Recapping one of the worst starts in sports history

Cy Young, MVP, Silver Slugger, and of course the Coors Crown. These are some of the most prodigious and coveted honors in baseball. But it’s not all sunshine and snowy mountaintops in Colorado, as the worst performer of each series must don the title of Rockiest Rocky. After one month of the season, it’s time to check in on the winners of the crown and determine which Rockies have led their team into battle every series and which Rockies might as well have stayed home. 

The Two-Time Kings of Coors

Ryan McMahon

Our first and most obvious honoree is Ryan McMahon. McMahon was a two-time winner of the award and overall best player on the Rockies this year. McMahon won the first crown of the year batting .429 in the season opening series with three multi-hit games. He followed that up in the home opener against the Rays, propelling the Rockies to victory on the strength of his walk off home run, setting a tone for what has the early makings of a breakout season. As a result of that walk off shot and another strong series, McMahon brought home his second crown of the young season. McMahon’s hot start propelled him into a great start to his 2024 season, and entered Friday with a .316 batting average, four home runs and an .898 OPS. 

Cal Quantrill

Quantrill’s performance has been up and down and definitely not as sexy as McMahon’s, but he too has landed himself two crowns to tie Mac for the team lead. Quantrill received his crowns in back-to-back weeks, twirling six innings of one-run ball against the Phillies before following it up with six scoreless against the Mariners. Quantrill’s latter start came in a dire situation with Rockies mired in a losing streak in need of a competitive start.

Quantrill delivered, providing a stopper-esque performance and giving the Rockies a chance to break the losing streak in extras. Although he’s had a mixed bag of results thus far, Quantrill has been a solid addition to a shaky pitching staff. Through his first starts of the year, Quantrill holds a 5.34 ERA with 17 strikeouts while giving the Rox 32 much-needed innings. 

It’s Not Always Smooth Skiing with These Players

Justin Lawrence

The first couple weeks of the season were about as bad as it could get for Justin Lawrence. The sidewinder has nasty stuff with the ability to throw high 90s from his funky arm slot with a banger of a slider. Yet, command can often evade Lawrence, as walks and hittable pitches seem to hinder him at times. This reared its ugly head on Lawrence against the Rays when he was first dubbed the Rockiest Rocky after relinquishing four runs and the lead in the Rockies home opener.

Fortunately, we all know that story ended with McMahon’s grand slam, but it's still a difficult outing to overlook. Lawrence received the dubious award the very next series, giving up two runs and taking the loss after being unable to get the Rockies to the bottom of the ninth with a tied score. Lawrence has since started to get back on track, but for a pitcher who was supposed to be a shutdown closer this season it has been a tough start. Lawrence sits with a 6.00 ERA and two saves entering the Pirates series. 

Kyle Freeland

Freeland joins Lawrence in a tie for the Rockiest Rocky lead with his painful start to the season. Between some blow up starts, getting hurt pinch-running, and ultimately going on the shelf if an elbow injury, 2024 has not been kind to Kyle. Freeland was named Rockiest Rocky in the first series of the year. Freeland was given the ball on opening day and promptly imploded, giving up 10 runs and failing to even get to the third inning.

Freeland followed up this performance with seven runs in 3.1 innings, an improvement from his first start but still not enough to avoid the Rockiest Rocky title for the second series in a row. Freeland’s performance was so bad to start the year that he somehow managed to keep Kris Bryant from getting the title, which should tell you all you need to know. Leading up to his injury, Freeland was sitting with a 13.21 ERA and a 2.55 WHIP in his first four starts. I expect things to be better for Kyle when he returns from the Injured List, but his first month of the season was less than optimal.