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Colorado Rockies: The effect of and fixes for the “Coors Field hangover”

By Nathaniel Sunshine

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 09: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies argues with home plate umpire Ben May #97 after he struck out in the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants during the Giants home opener at Oracle Park on April 09, 2021 in San Francisco, California. May ejected Blackmon from the game. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - APRIL 09: Charlie Blackmon #19 of the Colorado Rockies argues with home plate umpire Ben May #97 after he struck out in the seventh inning against the San Francisco Giants during the Giants home opener at Oracle Park on April 09, 2021 in San Francisco, California. May ejected Blackmon from the game. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images) /
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Apr 13, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder AJ Pollock (11) reaches first base safely before the throw to Colorado Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron (25) on a single during the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Apr 13, 2021; Los Angeles, California, USA; Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder AJ Pollock (11) reaches first base safely before the throw to Colorado Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron (25) on a single during the fifth inning at Dodger Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /

Now before I make some suggestions on how to fix this issue (I am sure you already have a few in mind), I want to do some housekeeping.

First, the Rockies are in a very tough division. The past few years have seen all teams in the division shine a little brighter along with the ever-bright Dodgers. A lot of these eliminated sea games have been games against the Dodgers. But any Rockies fan will tell you that the worst parks for the Rockies to play at have always been in San Francisco and Miami. I also want to point out that only 2017 seemed to break the trend I am setting when the Rockies went .500 for both Coors-to-sea and Coors-to-mid-elevation games.

Another thing that I want to point out is that I believe that the Rockies’ performance in these games is because of the trip from Coors Field. In my research, I performed game splits, looking at each game in the individual series. The pitching usually remains bad throughout the entire series, but the batting improves as the team spends time at sea level (10-23, 3.48 RF, 5.45 RA in first sea-level games). Compare this to going from middle-elevation starts and you see that batting and pitching start off well, but then both taper off as the series goes on (10-9, 4.68 RS, 3.58 RA).

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There is one important caveat to all of this. I researched what the numbers looked like for the reverse situations, when the Rockies returned home from sea and middle-elevation parks.

The results are quite interesting. The Colorado Rockies are superb when coming back from sea level to Coors Field. The pitching isn’t great, but the team has accrued a record of 61-41, 6.28 RS, and 5.15 RA in returning series from the sea. That is better than the 37-30, 5.55 RF, 5.98 RA line from the middle elevation returning series. The reason the Rockies come back stronger from lower elevations is that they have their eyes more trained on the ball and they can predict movement better. They can capitalize on the advantage of their own ballpark because they have better trained for the game at sea level. I am going to take that into account when constructing my fix for the schedule.

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