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Colorado Rockies: A path to taking that “next step” and winning the division

By Nick Bunney

DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 30: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates in the lockerroom at Coors Field on September 30, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Although losing 5-3 to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Rockies celebrated clinching a wild card spot in the post season. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)
DENVER, CO - SEPTEMBER 30: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies celebrates in the lockerroom at Coors Field on September 30, 2017 in Denver, Colorado. Although losing 5-3 to the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Rockies celebrated clinching a wild card spot in the post season. (Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images) /
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SCOTTSDALE, AZ – MARCH 05: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies is congratulated by teammate DJ LeMahieu #9 after hitting a two run home run during the first inning of a spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on March 5, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images)
SCOTTSDALE, AZ – MARCH 05: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies is congratulated by teammate DJ LeMahieu #9 after hitting a two run home run during the first inning of a spring training game against the Chicago Cubs at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick on March 5, 2018 in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Photo by Norm Hall/Getty Images) /

A path to improvement

There are two sides to every story in baseball: the hitting and pitching. Pitching is fairly self-explanatory in pitcher’s parks (keep the other guys as close to zero as possible), so for this article, I’ll focus on how we can improve offensively when the offense is, quite frankly, tough to get.

Colorado Rockies
Colorado Rockies /

Colorado Rockies

In pitcher’s ballparks, on most nights, a team needs to be able to manufacture runs. That means not relying on one of your power guys hitting a bomb with two guys on and getting a three-run chunk all at once, but rather getting a guy on base and, through hits as well as productive outs, getting him around the bases and home. It also means taking advantage of errors made in the field with aggressive and smart base running.

I think three common statistics are rather telling in how well a team is able to manufacture runs: strikeouts, double play ground outs, and stolen bases. If you’re trying to advance runners, strikeouts and double plays spell absolute doom. They are meaningless outs that not only fail to advance the runner in most cases as with the strikeout, but completely wipes the runner off the base paths, as is the case with GIDPs (Grounded Into Double Plays). Stolen bases is an important stat for obvious reasons. After all, a free 90 feet in a pitcher’s park is gold.

So how did the Rockies perform in these three stats a year ago? Not good. They had the fifth-most strikeouts of any National League team, only the New York Mets stole fewer bases, and they led the NL in double play ground outs. There you have it. Right there. The Rockies struggled getting bases on their own (steals), putting the ball in play in key moments (strikeouts) and at times shot themselves in the foot big-time with the GIDPs.

These poor showings are masked a bit more in hitter’s parks such as Coors Field because the gap doubles and long balls can overcome these deficiencies. In pitcher’s parks and as the stakes rise in the playoffs, however, they will need to be improved on if the Rockies want to take that next step.

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