Colorado Rockies: “What if” the bullpen performed like 2018?

Anyone who has ever been around young children knows that they can be very inquisitive. The frequency of questions asked can almost be mind-numbing. As a father of a 6-year-old boy, I am no stranger to this. Most of his sentences begin with two words: “What if.”  That said, I’m going to take a cue from him and apply it to the Colorado Rockies.

It is no secret that the Colorado Rockies pitching has been horrible. They are last in the National League in team ERA giving up more than a run a game compared to last season. So the question is what if the Rockies’ pitching, specifically the bullpen, put up the same numbers as last season? Where would the Rockies be with 30-plus games left to play?

Not to say that last season’s bullpen was all that good. If it wasn’t for Adam Ottavino, Scott Oberg, a mediocre Wade Davis, and Seunghwan Oh, the bullpen was not very good. Their deficiencies were often masked by one of the franchise’s best rotations that went deep into ballgames and turned the ball over to these four.

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Last season, the bullpen converted 51 saves out of 78 games that were considered save opportunities for a 66 percent clip. Currently, the bullpen has converted 21 of 40 opportunities (51 percent). The difference between 51 and 66 percent equates to six victories.

Had the bullpen found a way to be serviceable and had preserved six more wins to this point, the Rockies would be right in the thick of it. With six more in the win column, they would sitting with a .500 record and only 4.5 games back of the Wild Card race.

We also can’t forget about the countless number of times the bullpen has entered with the game tied (i.e., Tuesday night’s loss to the Diamondbacks) or down by a run and they could not keep score where it was. That failure has cost the Rockies another handful of games.

The “what if” question for the Rockies can drive any fan crazy this season. The fact of the matter is this team is bad and it can all be traced back to horrible pitching. Jeff Bridich will have a lot of work to do this winter to address this problem.