Colorado Rockies' Biggest Weakness So Far In 2016

The Colorado Rockies have been staying around the .500 mark so far in 2016. Their offense has been as good as ever. Unsurprisingly, their biggest weakness so far in 2016 has been their pitching. Last month I wrote about how their batting was their biggest strength. This feels like 2000 all over again, as this month I am telling you about their bad pitching.

Every year it appears that the Rockies have fixed their pitching problems. They traded Corey Dickerson for Jake McGee to solidify their bullpen and appeared set to go with a young rotation for the 2016 campaign. Now Christian Bergman, starter Tyler Chatwood and McGee are injured, which is in addition to the season-long injury to setup man Jairo Diaz. Still, you don’t go from great to awful because you lose your closer and one starter.

The Rockies have the highest ERA of any National League team. The relievers aren’t much better with the fifth worst ERA in MLB. There isn’t much separation among the pitchers on the Rockies’ staff.

Every year the question is whether it’s the ballpark or the pitchers. This year there may be a case for this being caused by the ballpark. The Rockies have allowed the eighth fewest walks so far in baseball. They’re also in the middle of the pack in strikeouts by the pitching staff. This combination has led to a WHIP in the middle of the pack. The Rockies are in the middle of the pack for OBP, but allow the fourth highest SLG.

What tilts the decision to bad pitching over the altitude issue is that the Rockies get more outs via ground balls than fly balls. This means that the altitude can only be attributable to the increase power of the opposition, but not the inflated runs scored number. They’re seventh in home runs allowed, not first.

The Rockies are slowly transitioning from the Todd Helton era to the Nolan Arenado era. Hopefully they can get some young pitching in quickly. Otherwise, we’ll be having the same conversations until after Arenado retires.