Colorado Rockies: Three numbers to know from the first third of the season

As the calendar turns to June today, the Colorado Rockies have played 54 games in the 2021 season, meaning that they have played one-third of their games for the 2021 season.

As they enter June and the second-third of the season on Tuesday when they face the Texas Rangers at Coors Field, there are three numbers that you should know about the Rockies in the first third of their season.

74

74 is the number that is the Rockies wRC+. wRC+ (weighted Runs Created Plus) is one stat that compares a team (or a player’s) offensive game (on-base percentage and slugging percentage) in relation to the rest of the league with adjustments for external factors like ballparks played in.

100 is league average and above is better than league average. So, the Rockies team wRC+ of 74 is 26 percent below league average. That is dead last in all of baseball.

OPS+ is a stat that measures the same thing and they have the Rockies being slightly better with an 80 OPS+. However, that, again, is dead last in all of baseball.

You may think that the Rockies offense has been better at home. You would be correct but the Rockies still only have a 88 wRC+ at Coors Field. In comparison to the other 29 teams and their offense at home, the Rockies are still 25th in baseball.

The Rockies team wRC+ on the road is an awful 58, or 42 percent below league average. That is, by far, the worst in the major leagues. The next worst team, the Pittsburgh Pirates, has a road wRC+ of 72. Only one other team besides Pittsburgh is below 80.

So, in basic terms, the Rockies have had the worst offense in baseball by a large margin.

More from Rox Pile

• A Colorado Rockies Thanksgiving
• Colorado Rockies: What if Todd Helton had played football instead?
• Colorado Rockies: Charlie Blackmon out for the season
• Colorado Rockies: Injuries shift look of roster ahead of Dodgers series
• Colorado Rockies: Has Sean Bouchard earned a second look in 2023?

.259

2021 is the Rockies 29th season as a MLB franchise and in their entire franchise history, they have only had one season in which no qualifying batters hit .300 or above.

That was 2018 but the Rockies had three players (Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, and Charlie Blackmon) all hit over .290, with Arenado leading the way at .297.

The Rockies, per MLB.com, only have five qualifiers for the batting title entering Tuesday and Raimel Tapia and Ryan McMahon are tied for the lead of those five with a .259 average.

Yonathan Daza and C.J. Cron are both close to qualifying and they would surpass both Tapia and McMahon with their batting averages (.316 and .274) but the Rockies, if the season were to end today, would not have a qualifying batter that would be hitting .300 or even close to .300 for the first time in franchise history.

107

Much like wRC+, ERA- does the same for pitchers (ERA+ is Baseball-Reference’s version of the stat).

But with this stat being ERA-, 100 is league average and a higher number is below league average with a lower number being above league average.

The Rockies pitching staff has an ERA- of 107, or seven percent below league average. That is tied for 20th in baseball.

For the Rockies starting pitchers, they have an ERA- of 98, which is two percent better than league average, which is 13th in baseball. Not surprisingly, it’s the Rockies bullpen that is dropping the ball, as they have an ERA- of 121, which is 27th in baseball.

The Rockies will take on the Texas Rangers at 6:40 PM M.T. in the first of a three-game series and the first of a six-game homestand when Germán Márquez toes the slab for the Rockies against Dane Dunning as Márquez looks to build upon his last two starts, in which he has allowed one run in 13 innings.