Colorado Rockies: Is their 2018 season like their 2008 season?

In 2007, the Colorado Rockies had their best season in the young history of their franchise as they were the champions of the National League. In 2018, the Colorado Rockies won the second National League Wild Card spot but they were eliminated in the NL Wild Card game. After both of each of those playoff seasons, they have fallen flat in the first half of the season but, when taking a closer look, are the teams really that similar?

It is a phenomena that has been bandied about on social media and elsewhere (for good reason): Are the 2018 and 2008 Rockies, essentially the same?

On the surface, you may say yes. After all, they are/were two teams that made the playoffs the previous season, they had a lot of expectations entering the following season, and both (at least thus far for the 2018 Rockies) have not played as they are capable of.

There’s a term that is used a lot when talking about playoff teams. It is known as the “hangover.” Playing a longer season than the regular season can take a toll on players because a) they are playing up to 20 games more; b) up to 20 games that are under extreme scrutiny from local media and fans as well as nationally; and c) it cuts into their offseason routine.

In 2018, in the 85 games they have played thus far, the Rockies offense has an offensive slash line of .251/.317/.420. They have also averaged 4.7 runs per game and have a averaged 8.8 strikeouts per game. For their slash line, those numbers rank fifth, eighth, and fourth in the National League. They are third in runs but, with playing half of their games in Coors Field, if you adjust it, they have a wRC+ of 83 and an OPS+ of 85 (100 is league average on both).

When you look at those, there are only three teams that are worse than the Rockies: the Kansas City Royals (who are on pace to go 48-114), the Padres, and the Diamondbacks).

This is how they have looked month by month entering play on July 3.

For comparison, in 2017, the Rockies had a slash line of .268/.327/.428. They ended up finishing their season with a .273/.338/.444, which ranked first, first, and third in the NL. They had a 90 OPS+.

In 2008, in their first 85 games, they had an offensive slash line of .260/.331/.406, which is very comparable to the 2018 Rockies. In fact, looking at OPS, it was .736. In 2018, it is .738. In 2008, however, they only scored 4.2 runs per game. They finished with a .263/.336/.415 slash line, which was sixth, fifth, and seventh in the NL, and an OPS+ of 89.

Here’s a look at their month-by-month stats overall in 2008.

Again, for comparison, the 2007 Rockies, in their first 85 games, hit .274/.349/.418 and they averaged 4.8 runs per game with only 6.8 strikeouts per game. They finished with a .280/.354/.437 slash, which was first, first, and fourth in the NL. Their OPS+ was 98.

The 2018 Rockies pitching staff, as you probably know, has been…inconsistent, to put it nicely. They have an ERA of 4.96 collectively. The starters, however, have a 4.69 ERA compared to the not-so “super” bullpen’s ERA of 5.52. Overall, the staff was ok in March and April, better in May, and it just completely fell apart in June.

You can see it even further when you see their opponents slash line.

For comparison, this is how it looked prior to the All-Star break in 2017 (91 games).

In 2008, they had an ERA of 4.72 and an opponent slash line that was inconsistent too. This is a little bit larger of a sample size as this runs to the All-Star break (96 games).

As you can see, the month that they really fell apart was the month of May.

More from Colorado Rockies History

• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• The plane crash that changed this Colorado Rockies broadcaster’s life
• The Colorado Rockies have their own “Bobby Bonilla Day” deferred salaries
• Colorado Rockies: Is Ezequiel Tovar on a Troy Tulowitzki-like path to the majors?
• Colorado Rockies: Is the 2022 NL West the best division ever?

Final Thoughts

So, in some ways, the 2008 and 2018 Rockies are similar (inconsistency offense and pitching staff both that has fallen flat of expectations). However, in many ways, the 2018 team is actually doing better.

After all, the 2018 team, through 85 games, is 42-43, and in 4th place in the NL West but only five games back of the division leading Diamondbacks and only 4.5 back in the second Wild Card.

The 2008 team, through 85 games, was seventeen games under .500 at 34-51 and also in 4th place.

However, they were eight games back of the division leading Diamondbacks, who only had a record of 42-43 in an obviously very weak division as the Dodgers ended up winning the division with 84 wins.