Colorado Rockies: The good pitching stats from 2020

The Colorado Rockies had a poor pitching staff in 2020 but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have some areas that they did well.

One of the biggest reasons that the Colorado Rockies did not make the playoffs was their pitching, particularly their bullpen.

Yesterday, Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry went through some of the stats they did very poorly in, including nine stats in which the Rockies were last, tied for last, or second-to-last in the National League).

However, there are some pitching stats in which the Rockies did well.

• 7th in all of baseball in ground-ball percentage: 44.5 percent
• T-2nd in the NL in saves: 16
• 1st in the NL in double plays induced: 66 (the Marlins were second with 55)

The Rockies were not, and have not, been a pitching staff that gets a lot of strikeouts as that was one of the stats that they were last in the National League in, but they rely more on grounders, which obviously induce well more than their fair share of double plays.

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Individually, the Rockies had some pitchers that led or were close to the top of the National League.

German Marquez led the NL in innings pitched (81 2/3 IP) and Antonio Senzatela was 5th (73 1/3 IP). Marquez was also 7th among NL pitchers in fWAR. Marquez and Senzatela had some other numbers that were pretty good, particularly for pitching at altitude, but ranked outside of the individual bests in the NL.

• Marquez: 3.75 ERA, 3.28 FIP, 140 ERA+, 2.92 K-to-BB ratio, 0.7 HR/9 IP
• Senzatela: 3.44 ERA, 153 ERA+, 2.2 BB/9

The Rockies bullpen had two individual relievers that did well as well.

• Daniel Bard: 3.65 ERA, team-leading six saves, 3.64 FIP, 145 ERA+, 0.7 HR/9 IP, 9.9 K/9 IP
• Yency Almonte: 2.93 ERA, 3.44 FIP, 181 ERA+, 1.12 WHIP, 0.7 HR/9 IP, 3.83 K-to-BB ratio

They also had one reliever that seemed to be a bit of a victim of bad luck.

• Tyler Kinley, 5.32 ERA, 100 ERA+, 3.99 FIP, 1.056 WHIP (team-low, minimum 4 IP), 4.9 H/9 IP, 0.8 HR/9 IP, 9.9 K/9 IP.

The Rockies will have plenty of things to address, particularly with the pitching staff, this offseason but they look like they have a steady foundation. Now, they need to find some more pitchers to help the foundation and build around them as well.