Colorado Rockies: Taking a look at the offense’s early struggles

Ten games into the season and the Colorado Rockies offense has been as cold as Friday’s Opening Day at Coors Field.

It is early, but the Rockies are 9th in the National League with 3.7 runs scored per game and have a run differential of minus-10. This begs the question: Where are the Rockies’ bats?

Taking a look at the lineup, it is easy to see why the Rockies have struggled to get guys across the plate. Half of the eight everyday starters have failed to find their swing. Here are the lines for those four players:

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Carlos Gonzalez 9-for-36 (.250), 12 strikeouts and a .270 OBP

Ian Desmond 8-for-35 (.229), 11 strikeouts and a .229 OBP (no walks), 2 GDP

Gerardo Parra 6-for-32 (.188), 4 strikeouts and a .278 OBP

Trevor Story 8-for-38 (.211), 14 strikeouts and a .286 OBP

These stats are ugly … but the 41 total strikeouts is the most glaring. The Rockies have the third-most strikeouts in the National League at 93. This is way too many wasted at bats for the Rockies to be successful.

To compound the issue, the struggles by these starters has had an effect on the bench players. Due to sporadic playing time, in order to get the starters out of their own funk, Tony Wolters, Pat Valaika, Mike Tauchman, and Ryan McMahon are a combined 3-for-42 (.071).

The struggles are also leading the Rockies to rely way too much on Charlie Blackmon, DJ LeMahieu and Nolan Arenado. They are responsible for 19 of the 37 total runs and 33 of the 78 total hits. Sunday’s 4-0 loss to the Braves showed why leaning on these three is not a good recipe for success with Blackmon out with back spasms.

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Once again, the season is still in its infancy. However, for CarGo, Desmond and Story, this early struggle has become more of a trend than a coincidence. For the outfielders, they don’t need to be reminded that Raimel Tapia and David Dahl (who has missed some time recently with a stomach bug) are both off to a red-hot start in Triple-A Albuquerque. If the Rockies plan on contending this year, something needs to change and in a hurry.