I thought it would be time to take a serious look into the success this year’s team enjoyed, and what they may have had in common with those previous postseason teams, and the others who went onto produce competitive, winning years.

The answers could be more duplicatable than one might realize.

The three most common themes for sustainable success at Coors Field and with the Colorado Rockies, start with:

Above average team speed
A strong bullpen
A league average starting rotation

When looking back in history, to prove our point, the Rockies in each of their winning seasons combined to produce 1,058 stolen bases, with 33 different players contributing double-digit steal seasons, an average of 132.25 per year. In 1996, the Colorado Rockies combined to steal 201 bases, with seven players taking at least 10 bags. In comparison, this season’s playoff team, only swiped 59, with two players swiping double-digit bags.

In addition to the stolen bases, the Colorado Rockies offense in every postseason year finished no worse than 8th in the league in triples, and finished in the top half of the league six times in doubles. The above-average speed gave these clubs the ability to take one extra base on singles, while turning singles into doubles and doubles into triples.

What makes team speed dangerous is not only stolen bases, triples, doubles, or offense in general. The biggest contribution team speed has on a major league baseball team comes in the form of run prevention.

DENVER, CO – APRIL 09: The statue of ‘The Player’ stands watch outside the stadium as the San Francisco Giants face the Colorado Rockies on Opening Day at Coors Field on April 9, 2012 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /

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.

DENVER, CO – AUGUST 29: (L-R) Ian Desmond #20, Charlie Blackmon #19 and Gerardo Parra #8 of the Colorado Rockies celebrate the Rockies 7-3 win against the Detroit Tigers following an interleague game at Coors Field on August 29, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

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.

SAN DIEGO, CA – SEPTEMBER 22: Jon Gray #55 of the Colorado Rockies pitches during the first inning of a baseball game against the San Diego Padres at PETCO Park on September 22, 2017 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Denis Poroy/Getty Images) /

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+).

Success at 20th and Blake has not always been an easy accomplishment. In 24 seasons, the Colorado Rockies organization has experienced only eight winning seasons to date, and just four of those include postseason appearances.

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