Colorado Rockies: Why scoring will be up to start the season

With less time for pitchers to prepare, look for some high-scoring games involving the Colorado Rockies during the early part of the 2020 season.

If I were a gambling man (for the record, I am not. I learned my lesson a long time ago), there is one thing I would be betting on heavily, especially early on in this pandemic-shortened Major League Baseball season.

The Colorado Rockies open up their 60-game schedule at the Texas Rangers on Friday, July 24, and there is a good possibility that a bunch of crooked numbers will be put up on the scoreboard in that game and during the first few weeks of the season. For all those gamblers out there, take a hard look at the run totals and bet the overs. There is a good chance that a lot of runs will be scored this season. Check out some of the betting odds we have been seeing involving the Rockies and their offense.

Here’s why. Spring Training 2.0/Summer Camp started in early July, which means that players have had a little more than three weeks to get into playing shape. More specifically, pitchers have had only three weeks to get their arms up to speed.

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During a typical season, pitchers and catchers report to spring training in mid-February and get five-plus weeks and approximately 30 spring games to build up much-needed arm strength. I seriously doubt that they have been laying around doing nothing for the last few weeks, but a daily at-home workout likely can’t compare to what they would normally get in a team setting.

Another aspect of the game that could easily suffer from the abbreviated camp is defense. Just like pitchers need all of those spring games, position players need them to get in-game repetitions. Do not be surprised if we see some sloppy defense and a few more errors in the first few weeks leading to a few extra runs.

Even if you don’t have money on these games, don’t worry. That doesn’t mean Rockies fans won’t benefit. With elevated run totals, who could forget that every time the Rockies score seven or more runs in a game, we get taco’s!