Colorado Rockies: The opposing batters who hurt them the most in 2020
Even in a shortened season, there were plenty of players who had enough moments at the plate in 2020 to torment the Colorado Rockies multiple times.
Before the 2020 campaign began, our own Kevin Larson took a look at who were the Colorado Rockies killers of the past decade. It’s an impressive list of some of Colorado’s biggest pains over several years.
For this article, we’re going to look at the players who feasted on Rockies pitching in 2020. As a reminder, the most that any team faced the Rockies this season was 10 games, and those were the other four teams from the National League West. The other 20 contests were against teams from the American League West. Additionally, we looked at players who had 20 or more at-bats against Colorado in 2020.
Here’s a spoiler alert before going any further. The player who destroyed the Rockies more than any other at the plate in 2020 was Alex Dickerson of the San Francisco Giants.
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Remember that 23-5 demolition of the Rockies at the hands of the Giants at Coors Field at the start of September? Remember that Dickerson had three homers and six RBI in that game? Well, that was just part of the damage that the 30-year-old outfielder inflicted upon the Rockies this season.
In all, Dickerson went 18-for-43 at the plate against Colorado in 2020, logging a .462/.512/1.103 slash line. Of his 10 homers, he hit this season, six came at Colorado’s expense.
Think about this: Dickerson’s 18 hits in 43 plate appearances were more than he had in 51 plate appearances over 16 games against the American League West (12 hits and only one homer).
Oh, Dickerson’s wRC+ against Colorado this season? 318. Wow.
So who else hurt the Rockies in a big way at the plate in 2020? Let’s take a look.
So remember that eye-popping wRC+ that Alex Dickerson posted last season (318)? Well, his teammate, Brandon Belt, wasn’t too far behind.
Belt posted a 246 wRC+ as well as a .433/.514/.800 slash line with a 1.314 OPS. His hard-hit percentage of 65.2 was the highest of any batter that qualified for this article.
Another Giant, Joey Bart, came in second overall in that category at 64.7 percent. The rookie catcher would hit .348 with a 153 wRC+.
Let’s move down the coast and check in on a player who seems to fall on this list every year, and that’s San Diego’s Wil Myers. The 29-year-old Myers seems to have made a career on breaking Colorado’s collective heart and this year was no exception.
In 41 plate appearances, Myers hit an even .400 against the Rockies and put up a slash line of .400/.415/.825 and an OPS of 1.240. His 13 RBI against Colorado were the most of any player against the Rockies.
Death, taxes, and Wil Myers hurting the Rockies. These things you can always count on.
Mookie Betts made his first season in the National League making an impact for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He also joined many of his Los Angeles teammates in putting up big numbers against the Rockies.
No Dodger hit better against the Rockies in 2020 than Betts, who posted a .387/.441/.839 slash line and 236 wRC+ (fourth-highest of anyone against Colorado). His four homers tied for the second-most against the Rockies (along with teammate Corey Seager and Arizona’s Christian Walker) and his 12 runs scored were tied for the lead (along with Alex Dickerson).
Betts had 10 RBI against the Rockies but trailed Seager for the L.A. lead in that department as Seager posted 12 to go along with a .385/.419/.769 slash line.
Much like Joey Bart in San Francisco, Will Smith of the Dodgers was a young catcher who had a big year against Colorado. His 240 wRC+ was the third-highest against the Rockies, going 6-for-18 … and three of those six hits were homers.
Of course, we know just how bad the numbers were for Colorado pitching last season. That may play into some of these numbers. But still, as Wil Myers shows us, some players just have Colorado’s number, no matter the season.