5 reasons why the Colorado Rockies will not be a playoff contender

The Colorado Rockies have to learn to play decently on the road

The Colorado Rockies went 48-33 at home but they went an awful 26-54 on the road. It’s hard to believe that they will be that bad in 2022 but in 2019, they won 28 games on the road (aka not much better).

And it wasn’t just the pitching or hitting: it was nearly everyone.

The only Rockies hitter that was better on the road was Brendan Rodgers. His tOPS+ was 117 on the road, meaning that he hit 17 percent better on the road. No other Rockies hitter with at least 100 road plate appearances had a tOPS+ higher than 90.

Garrett Hampson, C.J. Cron, Yonathan Daza, and Raimel Tapia all had a tOPS+ between 60 and 70, meaning that they were 30-40 percent worse on the road with their bat. For Cron (65 tOPS+ on the road), he was still their second-best road hitter by OPS behind Rodgers.

For the starters returning to the team in 2022, the only one who had an ERA below 5.00 on the road was (oddly enough) the Colorado native: Kyle Freeland. Márquez, Senzatela, and Gomber had road ERA’s of 5.38, 5.05, and 6.32.

Freeland struggled at home (4.83 ERA) but the other three all had ERA’s of 3.97 or lower at Coors Field.

Overall, the only Rockies pitchers returning to the team in 2022 that were better on the road by tOPS+ were Freeland, Robert Stephenson, Carlos Estévez, Tyler Kinley, and Ben Bowden. Bowden struggled both at home and on the road, though (6.00+ ERA for both).

In other words, when you have five players who play well on the road when you have 26 players, you aren’t going to be a good team.