The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

The student news site of Wheat Ridge High School

The Haystack

Why Do the Rockies Suck?

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per colorado.rockies.mlb.com

By Alex Rea

Nearly every Colorado resident is perfectly aware of the deficient Colorado Rockies.

It has been just over half a decade since the fanbase could look at their home baseball team with pride instead of disappointment. Yet, people still show up to support a last place team. I think that is only reason there has been no sudden call for change. But there is plenty of finger pointing to go around, from the dugout to the front office.

The biggest flaw with the actual team has to be pitching. This apparent flaw has been consistent the last five years, where Colorado has suffered a losing record in each of those seasons. Their batting titles have been undeviating, placing in the top 5 in nearly every batting category, but the pitching has literally been quite the opposite.The Rockies place dead last in all important statistics from the pitching prospective: Earned Run Average (ERA), Walk plus base Hits per Inning Pitched (WHIP), Opponents Batting Average (BAA), etc.

I can admit the Rockies took a step in the right direction in the middle of last year by trading the former face of the franchise, all-star shortstop Troy Tulowitzki to the Toronto Blue Jays. In return, the Rockies got veteran shortstop Jose Reyes (who turned out to be a bust), and three pitching prospects. The performance of these prospects, who include Miguel Castro, Jeff Hoffman and Jesus Tinoco, has not really been well, but they are young and have time to improve. By losing Tulowitzki, time is the only thing the Rockies have.

My biggest problem with the Rockies is their unwillingness to set an identity. Whether this be by goals, general attitude, or style of play, some of greatest franchises in professional sports have a unified goal. The New England Patriots have every employee dedicated to winning any and all games they can.The Rockies have come out saying they are going to win, “inning by inning.” Well, that’s great, but how? If you look at the roster structure after the free agent acquisitions of the offseason, there is no clear answer. Yes, the Rockies have added to the bullpen depth by trading outfielder Corey Dickerson for  LHP Jake McGee and RHP German Marquez. This particular action brought a bitter taste to my mouth, like the Tulo trade, because Dickerson was one of my personal favorite Rockies.

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I can’t make sense, however, of the offensive additions in outfielder Gerardo Parra and veteran first basemen Mark Reynolds. Granted this happened before the Dickerson trade, so they are expecting to be a little depleted in the outfield, that clears up the Para deal in a small sense.

The Reynolds deal is a real head scratcher in my mind. Justin Morneau was hurt a good majority last season. In result the Rockies called up Ben Paulsen who took the better part of Morneau’s workload with the help of Wilin Rosario. Paulsen proved his reliability and his success posting an average BA of .277 attached to a .326 on base percentage (OBP). Paulsen will begin the season with the starting job, and Reynolds may just assume the role of Jason Giambi a few years ago where his number will be called once a night for a pinch-hitting situation, and he will also to take the reigns of first base to give Paulsen a rest. I’m scratching my head because he has quite an expensive utility bill of $2.6 million. Money that could be more responsibly allocated towards the real problem of pitching.

Ultimately the fault of poor transactions lies with the General Manager Jeff Bridichand the front office. If the problem is so undisguised, why aren’t the Rockies going after big-name pitchers? You can say, “ Well, they don’t want to come here,” but honestly, for the right price, athletes will do anything. I give them the fact they are drafting young pitchers with upside like Jon Gray, who made his debut mid-season in 2015. And also that they are getting pitchers in return for big name players which should be expected to happen again when the Rockies trade lineup anchor Carlos Gonzalez when the new season begins.

Two people who can’t avoid the faulty spotlight are owners Charlie and Dick Monfort. The Monforts have been the origin of multiple cases of dissatisfaction when it came to the Rockies’ poor success. After a long-time season ticket holder and big fan confronted Dick Monfort with such dissatisfaction in 2010, Dick replied with, “Maybe Denver doesn’t deserve a franchise.” To me, this type of response exposes the lack of identity the Rockies have. If the owner can’t accept defeat or fault, the absence of humbleness and professionalism is worrisome.

It honestly just looks like the Rockies are trying to draft a lineup that can just compete day-in and day-out, maybe win a couple games against top teams, but not really set the bar too high. At the end of the day, the MLB is a business; make money and you should be happy. But if that is all the Rockies want, then count me out. I know that I won’t be spending much money on this future waste of a franchise if they continue to disappoint their fans. But that’s the thing, people in Colorado still enjoy a few baseball games a year, which explains the good attendance for a last place team. What can I say? Unless the attendance changes, then I  don’t expect the results to either.

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  • J

    J santonasSep 20, 2018 at 5:35 am

    Just change the date on the article to 2018 and re-publish since nothing has changed with the Rockies for the last couple of years.

    They still suck!

    Reply
  • Z

    ZachOct 3, 2016 at 12:59 pm

    One of the biggest issues for them on the side of acquiring players is that the Rockies seem to like spending almost all of their money on one big star player, and barely have enough money to spend on other players and work on other areas of the team as well. But as you mentioned one of the biggest faults are the owners, honestly I think the team can change things around if the Rockies are owned by someone else.

    Reply