Colorado Rockies: You should have seen (at least some of) this coming

The Colorado Rockies lost, yet again, on Thursday. This time it was a 1-0 loss to the San Francisco Giants, meaning that the Rockies have lost 10 of their last 11 games. It also means that the Rockies are off to their worst start since the 2005 season, in which they ended up going 67-95. Given that the Rockies have made the postseason in the past two years, some people are shocked by the Rockies being so bad thus far. However, you should have seen at least some of this coming.

The Colorado Rockies have had a very rough start to their 2019 season. There is no doubt that some of the reason that they are struggling is that they’ve been hampered with injuries, including injuries to David Dahl, Daniel Murphy, Ryan McMahon, Tyler Anderson, Antonio Senzatela, Chris Rusin, and Jake McGee in the beginning of the season or late spring training.

The problem is that the Rockies don’t have much depth in the minor leagues. Hence, why two players (Josh Fuentes and Yonathan Daza) had to have their major league service clocks started so early.

This is also not the only problem.

The Rockies offense and pitching staff have been awful.

With being shutout on Thursday, they have not have held a lead in 54 innings, their longest streak of not having a lead since they went 59 innings from May 10-17 in 2008.

Pitching

You are probably more surprised at how bad the Rockies pitching has been. In this span of losing 10 out of their last 11 (and the one win was a 1-0 win), the Rockies pitching has been atrocious.

In that span, they are pitching to a 5.81 ERA. The other concerning number is that they are allowing 4.5 walks per nine innings.

The top of the rotation has not been all bad as of the top three starters (Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, Jon Gray), they have only had two to three bad starts.

They are, arguably, these three starts.

1. Freeland: April 2 v. Tampa Bay (4 2/3 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 BB, 10 K) (this is a debatable one because it’s decent numbers besides the walks and innings)
2. Gray: April 6 v. Dodgers (6 IP, 8 H, 5 R/ER, 2 BB, 4 K)
3. Freeland: April 8 v. Atlanta (5 IP, 7 H, 7 R/ER, 4 BB, 3 K)

Each Freeland, Marquez, and Gray have made three starts thus far so, arguably, a third of their starts have been subpar. The main problem for Gray, as you probably know by now, is that he allows home runs … a lot. In fact, on Thursday, he extended his streak (the longest streak in Rockies history) of 15 consecutive games (dating back to July 31, 2018) of allowing at least one home run.

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However, Tyler Anderson and Chad Bettis are dragging down the rotation, and you could see it coming a mile away.

Tyler Anderson is on the disabled list now with knee issues. Apparently, he was playing through the knee injury that he sustained in spring training (never a smart idea to play through injuries). He pitched to an ERA of 11 in two starts (nine innings).

Chad Bettis has been bad all around bad and he hasn’t seen the results that the Rockies want in a very long time. This year, he has pitched to a 11.88 ERA in 2 starts this year (8 1/3 IP, 14 H, 12 R, 11 ER, 6 BB, 5 K).

The last time he gave the Rockies a “quality start” was on August 12, 2018. In 20 starts last season, only seven were “quality starts” so he’s not a consistent starter for the Rockies. Once Antonio Senzatela returns from the IL, I suspect that Bettis’ time in rotation will be over.

Bullpen

The Rockies bullpen is pitching to a 4.01 ERA, which is 13th in baseball so they are pitching better than they were last season. However, DJ Johnson, Carlos Estevez, and Mike Dunn have all struggled in their appearances as they each have ERAs of 4.91 or higher.

Last year’s goat, Bryan Shaw, has been a saving grace for the Rockies bullpen thus far as he has an ERA of 1.17. However, his walk rate of 4.7 per nine innings thus far could come back to haunt him if it continues.

The bullpen has really been the least concerning thing for the Rockies thus far. Part of it is because the bullpen, lately, has been coming in when the Rockies are already well behind but it has been ok to start the season.

Final Thoughts

There’s no question that the Rockies offense will get better over time and the rotation will start to pitch better.

However, don’t be surprised to see some regression in the rotation and the offense struggle throughout the season because the Rockies do not have the depth that they should regardless of injuries.