Tag Archives: Colorado Rockies

November 12, 2025

Return to Baseball

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Paul DePodesta talked about why he took the Rockies president of operations job:

“It had to be the right situation,” he said Tuesday, four days after he was hired as president of baseball operations. “And that right situation includes a challenge, ownership, geography, other things like people I might be able to work with. So this came about, and we started going through that calculus. This came about, and it’s very interesting.”

ESPN.com

I assume geography means closer to the West Coast, but it’s also easier to get back east from Colorado. I see it as a no-lose situation for DePodesta. If the team comes around and start winning, he’s a genius. If they continue losing, well, that’s just the Rockies organization. I hope it’s the former. The Rockies have a solid fan base, and long term losing will erode that.

November 6, 2025

Going Home To a Place He’s Never Been Before

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It appears the Rockies will hire Paul DePodesta as their head of baseball operations, as no on else wanted the job:

The hiring of DePodesta comes after a search in which the two main candidates, Cleveland assistant general manager Matt Forman and Arizona assistant GM Amiel Sawdaye, balked at taking a job expected to require a multiyear rebuild. Colorado’s previous GM, Bill Schmidt, resigned Oct. 1 following a fourth consecutive last-place finish in the National League West and a third straight 100-plus-loss season.

ESPN.com

I like DePodesta, he always struck me as very intelligent and process driven. He also may be better off as the number two, gathering the information and needed for the head honcho to make decisions.

On the other hand, this is a no lose situation for him. The team probably shows a big improvement in 2026, just because it’s tough to be that bad two seasons in a row. No one will expect the team to win right away, and as long as the win total keep going up, he’ll have time to build a winner.

October 1, 2025

Rockies Make a Change

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The Rockies fired general manager Bill Schmidt:

Schmidt has been with the organization since 1999, including the past four seasons as general manager. The Rockies turned in their third straight 100-loss season as they missed the postseason for a seventh year in a row.

ESPN.com

Yes, losing 100 games year after year says something isn’t working. The Athletics were terrible two years ago but improved over two seasons to 76 wins. The White Sox were terrible in 2024, but improved by 19 wins this season. The Rockies went in the wrong direction, and this is one of the few management firings that seem justified.

September 28, 2025

The Colorado Nightmare is Over

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In a fitting final game to their terrible season, the Giants beat the Rockies 4-0. Colorado managed 43 wins, just enough to not be the worst of the modern era, but below replacement level nonetheless. Rockies batters managed just five hits and struck out 13 times, starter Logan Webb of the Giants recording eight of those Ks in 5 1/3 innings.

The rebuild needs to start now. That’s three years in a row that MLB had teams flirt with the 1962 Mets. It’s not good for the game. The incentives not to tank have not encouraged teams to immediately improve when they play poorly.

September 5, 2025

Freeland Fine

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Kyle Freeland of the Rockies just finished four perfect innings against the Padres at Coors. I wonder if his encounter with Rafael Devers earlier in the week got Freeland fired up. He’s been horrible at Coors this season. He struck out eight so far, and the Rockies lead 1-0.

Update: Ramon Laureano doubles with one out in the fifth to break up the perfect game. He had the highest probability of getting a hit today (among starters) according to the Baseball Musings Neural Network.

August 6, 2025

Rockin’ the Rockies

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The Blue Jays blasted the Rockies 20-1 on Wednesday afternoon. Kyle Freeland started for Colorado, faced 25 batters, allowed seven hits, two walks, one home run, and hit Ty France twice. France wound up with four hits, three of them doubles, it the game. Ernie and Vladimir Guerrero Jr also collected four hits, as the team out hit Colorado 24-3. Catcher Austin Nola pitched the last inning for Colorado, giving up eight hits and eight earned runs. This was a very embarrassing game for the Rockies in an embarrassing season.

August 2, 2025

’94 Comebacks

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The two 1994 expansion teams, the Marlins and Rockies, engineered fantastic comebacks Friday night to each put another win on the team record. Miami gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead, and the score stood at 9-4 New York in the bottom of the seventh when the Fish score six runs. The Yankees were not done, however, as they scored three more runs, leading 12-10 in the bottom of the ninth inning. Reliever Camilo Doval gives up three runs in the bottom of the ninth thanks in part by poor fielding and the Marlins walk off with a 13-12 win.

The Pirates scored nine runs in the top of the first inning, and the teams traded runs in the middle innings as the Rockies trailed 16-10 after six innings. Colorado was not done, as they scored two in the eighth and five in the ninth to take the game 17-16. A two run homer by Brenton Doyle sealed the victory.

Neither team is having a great season, but these were games that showed fans they are not quitting.

July 25, 2025

McMahon to the Yankees

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The Rockies parted with third baseman Ryan McMahon, sending him to the Yankees for a two minor league pitchers:

The Yankees are acquiring third baseman Ryan McMahon from the Rockies in exchange for minor league pitchers Griffin Herring and Josh Grosz, sources confirmed to ESPN on Friday.

The Yankees will assume the remainder of 30-year-old McMahon’s contract, which includes approximately $4.5 million for the remainder of 2025 and $32 million over the next two seasons.

ESPN.com

My first thought that this must be a very happy day for McMahon, moving from the worst team in the league to one in line for the playoffs. My second thought is the pitchers might be thinking, “Oh no, I have to pitch in Colorado!”

If the Yankees were looking for offense, McMahon may not be it. According to FanGraphs, the offensive element of his offense for their WAR calculation was always negative. You can see that in his road numbers. He owns a career .216/.302/.362 slash line, meaning his walks a bit and can hit for a bit of power. Yankees third basemen are hitting .214/.293/.361 this year.

On the positive side, McMahon is a left-handed batter who hits better against righties, and Yankee Stadium can help lefties. I don’t know that this really solves the problem at third base, especially when the Yankees are on the hook for two more years.

Herring is seasonal age 22 an owns a 1.71 ERA in 89 1/3 innings at A Ball. Grosz is also 22, with 208 2/3 innings under his belt in the minors with a 3.97 ERA. He only made it out of A ball briefly last season.

If this is the best the Yankees could do at third base, they might need a different GM.

July 17, 2025

Watching the Rockies

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Pat Graham at the AP provides an overview of the Rockies dismal season. The franchise remains strong in one regard:

One thing that really hasn’t been hurt by the slide is attendance. The Rockies are currently averaging 30,128 fans at Coors Field this season. That’s on pace with last season (31,360) and higher than their World Series run in 2007 (28,979).

Part of the explanation for steady attendance is the opposition: The New York Mets and Dodgers, for instance, remain big draws when they come to town.

Part of it is promotional: The Rockies invited every “Ryan” to attend a game on June 20 for a gathering of “Ryans.” Fittingly, Ryan McMahon homered on “Ryan Day” in a 14-8 loss to Arizona.

And part of that is simply setting: Coors Field, which opened in 1995, remains a popular gathering place. It boasts “The Rooftop” in right field, with a view of the Front Range.

Chron.com

Good attendance puts less pressure on the team to win now. At some point, they will need to successfully rebuild to keep those fans coming back.

June 16, 2025

Bad Timing

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Kyle Finnegan of the Nationals picked the wrong time to give up his first two home runs of the season. He came into the game with 25 innings without allowing a long ball under his belt, the proceeded to allow a solo shot to tie the game at four and a two run shot to seal a 6-4 Rockies victory. The Nationals have lost nine in a row. The Rockies are hot, winning 6 of their last 13 games.

June 14, 2025

Rockies Rocky Records

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The Rockies set two records today, neither of them good:

Kyle Farmer just shrugged when asked about being part of a Colorado team that just made MLB history with the worst 70-game record in the modern era.

…

The Rockies surpassed the 1932 Boston Red Sox, who were 14-56, for the worst 70-game mark since 1901.

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The Rockies made more inglorious history by setting a franchise nine-inning record with 19 strikeouts. That’s a lot of futility for one team to absorb in one day.

The 19 strikeouts by Braves pitchers also set an Atlanta record for a nine-inning game. Spencer Strider recorded 13 strikeouts in six innings, followed by relievers Rafael Montero and Dylan Lee, who combined for six more whiffs.

Chron.com

The Braves took the game 4-1.

The 1932 Red Sox finished 43-111, a .279 winning percentage, 64 games behind the Yankees.

May 24, 2025

Rocking the Yankees

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The Rockies got a much needed boost Friday night as they defeated the Yankees 3-2 at Coors Field. The offense didn’t shine, but Tanner Gordon held the Yankees to two runs in six innings and the bullpen came through with three no-hit innings.

Gordon does a great job of limiting walks. His problem in his 34 1/3 2024 innings was allowing 53 hits, twenty two of them for extra bases. Aaron Judge‘s home run was the only one he allowed this season in his 12 1/3 innings.

The Rockies go into Saturday with a confidence boost. They held a terrific offense to two runs, and got a great start from their rotation. We’ll see if they can follow up.

May 23, 2025

Rockies Ranks

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The Baseball Musings Batter Rankings tries to represent a ordering of the best batters as of today. Only starts count, and the whole of the batter’s career goes into the points calculation, with the most recent games counting the most. Currently, the system ranks 554 batters.

One may think of every 30 slots representing a level of player on the team. If talent somewhat evenly distributed, each team would have one player in the 1 to 30 range, the second best player in the 31 to 60 range, etc. The top 270 players would represent the preferred starting lineup for each team.

Where players rank, therefore, might gives us the relative strength of a team’s offense. Here is the posted Rockies starting lineup for Friday night with ranks:

  1. Beck – 265
  2. Tovar – 177
  3. Goodman – 180
  4. McMahon – 205
  5. Doyle – 218
  6. Moniak – 293
  7. Farmer – 264
  8. Martini – 405
  9. Amador – 431

The best Rockies hitters in this lineup come in the sixth best hitter range, 151-180. There is one in the seventh range, one in the eight range and two in the lower half of the ninth range. Two are way out in scrubs range.

Let’s compare that to a pretty good team, the Tigers Friday night lineup

  1. Carpenter – 83
  2. Torres – 37
  3. Keith – 184
  4. Dingler – 252
  5. Torkelson – 55
  6. Sweeney – 200
  7. Ibanez – 301
  8. Baddoo – 518
  9. Baez – 152

The expectation would be for a team to put three players in the top 90, and Detroit does that. That’s enough plus some rising talent, to have the Tigers fourth in runs scored per game in the majors.

The Rockies are bad all around, but a couple of decent bats would greatly improve things.

May 22, 2025

Rock Bottom

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The 2025 Rockies are making the 2024 White Sox look like the 1990 Yankees.

Ranger Suárez pitched into the seventh inning to outduel German Márquez, and the Philadelphia Phillies beat the Colorado Rockies 2-0 on Thursday to sweep a four-game series.

Colorado fell to 8-42 — the worst 50-game start in MLB’s modern era (since 1901). Before that, you have to go back to the 1895 Louisville Colonels (7-43) to find a worse start.

The Rockies are 5-20 at home and are on pace to lose 136 games this season, which would pass the 1899 Cleveland Spiders (20-134) for the most losses by an MLB team. By contrast, the Chicago White Sox set the modern era record for most losses last season with 121.

ESPN.com

The Rockies need to go 34-78, a .304 winning percentage the rest of the way to beat the White Sox. So they can still play terribly and not set a record.

May 18, 2025

Better Kelly

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Merrill Kelly of the Diamondbacks pitched a poor game on April third, giving up nine runs in 3 2/3 innings. Since then he improved, greatly limiting walks. He did not allow any in his last three starts.

On Sunday, the Rockies drew three walks, but collected just one hit against Kelly in seven innings while striking out eleven times. With two strong innings by the Arizona bullpen, the Diamondbacks took the game 1-0. That drops Kelly’s ERA over his last eight games to 2.02.

May 12, 2025 May 11, 2025

Black Blue

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The Rockies fired manager Bud Black after giving him a vote of confidence before Saturday’s 21-0 defeat. The Rockies won on Sunday 9-3, but the decision was made to make the move in Colorado rather than on the road.

General manager Bill Schmidt said “internal talks” led to the decision to make this change now. Schmidt said the team made the decision before the team’s trip to Texas for a series starting Monday, rather than doing it on the road. Schmidt, who said injuries are a factor in the start, said the decision was made regardless of Sunday’s result, but would not say that Saturday night’s cringeworthy 21-0 loss to the Padres was the final straw.

MLB.com

I suspect it was the final straw.

The Rockies finished over .500 in Black’s first two years, but lost at least 90 games four times since then, and over 100 games each of the last two seasons. He finishes with a 544-691 record with Colorado.

Warren Schaeffer, the third base coach, takes over as manager. He was a minor leaguer in the Rockies system who hit .214/.273/.285 in six seasons. He has extensive experience managing in the Rockies minor league system.

May 11, 2025

Thoughts at the Quarter Pole

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The Major Leagues are about 40 games into their 162 game season. The Tigers may be the big surprise of the year. At 26-14 their .650 winning percentage stands first in the American League and second in the majors to the Padres. The Dodgers sport the same record as well. The Tigers, however, stand as the most balanced team this season. They rank fourth in both runs scored per game (5.33) and fewest runs allowed per game (3.40). The Padres rank twelfth and first, the Dodgers third and fourteenth, the Cubs first and nineteenth, the Yankees second and eleventh, and the Mets ninth and second.

So among the best teams, the Tigers show the fewest weaknesses. If the pitching or offense falters, the other side of the team is good enough to carry the load for a while. This puts them in a very good position to continue strong for the rest of the year.

The Guardians record stands five wins above their Pythagorean projection, so they may be in for a bit of a regression as the season continues. On the other hand, Cleveland could use some luck to break their decades long World Championship drought. Note that the best two divisions, the AL Central and the NL West each contain a terrible team, the White Sox and the Rockies. Every team gets to play two doormats, but they still see their division rivals more. This gives the runners up in the division a real boost for the wild card slots.

Aaron Judge leads in the triple crown stats, and also in the average triple crown, BA, OBP, and Slugging percentage. He even hit two triples this year. Judge cut down on his strikeouts this season, although not to the extent of Miguel Cabrera when he took home his TC in 2012.

Bobby Witt Jr, with seventeen doubles, has a shot at 68 doubles and a new record. Doubles seem to be something that fades as both seasons and careers progress. So while doubles leaders tend to hit a lot, no one challenges the records of Earl Webb and Tris Speaker.

It’s nice to see the emergence of the Hunter Colors as great pitchers. Hunter Greene now ranks ninth in the Bill James starting pitcher rankings and Hunter Brown ranks seventeenth.

Can a GM really make that much of a difference to the play on the field? Buster Posey‘s two biggest moves for the Giants, bringing Willy Adames and Justin Verlander haven’t worked out well. Can the vibe from the front office really bring players around to better performances?

I thought the White Sox were horrible in 2024, but the Rockies have taken things to the next level of hell. They can neither pitch nor hit. Bud Black got the evil vote of confidence yesterday, then the team lost 21-0. Maybe Colorado needs to take a page from the Giants and fire the front office.

Max Fried of the Yankees owns a 1.05 ERA, but does not finish in the top five of any of the three-true outcome categories.

What are your thoughts?

May 10, 2025 May 8, 2025

Mile High Lear

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King Lear stands as my favorite of Shakespeare’s plays. At every step, and more and more evil, betrayal, and disaster fall on the title character, one thinks, “It can’t get worse.” Then it gets worse. The play is the anti Tom Tango; it never regresses to the mean.

The Rockies appear to be the King Lear of the 2025 season. When they were 3-17, it was tough to believe they could be worse. They won a game, then lost eight in a row. They couldn’t get worse than 4-25. They won two in a row, but then lost five to go to 6-29.

Then came today. The Tigers score nine runs off Kyle Freeland in game one of the doubleheader.* They went on to a 10-2 win. In game two, the Tigers laid it on heavier, winning 11-1. That’s a 21 to 3 day.

So if you think the Rockies can’t get worse, go read Lear.

*The beat the streak neural network picked Kerry Carpenter as the most likely hitter to get a hit in a game today, in the game against Freeland. In Freeland’s three innings, Carpenter was the only starter not to get a hit. He went 0 for 5 in the game.

April 30, 2025

Rockies Win One

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Colorado pulled off a 2-1 win over the Braves, despite Chris Sale pitching well for Atlanta. Sale walked none while striking out ten in seven innings. He did allow five hits, two of them to Brenton Doyle. His home run in the third inning gave the Rockies all they needed as Chase Dollander and the Rockies bullpen held the Braves to three walks and three hits, none for extra bases.

With the end of their eight-game losing streak, the Rockies stand 5-25 on the season.

April 27, 2025

How Low Can They Go?

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The Reds beat the Rockies 8-1 Sunday afternoon, and that’s the Rockies season in a nutshell. The Rockies allow the most runs per game in the majors, while their 3.3 runs scored per game stand third lowest in the majors, despite playing home games in a very batter friendly park. They came into today hitting .216/.290/.357 while opponents hit .290/.363/.467. It gets even worse when you look at scoring position stats.

The team is now 4-23, a .148 winning percentage. If the team were to win ten in a row, they would just bring them up to .387. I don’t think they can go much lower than this, but I didn’t think the White Sox set a record for losses last season. The Rockies have dug a hole, and it’s not easy for a bad team to stop digging.

April 19, 2025

Big Close Games

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Three games with at least one team scoring ten runs and a tiny margin of victory took place on Saturday. The Phillies beat the Marlins 11-10, but Miami managed six runs in the top of the ninth inning to make the game close. Jordan Romano of the Phillies saw his ERA balloon to 15.26 after giving up those six runs in two thirds on an inning.

The Nationals held off the Rockies 12-11 after leading 12-2. The Rockies scored eight runs in the seventh inning and one in the ninth. The game ended with the tying run on third base.

The Rays beat the Yankees 10-8 in ten innings. The Yankees were up 8-4 after scoring two runs in the top of the ninth inning, but Devin Williams continued his struggles, giving up all four Rays runs to see his ERA balloon to 9.00. He’s allowed eleven hits and seven walks in eight innings of work. Maybe he should have shaved the beard.

It’s not over until it’s over.

April 14, 2025

Bryant’s Back on the IL

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Kris Bryant of the Rockies goes on the illjured list, once again due to his back. It now appears to be more than an injury:

Bryant’s specific issue, lumbar degenerative disk disease, is associated with wear and tear of the spine. The 2016 National League MVP with the Chicago Cubs twice spent time on the IL last season with a back strain and missed nearly two months in 2022 because of back issues.

ESPN.com

He played 170 games for Colorado since joining them in 2022, or about 1/3 of this possible games. He’s hitting .244/.324/.370 in that time. It turned out to be a very disappointing signing.

April 5, 2025 March 28, 2025

Winning Misnerly

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Kameron Misner comes up for his first plate appearance of the season leading off the bottom of the ninth, with the Rockies and Rays tied at two. He came in to play leftfield after a pinch hitter took Christopher Morel out of the game.

Misner went one for 15 in 2024 with ten strikeouts and nothing else. His 2025 season is already 100 times better. He didn’t show much power in the minor leagues, but did get on base very well.

Kyle Freeland of the Rockies pitched a great game, allowing two hits, no walks, and no runs in six innings striking out seven. The bullpen quickly gave up the 2-0 lead, Misner’s home run winning the game 3-2.

March 15, 2025

Division Preview, 2025 NL West

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The division previews begin with the NL West as the Dodgers and Cubs play two games in Japan starting Tuesday of the upcoming week. To help with evaluations, a crude runs created per game is calculated from Musings Marcels projections for both batters and pitchers. I then average these for the core of the team. The nine position players, the five starting pitchers, and the closer. I weight the pitchers as 90% starters, 10% closer. The selection of players comes from the FanGraphs Roster Resource.

The bottom line is a Core Winning Percentage based on the RC/G of the core batters and core pitchers using the Pythagorean method. You can see the spreadsheet with the data here.

Note that the core winning percentage (CWP) is going to be high, often the core is going to be over .500. We are basically looking at the best players on the team. Don’t take that as a prediction of team winning percentage, take it as a way to compare teams in a division.

Los Angeles Dodgers

  • Position Player RC/G Average: 6.04
  • Pitcher RC/G Average: 3.92
  • Core Winning Percentage: .703

The Dodgers look like the team to beat in the NL West once again. The offense projects to the best RC/G average in the division, and so do the pitchers. They are the strongest team up the middle offensively. There is not much they can do to be better.

Impressively, there is upside to the team. Roki Sasaki probably pitches better than the league average RC/G value given here to the rookie. Dustin May, retuning from a freak esophagus injury, might also put up better than league average number. Keeping Mookie Betts healthy all season would help, too, although he is going to miss the games in Japan due to illness.

On the downside, Freddie Freeman may have started his decline in 2024, posting his lowest rWAR in a full season since 2019. He will play 2025 at seasonal age 35. He still projects to over 7 RC/G, and only Michael Conforto projects to under 5 RC/G. Even with some aging players, Los Angeles boasts a very dangerous lineup.

The Dodgers project much better than they did at the start of 2024, and put themselves in a good position to be the first repeat World Series winner since the Yankees of the late 1990s.

San Diego Padres

  • Position Player RC/G Average: 5.25
  • Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.21
  • Core Winning Percentage: .609

The Padres lineup is good, but lacks the big fire works of the Dodgers. Jackson Merrill and Luis Arraez project to the highest RC/G, both a bit over six runs. The three potential superstars, Xander Bogaerts, Manny Machado, and Fernando Tatis Jr., all project into the fives. If Bogaerts and Machado bounce back and Tatis reaches his potential, the Padres offense could be one of the best.

The starting pitching looks a big shaky with Joe Musgrove recovering from Tommy John surgery. Yu Darvish is showing his age leaving Michael King and Dylan Cease to carry most of the load. Closer Robert Suarez projects as the second best in the division.

This is a solid team with the potential to do very well, but right now they look more like a third place club in a tough division.

Arizona Diamondbacks

  • Position Player RC/G Average: 5.28
  • Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.16
  • Core Winning Percentage: .617

The Diamondbacks rank ahead of the Padres in both Offensive and Pitching RC/G, and strength up the middle, making them the favorite for second place.

There are no projected superstars in the offensive lineup, but Corbin Carroll could be the one if he can keep the adjustments he put in place in the second half of the season. Ketel Marte got his stroke back in 2024, and if he doesn’t regress, the Diamondbacks offense would look much better than it does right now.

Corbin Burnes, Zac Gallen, and Merrill Kelly give the team good three man front to the rotation, and overall the core pitching in a little better than the Padres. The Diamondbacks and Padres are very close, and the division should present a good battle for second place and at least one wild card.

San Francisco Giants

  • Position Player RC/G Average: 4.93
  • Pitcher RC/G Average: 4.37
  • Core Winning Percentage: .560

The Giants don’t have someone who might be a star in 2025. Tyler Fitzgerald projects to be their best offensive player, but he’ll be seasonal age 28 with only 375 MLB plate appearances. Matt Chapman still does a lot with his glove, but his bat isn’t what it used to be. Justin Verlander was a superstar for a long time, but even his star days might be over.

The Giants strike me as in rebuilding mode. They put a team of the field capable of competing every day, but unlikely to win enough to make the post-season. This is a year to watch what kinds of moves Buster Posey makes in the front office, and see if he can rebuild quickly.

Colorado Rockies

  • Position Player RC/G Average: 4.55
  • Pitcher RC/G Average: 5.72
  • Core Winning Percentage: .388

A .388 core winning percentage is awful. The upside is that the batting order looks to start five players in their pre or early prime years. The bad news is that only Nolan Jones (not to be confused with The Only Nolan) projects to hit well.

The core pitching looks dreadful, with every pitcher projecting over 5 RC/G, including the closer, Tyler Kinley. Given their division opponents, a small victory for this team would be losing less than 100 games.

Predictions

Here is how I see the probabilities of the teams winning the division.

  • Los Angeles Dodgers 45%
  • Arizona Diamondbacks 22%
  • San Diego Padres 21%
  • San Francisco Giants 11%
  • Colorado Rockies 1%

That probability for the Dodgers may be too low. I suspect they really want to repeat, and would likely make any in season move they feel is necessary to make that happen.

March 6, 2025

Team Offense, Colorado Rockies

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The 2025 series on team offense continues with the Colorado Rockies. The Rockies finished nineteenth in the Majors and eleventh in the National League in 2024 with 4.21 runs scored per game.

This season I am using FanGraphs Roster Resource Depth Charts as the source of default lineups. That Bud Black batting order is plugged into the Lineup Analysis Tool (LAT) using Musings Marcels as the batter projections.   That information produces the following results (Runs per game):

  • Best lineup: 4.25
  • Probable lineup: 4.13
  • Worst lineup: 3.99
  • Regressed lineup: 4.04

I’m a bit shocked by the placement of Brenton Doyle in the leadoff slot and Nolan Jones seventh. Jones projects to a .348 OBP, Doyle .301. Looking at other projections at FanGraphs for these players, the Musings Marcels are right in line with the others. Why then the disconnect between the projections and the lineup slots?

A guess is recency bias. Doyle posted a stronger 2024, .317/.446, while Jones dropped to .321/.320. Overall history is on Jones’ side as his minor league OBPs were excellent. He did suffer from back problems last year, so while the projections are good, he will need to be healthy to realize them.

It may not make that much difference. Even with Jones healthy, the Rockies offense looks just as lackluster as in 2024. They will need a number of career years to score enough to win at Coors against a fairly strong NL West.

You can see the projections for the teams at this spreadsheet.

Previous posts in this series:

February 13, 2025

Changes, Colorado Rockies

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The Rockies acquired the following players for their 2025 active roster:

I looked it up to make sure, but the Rockies finished with the lowest winning percentage in the NL in 2024, a .377 mark. I have to say it’s unusual for a last place team to stand pat like that.

After two good years at the plate, Estrada suffered two wrist injuries in 2024 and his offense plummeted. He is capable of producing two to three WAR if healthy. Farmer serves as the slick fielding infielder, although he’s not terrible at the plate. He gives the Rockies a good defensive replacement, or a starter when a low K pitcher is on the mound.

Colorado did little to make the team more exciting for 2025.

September 22, 2024

Power Dodgers

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The Dodgers to into the bottom of the ninth inning trailing the Rockies 5-4 with the top of the order due up. Shohei Ohtani leads off with his 53rd home run to tie the game, the Mookie Betts follows with his 19th home run to win the game. It’s a huge game, as the Padres won earlier. The two teams start a three-game series on Tuesday, and now the best the Padres can do is tie the Dodgers with a sweep.

Los Angeles hit four homers in the game to bring their NL leading total to 225. That’s 19 more than the Braves at 206.

Good homer power can be important in the post season, especially when both team employ good pitching. Since home runs don’t require long offensive sequences to score, they can make the difference in low scoring games.