After hanging around the top of the standings in the NL West for the longest time, the team has hit some rough times recently. Hopes were riding high that after the hot start, they could find someway to win the west for the first time in club history and make the postseason. But going off just what was recently observed with what this team was working with coming into this season, there had to be realistic goal(s).
The main goal for this team was to just improve from last season. Easier said than done right, YES Last season, the Rox had an atrocious pitching staff. Worst ERA (5.22), BAA(.290) .OBP(.357) and the least amount of quality starts at 27, the next worst was 73. The club stuck with young and/or pitchers in Jhoulys Chacin, Juan Nicasio and Tyler Chatwood. The three pitchers were a combined 10-14 and a ERA just north of five.
Thus far, the trio has done much better. Chacin is 9-4, given the team 18 QS and has dropped his ERA by almost a full point. Chatwood, after being sent down to the minors came back up early in the 2013 season and has made significant improvements, the biggest being his ERA dropping from 5.28 to 2.58. Lastly is Nicasio, although he threw a gem against the resurgent LA Dodgers, going 7 innings deep and holding the Dodgers scoreless, he still still boasts a 4.89 ERA and 1.39 WHIP.
The top of this resurgent staff though is one that was absent last season is Jorge De La Rosa. He suffered a torn ligament in his elbow late in 2011 causing him to have Tommy John surgery and sit out most of the 2012 season. This season, De La Rosa is posting some of his best numbers of his career and flashing the talent he was showing before he got injured in 2011.
The offense has been inconsistent, and that is due in part to a ever changing lineup. This is a result of injuries early and often to the team. This team is powered through the bats of Dexter Fowler, Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Michael Cuddyer. They have only seen the lineup together at most for 64 games out of the 94 played thus far. Its no secret that this is a offense when healthy can be dangerous, they sit in the top ten in .AVG, Runs, .OBP and Slugging Percentage. Fowler had suffered a bone bruise and Gonzalez suffering upper back and finger injuries in late June while Tulowitzki was out roughly six weeks with a broken rib.
Going into the home stretch for the Rox will be to get some reinforcements for their starting rotation. The back end has been rough. Colorado signed Roy Oswalt to a minor league deal and brought him up in June. His first start had mixed results. Even though he struck out eleven, he gave up nine hits and 4 earned runs. Since then he's given up eleven runs with twelve strikeouts. His ERA is north of seven and has a goose egg in the win column. Nicasio still hasn't proven to be a solid back end of the rotation solution, and Oswalt hasn't picked up the slack from Jeff Francis. The team still lacks a true No.1 pitcher. The Rockies missed out on Ricky Nolasco due in part to not willing to pick up a portion or all of his contract from the Miami Marlins.
They are going to have to possibly shell out some cash and give up some prospects in hope of getting a top pitcher that is on the market. Given the way the organization runs, it may be tough for them to come up with enough cash to satisfy the needs of another team or player to make a trade happen. Most likely they will have to look for another back end rotational pitcher and hope to power their way through at the plate to win games.
No comments:
Post a Comment