(USA Today Sports)
The Rockies started spring training few weeks ago, and there is more indifference than anticipation from the public. That’s what happens when a team continues to have losing seasons year in and year out. This year won’t be any different.
The Rockies did not do much to improve this offseason. Signing Justin Morneau, Boone Logan and Latroy Hawkins and acquiring Brett Anderson and Jordan Lyles is not going to get anyone excited.
There are many questions about the Rockies. Can the starting rotation duplicate last year’s success? Is the bullpen any better? Can Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki be healthy?
Jorge De La Rosa should be good enough for 15 wins. He has done enough in the majors to earn trust from the Rockies. The rest of the rotation has questions to answer.
Tyler Chatwood had a breakthrough season last year by allowing two or fewer runs in 16 of those 20 games he started, and he was two wins short of 10 wins. He threw 111 1/3 innings last season with an impeccable control. Now, he has to sustain this after being plagued with inconsistency in his Major League career. That remains to be seen, so there will be questions about him.
Jhoulys Chacin bounced back after struggling in the first two months of the season by going 14-10 with a 3.47 ERA and 1.26 WHIP. He has been inconsistent, and he can be a headcase by thinking too much when he is pitching. He figured everything out in June. Now, he has to sustain his success. He has been mediocre in his career, so he has to take a step up.
Who knows what to expect out of Anderson? He has been plagued with injuries in his career. He’s a good pitcher when he’s healthy, though.
Juan Nicasio is nothing more than a .500 pitcher at best to the point the Rockies want to find someone better as a fourth starter. That’s why Jonathan Gray and Freddie Butler could be called up this summer. The Rockies feel their young phenoms could make a difference in their starting rotation, which is why they believe they can be a playoff team.
Gray and Butler have dominated in the minors to the point they are on the fast track to the majors this season. They have overpowered hitters, but doing it in the majors is another story.
Lyles is a question mark despite his potential.
The rotation had a good year, and that was the bright spot of the Rockies’ season. Sustaining success is something they have to do for the Rockies to have a good season.
The bullpen is a question mark. Rex Brothers should be good, but others leave a lot to be desired. Matt Belisle, Wilton Lopez, Adam Ottavino, Logan and Hawkins have to show they can be reliable.
The bullpen struggled last season as a result of Walt Weiss overworking the relievers in April. Lopez, Ottavino and Edgmer Escalona were done by June, and Belisle was finished in July and Brothers struggled in September. This can’t happen.
The Rockies praised themselves for saying how their plan works about not letting their starters throw past 99 pitches. The starters were effective, but the effect of their limited pitch count is their relievers were overworked to the point they were ineffective this summer.
There has to be a happy medium on how to use the starters and relievers. There is no reason to overwork the relievers if a starter can throw 105 pitches in the seventh inning and still be effective. Let that starter go for a complete game if he is up to it. It should be a good thing if the starters can go deep in games. It shows their mentality of going after it. It would save their bullpen.
If the Rockies want to contend in September, they need their relievers to be effective. For that to happen, their relievers can’t be overused in the first two months of the season. It remains to be seen if the Rockies front office gets it.
Tulowitzki and Gonzalez have to be healthy. No one is saying they should be playing 162 games, but they can’t be going on the disabled list during the course of the season. Those two are the Rockies’ best hitters, and it’s going to be hard for the Rockies to win games if they are out. A good example was last June when the Rockies shortstop was injured, and the team lost so many games in June after he was on the disabled list.
Count me as cynical when it comes to both being healthy all season. Those two are always injury-prone, especially Tulowitzki who is brittle when it comes to playing the game.
There is also Weiss as manager. He was underwhelming as a manager. He made so many dumb decisions when it comes to managing a ballgame. He did not know how to use his pitchers, and he often looked dead in the dugout. He does not strike me as a manager that knows what he is doing. It’s not like the team played for him late in the season.
Maybe Weiss learned so many baseball lessons from his rookie season. It remains to be seen.
Too many questions are never a good thing for a team to start the season. Basically, the Rockies’ success comes down to if variables.
The beauty of baseball is teams come out of nowhere to have success. No one knew the Pirates would be a playoff team last season, and no one knew the Orioles would be a playoff team two seasons ago. No one knew the Rockies would create Rocktober in 2007 when they won 13 of 14 games in September to help them make the playoffs. It’s possible this Rockies team can do the same.
Still, it will be a miracle if the Rockies surprise everyone being that everything rarely goes right for this starstruck franchise.
Contact or follow Leslie Monteiro at @LightRodWriter.
Leslie Monteiro
Leslie is a contributor for Lightning Rod Sports. He covered high school sports in Bergen County out in North Jersey, and has written op-ed columns on sports such as Bleacher Report and NY Sports Digest.
