Let's begin with an assumption: In 2011, the Colorado Rockies will feature three fantastic players.
Spring Training 2011 Question Of The Day: Colorado Rockies
Despite featuring the supreme talents of Troy Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzalez and Ubaldo Jimenez last year, the Colorado Rockies finished a distant third place. Do they have enough talent in 2011 to complement their stars?
Just last year,
- shortstop Troy Tulowitzki finished fifth in National League MVP balloting despite playing only 122 games,
- outfielder Carlos Gonzalez placed third in the MVP voting, and
- pitcher Ubaldo Jimenez came in third in National League Cy Young balloting.
That’s an impressive trio. And while at least two of those players is likely to regress this season, if Tulowitzki can avoid the Disabled List the Rockies should still derive an immense amount of value from their three stars.
Last year, the problem was almost everyone else. Sure, the Rockies were competitive. They won 83 games, and with a little luck could easily have won a few more. After falling far behind the division leaders in August, the Rockies mounted another late-season charge and closed to within just one game of first place on the 18th of September ... only to drop 13 of their last 14 decisions and finish nine games out.
Perhaps because the Giants and Padres were engaged in their dramatic battle, the Rockies' slide didn't get a great deal of attention. But it must rank as one of the worst stretch runs in recent history, ameliorated only by the fact that even if they had played .500 ball over those two weeks, they still would have finished in third place.
Ultimately, the Rockies just weren’t good enough. And they weren’t good enough because, while they featured three outstanding players, they didn’t have nearly enough good players. Put another way, the Rockies had too many okay players.
Consider ... Last season 14 Rockies finished the season with at least 200 plate appearances. Using OPS+ as shorthand, we find two Rockies -- Tulowitzki and Gonzalez, of course -- with excellent numbers, and fourth/fifth outfielder Ryan Spilborghs very slightly above average (102 OPS+, with 100 being league-average).
None of the other 11 were average National League hitters, as measured by OPS+. Some of them were close, but others -- especially the Rockies’ second basemen -- were far below par.
Is this situation likely to change this season? Well, a lot is riding on second baseman Jose Lopez. Once a decent hitter with the Mariners, last season Lopez did little better as a Mariner than the Rockies' weak-hitting second basemen.
Otherwise the Rockies' lineup will be roughly the same as last season, which means hoping that young players like Ian Stewart, Chris Iannetta and Dexter Fowler improve with age, and that venerable Todd Helton proves that last season's anemic numbers were just a blip. Because Gonzalez and Tulowitzki can fill only two slots in the batting order.
Here’s the Big Question, then ... We know where the great is going to come from this season. But who’s going to bring the good?
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