Colorado Rockies: Execution lacking in early stages of season

The Major League Baseball season is still extremely young, and the Colorado Rockies find themselves in a pretty decent spot to start the year. While it may feel like they struggled against the San Diego Padres, Colorado actually went 4-3 against their division rival through their first seven meetings. Right now, they are 9-8 and look to be a legit contender for the Wild Card or even the division.

That doesn’t mean that people are taking the Rockies seriously. It’s hard to find people who really think the Rockies can be a contender to win the World Series. Which, obviously, is the ultimate goal for every Major League team. Why can’t the Rockies win it all as soon as this year or the next? Fortunately, it’s very simple … they lack the ability to execute.

Seventeen games in, the Rockies have only three players with double-digit RBI totals. And, while we should be pleasantly surprised that Carlos Gonzalez is one of those players, that is definitely cause for concern. Especially given Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story, the two big bats in charge of driving in runs, both only have 6 RBI respectively. Arenado is having a solid season, but we’d like to see more of his base hits be in more crucial situations. Story is just really struggling altogether, but that is a different subject.

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The season is going pretty well when you look at the entire season’s statistics, especially for players like DJ LeMahieu, Charlie Blackmon, and Arenado, but the new version Blake Street Bombers look a lot more vulnerable when you really break down the numbers.

The team’s batting average with runners in scoring position with two outs is completely awful. It is all the way down at .156, one of the worst in the league. Players just aren’t coming through when needed. With runners in scoring position and less than two outs, the Rockies are only scoring 22.9% of the time. That is awful. That means, in order to score once, the Rockies need to get a runner to second base five times.

You may be thinking I’m really being hard on the players for the lack of success in crucial situations. But here is why all of this matters:

If and when the Rockies win the World Series, it will be done through their hitting. We can never rely on the Rockies’ pitching to carry the team to a pennant. That is just fact and has been throughout franchise history. Hitters are going to need to come through.

Next: These numbers from Colorado's ace are plain scary

If the success rate of the batters are this low, the Rockies have no chance of winning the World Series. This is exactly why no one in the league takes the Rockies seriously. So far, the Rockies collectively have 122 hits, but have only driven in 66 runs. Simply executing in these situations could potentially save Colorado’s season.