Colorado Rockies: The new ZiPS projections, betting odds for the 2020 season

The shortened season may help the Colorado Rockies chances at the postseason.

Barring any extenuating circumstances like an outbreak of COVID-19 among players, the 2020 season will happen for the Colorado Rockies and Major League Baseball. With the season being shortened by 102 games, the chance that the Rockies make the postseason are much higher, especially when you look at what they did in their first 60 games in the last few years.

Dan Szymborski of FanGraphs looked at the numbers through his ZiPS projection system for a shortened season a few months ago but on Wednesday, he released his new projections for the 60-game season and his projections aren’t looking good for the Rockies.

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It projects that the Rockies will go 26-34, which would be 12 games behind the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West and five games back of getting into the expanded playoffs. The only two NL teams that are projected to have a worse record are the San Francisco Giants and Miami Marlins, with 25 and 24 wins.

Part of the reason why the number is so low for the Rockies is that they have the fifth-hardest schedule by the opponents that they will face and the second-hardest in the National League (only the Giants have a harder schedule). The ZiPS projection gives the Rockies a 12.9 percent chance at making the playoffs this year.

The betting odds at BetOnline is slightly more optimistic on the win total as they have the over/under number on the Rockies at 27.5 wins.

For the Rockies, though, in each of the last three seasons, they were 31-29 in their first 60 games in each of the last two seasons and, in 2017, they were 37-23. Based off of the ZiPs projections for 2020 and the expanded playoffs, that 31-29 record would put the Rockies right in the thick of the playoff hunt and, potentially, in a tie for a playoff spot.

With the way playoffs work in baseball, as long as you get there, any team could easily go to or even win the World Series. The 2019 Nationals were 19-31 in their first 50 games and won the World Series so, anything could happen.