Colorado Rockies podcast: Some of the good surprises of 2019

After back-to-back postseason appearances, the Colorado Rockies finished 20 games under .500 in 2019. There’s no getting around the simple fact that it was a disappointing season on a number of levels for a franchise that had such high expectations heading into the season.

While the overall season for the Colorado Rockies was far from what was expected, there were some high points of the campaign mixed in with the frustration and disappointment.

Take Tim Melville and Chi Chi Gonzalez, for example. On the negative side, you could say that, had the Rockies not had all five of the Opening Week starting pitchers land on the injured list this season, neither Melville nor Gonzalez might have played a prominent role in the 2019 season. On the positive side, you could point to how the duo came through for the Rockies when they were needed the most.

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In five September appearances (four of them being starts), Gonzalez went 2-0 with a 1.65 ERA while opponents hit just .167 against him. It was a rebound month for the 27-year-old right-hander who finished with a 2-6 overall mark and 5.29 ERA.

What turned things around for him? Part of it he credits to some words of encouragement from Ian Desmond after a brutal August outing. You can read what Gonzalez told us about that exchange in this article.

Melville, meanwhile, burst onto the scene for the Rockies in an emergency fill-in role on August 21 in Arizona and proceeded to throw seven innings of two-hit, one-run ball. He followed that up with five shutout innings at Coors Field against the Atlanta Braves. Not bad for a guy who was working in a barbecue restaurant when the 2019 season began.

Those were just two of the surprises of the 2019 season we talked about in our latest podcast, which you can hear by clicking here. On the podcast, we also discuss some of the moments that stood out from September, including the sweep of the postseason-bound Milwaukee Brewers that finished the season.

You can also hear the podcast by clicking on the play button at the bottom of this article.