Colorado Rockies: Is the 2020 lineup as empty as the offseason has been?

Ryan McMahon, again the most valuable hitter outside of The Quartet, led ALL of baseball in strikeout percentage in 2019 at 29.7 percent with Trevor Story joining him in the bottom 5 at 26.5 percent.

The “highest” ranked Rockie in 2018 per strikeout rate was Trevor Story at 5th worst in the league at 25.6 percent. In 2018, there were only 3 players above league average in strikeout percentage. In 2019 that total almost doubled to 5 players.

This all points to a lack of discipline, which lends itself to poor coaching/team pressing under high-expectations. Rockies manager Bud Black said that hitting coaches Dave Magadan and Jeff Salazar will be and have been working on fixing the discipline issue during spring training three weeks ago, as we discussed in this article.

This is why I believe Dick Monfort, Jeff Bridich, and company are banking on a bounce-back/leap forward season from half of the every-day lineup. The problem is, you are usually lucky to have 1 or 2 players regain previously lost form. On an entire roster, let alone a solitary lineup.

If you have not heard or read Dick Monfort’s reasoning behind his 94-win prediction, you should read it here.

As stated in that article, you cannot compare 2020 Rockies, to the 2009 Rockies, as the 2009 Rockies were extremely active with trades and value signings. In case you have been under a rock or hibernating, the 2020 Colorado Rockies have done bupkis. I will give you the positive that a Monfort said “Analytics Team” in a sentence without choking. There is absolutely no way anyone that knows 2+2=4 was on that “team.”