Regular Season Record: 90-73
NL Champions (Swept 4-0 in the World Series by the Boston Red Sox)
Offensive leaders:
Home Runs: Matt Holliday .36
Average: Matt Holliday .340
RBI: Matt Holliday 137
Runs: Matt Holliday 120
Steals: Willy Tavaras 33
Pitching leaders:
Wins: Jeff Francis 17
ERA: Aaron Cook 4.17
Strikeouts: Jeff Francis 165
Saves: Brian Fuentes 20
Highlight of the season: Getting red hot the last two weeks of the season and going on a 20 out of 21 tear, beating the Padres in a playoff game to win the Wild Card slot then sweeping both the Phillies and Diamondbacks in the NLDS and NLCS respectively.
Low point of the season: Finding out that an 8 day layoff between the end of the NLCS and World Series completely stole their momentum and getting swept by the Red Sox. But in truth even that wasn’t all that bad – this was the best season ever for the Rox and their first World Series appearance.
Best move of the season: Actually this will be the best moves section – because the Rockies didn’t make one move, but several moves, signing a bucketful of solid relievers and ex-closers including Matt Herges and La Troy Hawkins to go behind Brian Fuentes and Manny Corpas, giving the team a depth of bullpen which may have been unmatched anywhere in the game and allowing them to make up for a starting staff which generally was fairly weak.
Worst move of the season: None
Key Player: Matt Holliday. Holliday is considered by many of his peers to be the best hitter in all of baseball and this MVP type season just confirmed that. He’s a monster with the bat and still may not have hit his prime. At age 27 his average was .340, he hit 36 HR, and drove in 137. If he can improve on that, you have to consider him a legit triple crown contender for the next several years.
Up and Coming Player: Troy Tulowitzki. Every compares this guy to Derek Jeter and at this point in his career that’s a lot to say, but I think the comparison isn’t really a fair one – he’s better than Jeter defensively and if he continues to improve with the bat it may well be A-Rod who he deserves to be compared with. He should have garnered the Rookie of the Year honors and his potential is truly a mile high.
What went right: The offense sparkled and scored more than any other team in the NL save the Phillies. Everyone across the board contributed and created a balanced attack which was relentless. They swept both the Yankees and Mets at home and took 2-3 from Boston on the road – that’s how good the offense was.
On the pitching front it was workmanlike all the way. After Jeff Francis the Rockies rotation was a patched together affair with the names seeming to change on a monthly basis – and the Rockies continued to hit. The saving grace in terms of pitching was the re-emergence of a bullpen full of guys who nobody else seemed to want. The relief staff was outstanding and allowed those hard hit starters to retreat from games early and let the offense try to catch up.
Additionally it looks like the Rockies have finally found that way to pitch at Coors – a plan that looked good on paper a couple of years back finally panned out. Sinkerball pitchers, great defense, a humidor and a lot of ground balls seems to be the order of the day and should continue to be for this team for a long while to come.
What went wrong: In the World Series they just didn’t have enough starting pitching and their timing was all off. The 8 day rest between their sweep of the Diamondbacks and the start of the World Series robbed this team of momentum, intensity and that day to day rhythm they had generated for the past month. It left them flat when it came to the Series and overanxious with the bats. Guys who had been hitting machines, suddenly struggled, pitchers weren’t able to locate their pitches and the Red Sox pulled no punches. Without that momentum the Rox were just outplayed.
Offseason Preview: The Rockies offensively and defensively are rock solid. Most of the players are under long term contract and the team should never have problems putting runs on the board. Where they do have problems is in the starting pitching staff. Only Jeff Francis was able to post more than 10 wins and that left this team quite vulnerable as the World Series proved.
That being said there are few really great pitchers out there – but plenty of number 3-4-5 kind of guys available as free agents. With the extra revenue brought in by the playoffs this year the Rockies are in a position to spend a little extra money, provided the team owners, don’t just shove it in their pocket. I’d expect to see at least one mid level starter added to this team and some redeployment of the bullpen as some of these guys will walk.
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