Colorado Rockies: The final road trip of 2019 will be a tough one

As you know by now, the 2019 season has not been the season that Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado (or anybody else) thought it would be, especially after the Rockies extended him this past offseason. They head into the final road trip with a 66-87 record.

Today, the Colorado Rockies have an off day before they begin their final road trip of the 2019 season. They will go to Dodger Stadium for the final three regular season home games for the Dodgers this season and then, the Rockies will go to San Francisco for three games.

Particularly with the series in LA, the pitching matchups, at least on paper, look very daunting for the Rockies if the Dodgers stick to regular rest for their starters.

If they do, the Rockies will face Clayton Kershaw, Hyun-jin Ryu, and Walker Buehler. Each of them have have an ERA of 3.15 or below and a FIP of 3.80 or lower.

With how well they have played this year and in general in the past decade or so, going to LA to face the Dodgers is something that Nolan Arenado looks forward to.

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"“I think a weekend series in L.A. is always nice…,” said Arenado to the media, including Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry, after the Rockies 7-4 loss to the New York Mets, “because you get a little bit of blood flow [and] it gets exciting. You get pumped up to lay those games there so it’ll be nice to go there…”"

With the Rockies having a slew of injuries and it being September, they have a lot young players looking to get reps at the major league level in the next few weeks. Facing the Dodgers (and even the Giants, for that matter) can put them in a little bit more of a bigger spot to see some improvement.

When Arenado was asked on whether or not he would be looking at the team development and/or the young Rockies development while facing three of the best pitchers in the National League this weekend, plus likely facing Madison Bumgarner next week in San Francisco (slated for game two of the series), Nolan said that “…it’s always cool to see guys slow the game down at a young age.”

"“I had trouble doing that my rookie year,” said Arenado, “so to see them do a good job of that, I think it will pay huge dividends down the road.”"

While the Rockies are the point in the season where wins aren’t the most important thing, it will be interesting to see how the younger players perform on the road trip against one of the best teams in baseball.