Rockies unsurprisingly lose staff ace to injury

The Rockies pitching has been rather surprising this year. it was expected to be the worst rotation in all of baseball, and it wasn't really expected to be all that close. With two major injuries keeping German Marquez and Antonio Senzatela out for the year, the rotation would lean on the hometown kid, Kyle Freeland, as the staff ace. Match that with the veterans in Cal Quantrill and Dakota Hudson and the young, unproven arms of Austin Gomber and Ryan Feltner and that shouldn't inspire a lot of confidence.

The Rockies recent road trip was a tough one. They dealt with an offense that decided to stay at home, and while the pitching was solid, it wasn't good enough to carry the team. Not to mention, there were multiple players that ended up catching the flu bug, causing the team to play pretty short. The flu and the Kris Bryant injury put a lot of players in a bad position; one of those players was Kyle Freeland who had to pinch run and looked like he suffered a significant injury, but apparently, that is not why he is hitting the injured list.

Kyle Freeland, in an interview, made the bold choice to blame the new pitch clock as a big reason for pitcher injuries. He stated that pitchers having to give 100% every 15 or 18 seconds and that is really tough on the body, especially doing so in Colorado. He cited the injuries to Spencer Strider and Shane Bieber, also stating that the pitch clock just isn't easy on the body or arm.

Freeland said that the injury is unrelated to pinch running (which makes sense because on the slide, he hurt his non-throwing arm, this is to his left elbow). He also stated that he felt it in his last start out, but it didn't get better.

This is very unfortunate news for Rockies fans who will need players like Quantrill and Ryan Feltner to step up even more. The extent of Freeland's injury isn't yet know, but Patrick Lyons of Just Baseball stated that Bud Black thinks it could be anywhere from a month to six weeks. Hopefully at that time the Rockies can receive some good news unlike the number of pitchers this year that have been dealt season ending news.

The Rockies called up Noah Davis who should move to a long relief role, while righty, Peter Lambert, should slide into the rotation. Lambert has done well this year and will look to prove he can stick with this rotation long term.

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