Colorado Rockies: What does the super bullpen need to do be great?

In the Colorado Rockies opening series of 2018 against the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team, in general, was a bit inconsistent. One of the things that was inconsistent was the bullpen. However, the big name guys were very effective.

In the first three games of the season, the Rockies bullpen worked a total of 13 2/3 innings. In those innings, the Rockies bullpen has an ERA of 4.61, which is not great. However, the horses in the bullpen (Bryan Shaw, Jake McGee, Wade Davis, and Chris Rusin) have looked good. Rusin is the only one who has given up any runs, thus far. His ERA is a bit skewed, though, because two of the three earned runs he has given up were given up when Scott Oberg allowed the inherited runners to score.

Even with that, the four relievers have a combined ERA of 3.68 in 7 1/3 innings so they haven’t been as bad as the numbers look. So, what do each of these relievers need to be their best?

Bryan Shaw

The main thing that Bryan Shaw needs is cutter. Shaw is only a two pitch pitcher (cutter and slider) and, in 2017, he threw his cutter more than 88 percent of the time. He throws it really hard, as well, as, last September, he was averaging nearly 96 miles per hour on the radar gun with it.

It generates a lot of ground balls as he got 120 ground balls in 2017, compared to 35 fly balls, 58 line drives, 73 strikeouts. On those ground balls, batters only hit .192 against him.

Chris Rusin

Thus far on the season, Rusin has struggled with his control, as he has allowed 2 walks in 2 1/3 innings. Obviously, he needs to regain his control but he also needs to be able to find his sinker.

On Opening Day, 11 of his 25 pitches were sinkers and if you check out the Pitch F/X system on MLB.com, he had a few sinkers go way off the plate and a lot of the ones that were in the strike zone were elevated. In fact, none of his 11 sinkers were in the lower third of the strike zone.

He was able to locate his sinker better on Saturday as most were in the lower third of the zone but he still had a walk and more balls than strikes with it so he has to find his groove with his sinker and his control.

Jake McGee

McGee has been good to start the season and he was pretty good for the Rockies last year. His main thing that he has to do, in my opinion, is mix up his pitches. In 2017, there were some months where he threw his fastball 96 percent of the time.

However, he has already done that thus far as he has thrown 79 percent fastballs and 21 percent sliders thus far on the season and it has worked so far as he has not allowed a base runner in two innings on the season and he has struck out two.

Wade Davis

Last year, Davis averaged more than 12 strikeouts per nine innings. By and large, these came from his cutter and four-seam fastball, which he threw around 80 percent of the time last year.

He has done around the same the this year as 12 of his 16 pitches on the season have been fastballs or cutters and he struck out two of the three batters he has faced.

Final Thoughts

If each of these four relievers can stay in or find their niche and continue with it, the Rockies bullpen will be one of the best in all of baseball. Also, other relievers like Antonio Senzatela, Mike Dunn, Adam Ottavino (who has been pretty good to start the season), and Scott Oberg have to find their niches as well.

Next: ESPN's John Farrell really likes the Rockies

However, if the Rockies bullpen can perform to their highest and they aren’t over worked by the starting rotation faltering, Rockies fans won’t have to be worried…even if they are a little bit nervous with their start of the season.

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