Denverdave
Resident Ragamuffin
How is your team going to do this year?
The Rockies won only 66 games last year. Their two best players were hurt, but still no excuses. So what did they do to improve?
1. Moved their AAA team out of Colorado Springs. This actually will help. The stadium in the Springs was terrible. They quit sending their best pitchers to play there at all so they were promoting up to the bigs from AA. The new AAA team location is Albuquerque.
2. Beefed up the bullpen a bit. That will help. They had about the worst bullpen in the majors last year.
3. Personnel wise they went and got a couple better role players.
4. Completely new front office.
Otherwise - nothing. And this in a division with the Giants (three WS wins in last 5 years), Dodgers (West Coast Yankees), San Diego (made a serious effort to upgrade the team) and Arizona (even more 'meh' than the Rocks).
So - what so I expect? Well - if both Tulo and CarGo stay healthy the entire season (historically unlikely) and have excellent seasons add another 6 - 8 wins. They have two very good starting pitchers that might be ready sometime this season (Grey, Butler) and that will help (another 6 wins potentially). . But the starting day rotation is mediocre at best. They already had to cut one of their projected starters because he was terrible. So they have no depth in the starting rotation at all. They have one of the best fielding infields in baseball when Tulo is healthy. They have a good offense and a potential stud of a player in Dickerson.
So - best case scenario. Tulo and CarGo stay healthy. Grey and Butler are up and productive by midseason. I can see a potential improvement of 14 games - or 80 wins. Max. Funny - that is still not a winning record and that would probably close to the maximum potential of this team. Maybe 85 wins if they overachieve which will still not make the playoffs.
My actual prediction? Tulo stays semi-healthy and plays about 130 - 140 games. Cargo plays more than Tulo but nagging injuries make his numbers very average. Grey and Butler are both up by July due to injuries and both have an up and down season but are effective. I am predicting 75 - 78 wins and 4th in the division again. The front office will trumpet the improvement in the team and do next to nothing next off season. Again.
Being a Rockies fan means accepting mediocrity because the ownership accepts that as a acceptable outcome as long as they make money.
The Rockies won only 66 games last year. Their two best players were hurt, but still no excuses. So what did they do to improve?
1. Moved their AAA team out of Colorado Springs. This actually will help. The stadium in the Springs was terrible. They quit sending their best pitchers to play there at all so they were promoting up to the bigs from AA. The new AAA team location is Albuquerque.
2. Beefed up the bullpen a bit. That will help. They had about the worst bullpen in the majors last year.
3. Personnel wise they went and got a couple better role players.
4. Completely new front office.
Otherwise - nothing. And this in a division with the Giants (three WS wins in last 5 years), Dodgers (West Coast Yankees), San Diego (made a serious effort to upgrade the team) and Arizona (even more 'meh' than the Rocks).
So - what so I expect? Well - if both Tulo and CarGo stay healthy the entire season (historically unlikely) and have excellent seasons add another 6 - 8 wins. They have two very good starting pitchers that might be ready sometime this season (Grey, Butler) and that will help (another 6 wins potentially). . But the starting day rotation is mediocre at best. They already had to cut one of their projected starters because he was terrible. So they have no depth in the starting rotation at all. They have one of the best fielding infields in baseball when Tulo is healthy. They have a good offense and a potential stud of a player in Dickerson.
So - best case scenario. Tulo and CarGo stay healthy. Grey and Butler are up and productive by midseason. I can see a potential improvement of 14 games - or 80 wins. Max. Funny - that is still not a winning record and that would probably close to the maximum potential of this team. Maybe 85 wins if they overachieve which will still not make the playoffs.
My actual prediction? Tulo stays semi-healthy and plays about 130 - 140 games. Cargo plays more than Tulo but nagging injuries make his numbers very average. Grey and Butler are both up by July due to injuries and both have an up and down season but are effective. I am predicting 75 - 78 wins and 4th in the division again. The front office will trumpet the improvement in the team and do next to nothing next off season. Again.
Being a Rockies fan means accepting mediocrity because the ownership accepts that as a acceptable outcome as long as they make money.
