Dodgers: An In-Depth Look at the Colorado Rockies

Question One – Can the Rockies’ rotation repeat its success from last year?

My thoughts: The Rockies rotation is young. But, with youth does not always come success and especially so when they have to pitch in the hardest pitching environment in the league. That being said, the Rockies do have a solid core of pitchers capable of having back to back successful years and that group is headlined by the often injured Jon Gray.

If Gray can stay healthy the Rockies have a pitcher in him that is capable of really giving the team a chance to win every five days. The problem for continued success will come from those pitchers after Gray. This group consists of German Marquez, Kyle Freeland, Tyler Anderson, and Chad Bettis.

That group of four could be an issue and the only reason I say this is because of how inconsistent they looked in spring training. If they can not pitch well in Arizona I can only wonder what will happen in Colorado.

Rox Pile:

Noah Yingling- I think that, if they are healthy, the Rockies starting staff will be able to replicate their success. In fact, I think that they could even be better than they were last season. I think that the main issues will be innings limitations and health. Last year, Jon Gray was injured for much of the first three months of the season. He was pretty after his return on June 30 (10-4 record, 3.58 ERA, 98 innings, 23 walks, 103 strikeouts) and he was dominant from July 19 through the rest of the regular season (14 starts, 8-3, 2.88 ERA, 84 1/3 IP, 18 BB, 87 K, .248/.291/.375 opponent slash line). Tyler Anderson only made two appearances, on June 22 and 25, between May 30 and September 11, so health is key for him as well.

The two starters that I will be interested to see develop are Antonio Senzatela and Kyle Freeland. For Senzatela, he will almost definitely start the season in the bullpen or in Triple-A. However, the Rockies have to decide whether or not they actually want him to be a starter or if they want him to be a reliever. He did both last season and he was actually better as a reliever. If had the choice, I would make him a reliever. Outside of Jon Gray, he has the best fastball any of the players vying for a spot and I think that would work well in the bullpen. He doesn’t strike out a ton (6.6 per nine in his career) but in relief last year, he nearly struck out a batter per inning.

For Freeland, I’m interested to see how he will be because of the sheer volume of innings that he will pitch in the rotation. Last season, he pitched 156 innings for the Rockies. He pitched 162 innings between Double-A Hartford and Triple-A Albuquerque. Prior to 2016, though, his career high in innings was 46 2/3 in 2015. I think that if he can avoid injury and give the Rockies 175 or more innings, he will even be better than he was last season.