Colorado Rockies vs. the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot newcomers

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MIAMI, FL – MAY 21: Pitcher Mark Buehrle #56 of the Miami Marlins pitches during a MLB game against the Colorado Rockies at Marlins Park on May 21, 2012 in Miami, Florida. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images) /

Now that the 2021 Baseball Hall of Fame ballot has been mailed out, let’s take a look at how the newcomers on the ballot fared against the Colorado Rockies.

Baseball Hall of Fame voters will have 11 new choices on this year’s ballot, including two players with ties to the Colorado Rockies. Michael Cuddyer and LaTroy Hawkins each spent time in Denver, with Cuddyer winning a National League batting title in 2013 with the Rockies (hitting .331) and Hawkins appearing in 143 games in three seasons with Colorado.

Those two players also had outings against the Rockies, and that’s part of what we will be looking at in this article. How did the 11 newcomers on the Hall of Fame ballot do when facing the Rockies?

Let’s start with Cuddyer, who only spent one season in the National League with a team that wasn’t the Rockies (the final season of his career, when he was with the New York Mets). Cuddyer totaled just 42 plate appearances in his career against Colorado, slashing just .211/.286/.316.

Hawkins, meanwhile, pitched in 31 games against Colorado, holding Rockies batters to a .229 average while sporting a 3.00 ERA. And, speaking of the Hall of Fame, he also made a memorable visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame while with the Rockies that was documented here.

What about the other nine without Rockies ties? Let’s look, starting with the Killer Bs on the list.

Mark Buehrle

Buehrle faced the Rockies just three times in his 16-year career with the Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, and Miami Marlins, going 2-0 with a 3.66 ERA over 19.2 innings pitched.

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One of those outings certainly proved memorable as Buehrle pitched 7.2 innings in a 7-4 win over the Rockies in Miami on May 21, 2012. After allowing four runs and four hits in the first inning, the five-time All-Star allowed just one hit the rest of the night.

He got some help from Giancarlo Stanton, who hit a grand slam off Rockies pitcher Jamie Moyer as part of a five-run fourth inning.

A.J. Burnett

Another player with ties to the Marlins, Burnett saw action in 17 MLB seasons, including seven in south Florida.

The right-hander went 4-4 with a 3.18 ERA against the Rockies and threw two complete games, including an August 2013 eight-hit effort in Pittsburgh during one of Burnett’s three seasons with the Pirates. Burnett’s very next outing came against the Rockies in Denver and he was dominant through the game’s first five innings, allowing just one run. However, Cuddyer used some aggressive base-running to set the Rockies up for a five-run sixth, chasing Burnett and eventually giving Colorado a 6-4 win.

DENVER, CO – SEPTEMBER 3: Tim Hudson #17 of the San Francisco Giants pitches against the Colorado Rockies in the fifth inning of a game at Coors Field on September 3, 2015 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Dustin Bradford/Getty Images) /

Dan Haren

The Rockies saw plenty of Haren during his 13-year career, including three seasons with the Diamondbacks. The right-hander started 20 games against Colorado, and finished with a 7-10 mark and 5.09 ERA over 120.1 innings.

Haren certainly had his struggles when he pitched in Denver, giving up 19 home runs in 11 LoDo starts. In 68 innings in Denver, he surrendered 82 hits.

Tim Hudson

Torii Hunter

Hunter played all 19 seasons of his MLB career in the American League, but he still played 14 games against the Rockies. In 61 plate appearances, he slashed .286/.328/.482 with three homers and 13 RBI.

When Hunter had the chance to play in Denver, he feasted, going 9-for-15 with three homers and nine RBI. That equates to a .600/.625/1.200 slash line and eye-popping 1.825 OPS.

Aramis Ramirez

The slugging third baseman played all 18 of his MLB seasons in the National League, so there were plenty of opportunities for Ramirez to face Rockies pitching.

In 85 games against Colorado, Ramirez belted 20 homers, part of a .305/.360/.581 slash line and .941 OPS against Rockies pitchers.

That includes a three-run shot in Pittsburgh against Rockies starter Chris Rusin in August of 2015.

Nick Swisher

With just 46 of his 1,527 career games coming in the National League (as a member of the Atlanta Braves in the final stop of his five-team, 12-year career), Swisher totaled just 43 plate appearances against Colorado. He went 6-for-32 against the Rockies, but three of his six hits were home runs.

Shane Victorino

While the Rockies didn’t see much of Swisher, they saw plenty of Victorino in the regular season and postseason as well.

During his eight years in Philadelphia, Victorino was a member of the Phillies team that lost to Colorado in the 2007 NLDS and gained revenge on the Rockies by knocking them out of the postseason in the 2009 NLDS.

The outfielder was a thorn in Colorado’s side in the 2009 postseason, going 6-for-17. He was 2-for-5 in Game 4 of the 2009 NLDS and scored one of the runs that knotted the game on Ryan Howard’s ninth-inning double before Jayson Werth knocked Howard home for what would be the winning and series-clinching run.

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Barry Zito

Zito pitched for 15 big league seasons, including seven as a member of the San Francisco Giants. In 25 games against the Rockies (23 starts), the southpaw logged an 8-5 mark and 3.20 ERA.

While Zito was 3-4 with a 4.39 ERA in 67.2 innings at Coors Field, he was masterful in his first start of the 2012 season, throwing a four-hit complete game at 20th and Blake as the Giants recorded the 7-0 win over Colorado. Zito struck out four and didn’t walk a batter, needing just 114 pitches to finish the shutout, his first in almost nine years.

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