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Colorado Rockies: How often do opposing pitchers get hits off Rockies pitching?

By Noah Yingling

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 25: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets hits a single in the fourth inning as Dom Nunez #3 of the Colorado Rockies defends at Citi Field on May 25, 2021 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.deGrom reached second but was called out after the Colorado Rockies challenged the play. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - MAY 25: Jacob deGrom #48 of the New York Mets hits a single in the fourth inning as Dom Nunez #3 of the Colorado Rockies defends at Citi Field on May 25, 2021 in the Flushing neighborhood of the Queens borough of New York City.deGrom reached second but was called out after the Colorado Rockies challenged the play. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) /
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The Colorado Rockies, seemingly, always allow hits to opposing pitchers.

There’s a reason why we post this frequently on Twitter and other people have noticed too.

On Baseball-Reference, they have tons of splits for batters but there’s one problem: They just list stats by position in the lineup and this includes pinch-hitters. For example, on Tuesday, for the San Diego Padres, outfielder Wil Myers started out the game on the bench but pinch-hit and hit in the 9th spot in the lineup, where a pitcher usually is.

This past Saturday in Cincinnati, Rockies infielder Ryan McMahon started out the game on the bench as well but he made a pinch-hitting appearance … in the 9th spot.

So we went through all 68 of the box scores to determine what opposing pitchers are hitting against the Rockies.

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And for the record, this includes starting pitchers and relief pitchers. The Rockies haven’t faced any position players that were pitching before their plate appearance this year but they have faced position players that became pitchers later in the game so they do not count. But if a pitcher was used as a pinch-hitter or if a pitcher hit in any spot in the lineup (9th or otherwise), they were counted.

Opposing pitchers hit well against Colorado Rockies pitchers, in comparison

Entering Wednesday (68 games), opposing pitchers have gone 19-for-117 against Rockies pitching with 17 singles, a double, a home run, seven walks, and one hit batsmen.

That means opposing pitchers are hitting .162 with an on-base percentage of .216. That’s not particularly glowing (whispers: which is why the DH needs to and will be coming to the NL full-time very soon) but for pitchers, those are very good numbers.

For comparison, of the 15 National League teams entering Tuesday, only one team’s pitchers have a higher batting average (the Atlanta Braves with a .176 batting average). The Mets pitchers lead the NL in on-base percentage at .194, 22 points lower than pitcher’s OBP against the Rockies and only the Braves have a higher slugging percentage (.275) than opposing pitchers do against Rockies pitching (.197).

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It may not be as high of a number as some of you expected (and, frankly, as much as we expected) but the Rockies do, in comparison, give up a lot of hits and a lot of walks (seven, in fact) to opposing pitchers, which, as Rockies manager Bud Black likes to say, is “ill-advised.”

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