Colorado Rockies: NL Wild Card is out of the question

The Colorado Rockies are currently 59-52 coming off a win in the 3-game series against the Milwaukee Brewers. This puts the Rockies 2 games out of first place in the NL West and 2.5 back in the Wild Card. With the rest of August and September being the last two months of the regular season, the Colorado Rockies are really going to have to go after winning the division in order to contend. Them getting a Wild Card spot is no longer an option. 

Before the series against the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies were coming off a 4-game winning streak and moved up to 2nd place in the NL West while the Los Angeles Dodgers fell to 3rd. This was a move that was needed to boost the Rockies further towards contending. However, after hitting a snag while playing the Cardinals and Brewers with many blaming the bullpen for the losses (as well as the offense), they are once again back to 3rd with the Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks being tied for 1st. 

Looking at the NL Wild Card, the Colorado Rockies are in 5th place with the 1st spot going to the Brewers, who are up by 1.5 games with the Atlanta Braves following in 2nd. Both of those teams are also playing in very close division races, but if they prove to not take 1st in their respective divisions, they’ll be the teams to get the Wild Card spots. This puts the Rockies in a bind when it comes to the WC. So where does it lead them? If they want to contend, the best chance they have is by winning the NL West pennant.

It’s not inconceivable for the Rockies to get back in first place as they had a small stint in June of holding the 1st place crown. However, the key question really will be how do they essentially get there and when that happens how do they stay on top?

In all honesty, the change is most clearly starts with the bullpen. If they can’t get their stuff together and hold off an opposing offense, the Rox won’t be a competitive team but with guys like Scott Oberg and Adam Ottavino having dominant outings, it shows that there is hope for the Rockies bullpen.

Although we want to point fingers at the players, we also have to look at the decisions manager Bud Black is making during critical situations. It’s quite obvious we’re all confused as to why Black would give the nod to Wade Davis after letting the Cards walk-off and then to only have the Brewers do the same thing when he was back on the mound in the 9th.

Pitching is, of course, not the only aspect Black has to manage. The decision to have their 7th batter in the lineup bunt was a bit questionable to many during Saturday’s game. In other words, there have been many puzzling decisions that were made by Bud Black, but whichever decision he makes he’ll have to live with and answer for the consequences whether good or bad.