Colorado Rockies: 3 encouraging numbers from a discouraging June

Colorado Rockies June OPS: .785

You just knew this team was gonna hit.

The Rockies’ June OPS — on-base percentage plus slugging percentage — was fourth in baseball. This follows a May OPS of .757 (ninth in baseball) and a paltry April OPS of .676 (27^th in baseball).

Early in the season, the top of the lineup carried the offense, while the sixth-through-ninth spots in the lineup were a black hole. But in June, the bats awoke from hibernation. Gerardo Parra was fantastic, with a .390 on-base percentage and 22 RBI. Trevor Story slashed .333/.360/.583 with just a 22 percent strikeout rate (yes, that’s a massive improvement). Carlos Gonzalez showed signs of vintage CarGo, and Tom Murphy is slashing .310/.326/.429 with five doubles in 43 plate appearances since being called up on June 12.

And Ian Desmond is suddenly raking; I’ll have more on him in a moment.

This was while Charlie Blackmon had a disappointing month, slashing .261/.309/.374 and homering just twice. With an OPS of .683, it was his worst June since 2014. (Hopefully this is just a slump and not part of a nagging injury.)

In April and May, the Rockies struggled with ground ball outs and putting the ball in play. These numbers have improved. Their batting average for balls in play (BABIP) was .274 in April and .304 in May, but in June it was the highest in baseball at .328.

Certainly more games at Coors helped, but the quality of contact was also better in June. The Rockies had a lower ground ball rate of 43.8 percent while their hard contact rate was an impressive 39.5 percent.

The offense is actually fun to watch, something I couldn’t imagine writing in early May. It’s why the Rockies are primed for a run, if the rotation finds consistency and the bullpen finds some answers.

Ian Desmond’s June slash line: .262/.392/.548

Not long ago, Ian Desmond was on pace to have one of the worst seasons in the history of Major League Baseball.

But the $70 million dollar man has changed the narrative.

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In the month of June, he was the Rockies’ best hitter by wRC+ (142). In 106 plate appearances he hit eight homers (though just two at home, continuing that strange trend) and drove in 19 runs.

Obviously, we welcome Desmond’s power surge and respectable batting average. But the .392 on-base percentage is the most eye-popping statistic. He had almost as many walks (17) as hits (23) in June, a major reason why he touched home plate 20 times. Though he still led the team in strikeouts, with 32, his plate discipline is vastly improved.

“He hasn’t been fooled very often in the last few weeks,” Manager Bud Black told The Denver Post. “Even the tough, borderline pitches — when he’s seeing it and starts to fire — he’s checking his swing. That’s a good sign the at-bats are where you want them to be.”

Desmond will probably stabilize somewhere below his June numbers, but he’s escaped his nightmare start to 2018, likely for good. His career slash line is .264/.315/.424, a reasonable expectation for Desmond the rest of the season.

Kyle Freeland’s June ERA: 3.03

Kyle Freeland is the best pitcher on the Rockies’ rotation, and his numbers weren’t remarkably better or worse in June. But it’s this consistency that makes Freeland such an important arm for the Rockies.

Colorado Rockies

Freeland’s peripherals aren’t amazing. He struck out 19.4 percent of batters in June and allowed 11 walks in five starts. But his ground ball rate was an impressive 53.2 percent. We saw this on display in his fantastic performance against the San Francisco Giants on June 27, when he only struck out four but kept the Giants’ hot bats quiet by inducing ground ball after ground ball.

It’s one reason why his field-independent pitching (FIP) was 3.71 in June, suggesting Freeland’s performances were no fluke.

Rockies pitchers often struggle to adjust to the heat of the summer and long evenings at Coors Field, but Freeland is remarkably composed for a 25-year-old pitcher. Despite sixth-inning issues against Arizona on June 10, for instance, Freeland didn’t implode like seemingly every other Rockies pitcher last month. He showed his composure again on June 21 versus the New York Mets, unfazed after giving up a home run to the second batter he faced.

Next: Where does Kyle Freeland rank among Rockies starters?

Freeland puts the Rockies offense in a position to win on a nightly basis. If the rest of the rotation can do the same, the Rockies could be playing meaningful baseball in September.