Colorado Rockies: Looking ahead to the 2019 rotation

Kyle Freeland

Freeland had arguably the greatest season for a starting pitcher in franchise history. The Denver native, in his second professional season, took a huge step forward by breaking Ubaldo Jimenez‘s ERA record with a 2.85 ERA and tied for second for most wins in a season with 17. In 2019, the Rockies will hope that Freeland builds off his success and takes an even bigger step by joining the likes of Kershaw, Scherzer, deGrom, and Nola as the elite pitchers of the National League.

German Marquez

A new Rockies’ strikeout king was crowned in 2018. Marquez surpassed Pedro Astacio and his 210 strikeouts by throwing 230 of his own. Marquez, much like the rest of the rotation, needs to learn how to get out of the first inning (Rockies had a Major League-worst 7.23 ERA). However, when he is on, he can be the most dominant pitcher on the roster.

Tyler Anderson

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Anderson had an up and down season and the Rockies will be looking for more consistency from him in 2019. If you remove the months of May and August from his stats, Anderson was 5-4 with 3.19 ERA and 13 quality starts in 22 games.

Unfortunately, in the other two months he was 2-5 with an atrocious 7.87 ERA in 10 starts. He has to maintain his good mechanics throughout the year to avoid these bad stretches.

Antonio Senzatela

Senzatela was excellent down the stretch after spending the first half of the season in the bullpen and in the minors. The big question surrounding Senzatela is can he give the Rockies 30+ starts over an entire season. He only started 13 games in his 23 appearances this season after starting 20 the year before. His stuff projects better out of the ‘pen but he has shown to be a valuable piece of the rotation when called upon.