One of the clubs that people are buzzing about in Spring Training this year is the Colorado Rockies. I’ve always liked the Rockies because their stadium is ridiculous, and they act like an expansion/newer team should, meaning that they have yet to actually win much of anything (unlike upstart clubs like the Diamondbacks, and especially those awful Marlins). For those of you with access to ESPN Insider, you can take a look at Peter Gammons’ blog post about those hot Rockies. Last year, Philly won their series against Colorado 4-3. Will we win again? Let’s take a look. As always, check out this or this to take a look at the Phillies.
Colorado’s Offseason:
LF Matt Holiday avoids arbitration with contract for 1 year, $4.4 Million
SP Josh Fogg avoids arbitration with contract for 1 year, $3.625 million
Signed SP Brian Lawrence for 1 year, $.75 million
Colorado’s Starting Five:
Aaron Cook
Jeff Francis
Rodrigo Lopez
Byung-Hyun Kim
Taylor Buchholz
Closer: Brian Fuentes
Question Marks: Byung-Hyun Kim
Colorado’s Lineup:
1B Todd Helton
2B Kazuo Matsui
SS Troy Tulowitzki
3B Garrett Atkins
LF Matt Holliday
CF Willy Taveras
RF Brad Hawpe
C Chris Iannetta/Yorvit Torrealba
Colorado Rotation:
Colorado’s starting pitching, is, well, rocky (I know, I’m hilarious). Any time you have to question whether or not you want the likes of Byung-Hyun Kim in your rotation or bullpen (or anywhere, for that matter), your starters might not be in the best of shape. Also, no conversation about Colorado pitching can really take place without some discussion of Coors Field, the team’s home, and the most notorious hitter’s park in baseball. As is to be expected, Colorado starting pitching had one of the higher ERA’s in the NL (4.72, good for 10th worst, although still better than the Phillies). Jeff Francis pitched relatively well, notching a 4.16 ERA and 4.24 DIPS, but that 5.29 K/9 isn’t exactly inspiring. Aaron Cook also pitched relatively well with his 4.23 ERA and 4.14 DIPS, but that 3.89 K/9 is even uglier to look at, and is in fact the worst among the 38 NL starters that pitched a full workload last year. Similar story for Josh Fogg and his 4.87 K/9, although his ERA and DIPS weren’t even very impressive (5.49 and 4.77). If the ball gets hit in Coors Field, its gonna go places. Not good places if you’re the pitcher. This team could use a real K-king, but what pitcher wants to watch his ERA shoot up faster than Bonds in the late 90s, and who can really blame them? The Rockies pitchers should fare slightly better in the stats department away from home, but even so, this rotation isn’t exactly a thing of beauty. Taylor Buccholz. He had a nice 5.89 with the Astros last year. It’s certainly no fun pitching in Minute Maid, but he’s going from bad to worse circumstances.
Edge: Phillies
Colorado Bullpen:
Brian Fuentes can close, and he can close at Coors, and for that, he is a treasure to this club. He notched 30 saves last year, served a very respectable 73/26 K/BB ratio, and he posted a decent 3.44 ERA, high for a closer, but let’s give him a break. After that, who knows. I haven’t watched LaTroy Hawkins successfully pitch in what’s felt like an eternity, and he’s had shots with plenty of ballclubs, and in pitcher’s parks, no less. For those of you with access to ESPN Insider, you can take a look at Peter Gammons’ blog post about those hot Rockies.
Edge: Rockies, barely
Colorado Lineup:
I think the best way to describe the Colorado lineup is solid. There’s studs (Helton, Atkins, Holliday), duds (Matsui), and then all those other guys. Brad Hawpe’s probably going to need to go huge and have a big season. Colorado batted well last year (.270 BA, tied for second in NL), and showed minimal fall off with RISP (.267), certainly better than the Phillies. I haven’t factored in spring training in these reports so far, so I don’t think it would be fair to start now and consider the weak performances of Howard, Burrell, and Rowand. Thus, on paper, I say the Phillies have the better offense. One of the primary reasons is that while both teams have bashers, I think the Phillies have the advantage in the bottom half of the batting lineup (something they rarely do), and also have the advantage in Rollins as leadoff hitter. I’m really hoping for big things from Rollins this year, and he is, too. I recently saw a quote of his regarding his bravado about the Phillies being the team to beat in the NL East, and he stood by his words, saying, “If you can’t walk around with swag, don’t walk around.”
Edge: Close, but Phillies
Defense:
The Rockies played average or above average defense at nearly every position last year, and committed the second fewest errors in the NL at a very low 91. These guys are good out in the field, although that doesn’t help a lot of times when the ball starts flying out of Coors Field. Nevertheless, they look a lot better defensively than our Phightin Phils.
Edge: Rockies in a big way
Final Verdict:
Well, the Rockies certainly have the bats and the big D to compete with the Phils, but they just don’t have the pitching to compete with us. Of course, we don’t play Colorado until July, so who knows where either team will be by then. Mayhap Byung-Huhn Kim will be a Cy Young contender. Don’t bet on it, though.
Bottom Line: Phillies 4, Colorado 3. Meet the new boss, same as the old boss. Next time we investigate the Dodgers, and the final Phils vs. NL Opponents will pit Pennsylvanian against Pennsylvanian in Phillies versus Pirates. Stand by your city, and check these out:
NL East:
Atlanta
Florida
NY Mets
Washington
NL Central:
Chicago Cubs
Cincinnati
Houston
Milwaukee
St. Louis
NL West:
ArizonaSan FranciscoSan Diego
