Colorado Rockies Team Breakdown: April Edition

Welcome to the Colorado Rockies team report for April. As the RotoBaller writer responsible for the daily coverage of the Rockies, who better than me to break them down for you as we enter May?

First, let’s get you the numbers. Here you’ll find team stats, and then those for each player that I’ve deemed as relevant. Scroll past them if you just want the commentary, but I suggest soaking these in.

Team Record/Hitting:

Team Pitching Stats:

Hitters:

N.B. This is meant to roughly reflect the batting order, but Walt Weiss does do quite a bit of shuffling.

Starting Rotation:

Relievers:

Let’s break this down some, shall we?

Hitters

The Rockies offense is being led by their own version of Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, as Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story both have 10 homers in the race for the league lead.

Arenado is not all that surprising, though 10 homers in a month is still very impressive for anybody. He’s out to show that his 42 homers from last season was just the beginning. His swinging strike rate is way down from 10.5% last season to 6.5% thus far. His walk rate is up to 9.9% from 5.1% last season. His BABIP says he actually has good luck coming his way (though HRs don’t factor into BABIP).

As for the surprise, Story hit 20 homers and stole 22 bases with a .279 average while striking out 24.5% of the time between Double-A and Triple-A ball last season. His first month is one for the record books, though it still had its ups and downs. He will strike out a lot folks. Accept it. He’ll also crush the ball and has plus speed (though he hasn’t gotten many chances to flash it yet). His swinging strike rate has improved as April wore on, he’s drawn five walks in the past five games (after four in his first 17). Keep the faith.

They are “complemented” by a healthy Carlos Gonzalez. He was healthy for his torrid second half last season where his bat alone could have powered a small country, but most importantly was his offseason health. Instead of focusing on rehabilitative exercises, he was able to focus on a normal routine and start the season with a clean bill of health.

Gerardo Parra and DJ LeMahieu are both contributing in all five traditional rotisserie categories, though Parra’s power is more sustainable than LeMahieu’s moving forward. Parra got off to a bit of a slow start while LeMahieu came out hot in April, but both should be viewed as plus assets.

The Rox were left without starting centerfielder Charlie Blackmon and catcher Nick Hundley for stretches, as Blackmon went to the 15-day DL for turf toe and Hundley did a stint on the 7-day concussion-DL after taking a foul tip off of his mask.

Blackmon has been benched against lefties for Ryan Raburn in the early going, and with the way Raburn’s been hitting (6-for-15, 3 HRs vs. LHP) there is little reason for Weiss to stop. Blackmon will see his production bounce back, but it will have to come against righties.

Hundley has two homers and a .256 average through 47 April PAs, though he’s drawing walks at a phenomenal clip and has a career-low whiff rate thus far. I’m still bullish on him to be a top-12 catcher.

Mark Reynolds and Ben Paulsen are still mixing in with each other, though Blackmon’s injury opened up some playing time for Paulsen in the OF so there still hasn’t been many games to pick this situation apart. Both are doing well, though you can see they’re getting a bit lucky.

Pitchers

Let’s get the ugly out of the way. Coming into 2016, Jorge de la Rosa would’ve been most people’s “Name a Rockies pitcher” answer. His 10.18 ERA in five starts is the worst for a starter with at least 20 innings pitched in 2016. Jordan Lyles opened the season in the rotation, but was optioned to Triple-A after posting a 7.64 ERA through four starts.

Eddie Butler takes DLR’s place while Chris Rusin slots in for Lyles. Butler has struggled in his 95.1 major league innings thus far with an ERA around 6 and only 47 Ks so he needs to prove himself over several starts. Rusin responded to the promotion with five innings of one-hit ball against the Diamondbacks where he struck out six. This is encouraging, but he has an uninspiring track record and hasn’t changed his arsenal either, so tread carefully.

Now for some good. Chad Bettis has been a steady hand in this volatile rotation. His 3.77 ERA isn’t terribly special, but he gives them quality innings and has shown plus command. Tyler Chatwood is 3-0 in three road starts and 0-2 at Coors, we’ll see how long that holds. Jon Gray has incredible strikeout stuff but has only made two starts after missing time with an abdominal injury suffered in Spring Training.

The bullpen has also struggled, though their late inning men have typically done well. Jake McGee, the closer, has five saves. His 7.04 ERA is thanks to a five run implosion at the hands of the Dodgers, but he has six scoreless innings under his belt as well. A reliever’s ERA can be mighty deceiving, let alone this early when one bad outing can send his numbers into the stratosphere.

The other reliever of note is Miguel Castro, the young fireballer who came over from Toronto in the Troy Tulowitzki trade. He has allowed one run in six innings of work with eight strikeouts. Unfortunately he is on the 15-day disabled list with right shoulder inflammation, but don’t forget about him.

Their starters have a 5.60 ERA with a 4.05 SIERA while the bullpen sports a 5.36 ERA (28^th) with a 3.64 SIERA, so there’s equal blame to go around. The SIERA rates do point to some improvement coming for everyone, we’ll see how May treats the Rockies.

Disabled List

Jorge De La Rosa – Placed on 15-day DL on April 27 with left groin strain.

Miguel Castro - Placed on 15-day DL on April 22, retroactive to April 18, with right shoulder inflammation.

Jason Motte - Placed on 15-day DL before the season started with right shoulder strain. Threw a bullpen session on April 29 though no timeline is set for his return.

Adam Ottavino – Placed on 60-day DL, recovering from Tommy John surgery in May 2015.

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