3 weaknesses of the Colorado Rockies at the 25 percent mark

At (roughly) the 25 percent mark of the season, the Colorado Rockies are in last place in the NL West with a record of 20-23 entering play on Thursday. All four teams ahead of them have a record above .500, which is part of the reason why the NL West isn’t just the toughest division in baseball this year but one of (if not) the toughest divisions in the sport in recent memory.

Yesterday, we looked at three strengths of the team thus far and today, we will look at the opposite end: three weaknesses.

In essence, these are the three reasons why the Rockies have lost 13 out of their last 18 after they were 10-5 and 15-10 to start the season.

Here are three biggest weaknesses of the Colorado Rockies at the 25 percent mark.

1) The starting rotation of the Colorado Rockies has been a weakness and, in particular, Germán Márquez

Entering the season, the Colorado Rockies (as well as fans and people that follow the team closely) thought that the starting rotation was the main strength of the team. After all, it had been that way for a few years now.

The problem with the rotation was going to be if there was any injuries … and there have been. Antonio Senzatela (strained lower back) has been on the IL for 10 days now and he will require a few more days on the IL.

More concerning though is Germán Márquez. He is 1-4 with an ERA of 6.14 in eight starts. He has had some bad luck, as his 4.59 FIP suggests, but even with that, it’s the highest FIP of his career.

The reason why is that his WHIP is higher than any full season he has had in the majors. He’s allowing 11.9 H/9 (which is also the highest he’s had) and he’s averaging 8.0 K/9, which is tied for the lowest in a full season his career.

Kyle Freeland has a bit of a high ERA at 4.80 (101 ERA+) but his FIP (3.80) suggests that the ERA will keep dropping. Márquez has been, by far, the most concerning of the five main starters.

2) Inconsistent bullpen arms

We mentioned in the strengths of how Daniel Bard and Tyler Kinley have pitched well at the backend of the bullpen for the Colorado Rockies but most of the rest of the arms have not.

Ty Blach and Justin Lawrence both have ERA’s above 5.00. Jhoulys Chacín, Ashton Goudeau, and Carlos Estévez all have ERA’s between 6.00 and 7.00. Estévez is even more concerning because his FIP is even worse at 7.19. Lucas Gilbreath has an ERA over 8.00 (which is down from 20.25 entering May 14).

Overall, here is where Colorado’s bullpen ranks:

• 5.09 ERA (30th)
• 4.14 FIP (25th)
• 8.15 K/9 (25th)
• 4.16 BB/9 (27th)
• 63.5 percent of runners left on base (LOB %) (30th)
• 1.45 WHIP (28th)
• 0.7 fWAR (T-17th)

Some of the numbers (like FIP) suggest that they could be better but even 25th in the league is not going to cut it.

3) The defense

In 2021, the Colorado Rockies were one of the best defensive teams in baseball.

According to FanGraphs, here are the defensive stats that they had last year.

• 61 Defensive Runs Saved (DRS) (5th best)
• 43.0 UZR (1st)
• 14.4 Def (10th)

In 2022, it has been the exact opposite.

• -5 DRS (23rd)
• 1.9 UZR (12th)
• -8.1 Def (25th)

Losing Trevor Story and gaining José Iglesias was going to bring it down and the Rockies knew that they were going to downgrading a bit in defense to try to get some more offense (Kris Bryant, Randal Grichuk, etc.) But Ryan McMahon and Elias Díaz, in particular, have not been as sharp defensively.

3 strengths of the Colorado Rockies at the 25 percent mark of 2022

The Colorado Rockies strengths in 2022 include the bats of C.J. Cron, José Iglesias, and Yonathan Daza and the arms of Daniel Bard and Tyler Kinley.