How the Colorado Rockies would actually perform in a season at a neutral site

Raimel Tapia of the Colorado Rockies — PHOENIX, ARIZONA – AUGUST 21: Raimel Tapia #15 of the Colorado Rockies singles in the first inning of the MLB game against the Arizona Diamondbacks at Chase Field on August 21, 2019 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Jennifer Stewart/Getty Images)

In the past 10 years, there’s one thing I’ve learned about the Rockies: They love starting the season against the Brewers. Is it a contractual obligation that we didn’t know about? I assume so.

Of the nine seasons that have opened up on the road (2011 started at home), four of them started at Miller Park. Lucky for me and this article, Miller Park has a fairly neutral Park Factor (101 per Fangraphs). Below are the opponents the Rockies played in each respective season and how many games it was prior to their home opener at Coors:

2010: Milwaukee Brewers, 3 games
2011: Started the season at home vs the D’Backs
2012: Houston Astros, 3 games
2013: Milwaukee Brewers, 3 games
2014: Miami Marlins, 4 games
2015: Milwaukee Brewers, 3 games
2016: Arizona D’Backs, 3 games
2017: Milwaukee Brewers, 4 games
2018: Arizona D’Backs and San Diego Padres, 7 games
2019: Miami Marlins and Tampa Bay Rays, 7 games

In total, we have data from 37 games (the Brewers represent about a third of those games). That’s not the largest sample size, but if we go back further we run the risk of pulling data from a different era, therefore hindering the relevance of the results. However, this gets us a little over 1,400 plate appearances.

Schedule