Caught up in excitement of a lot of winning, we've had mostly heroics. It's been a team game the past 28 days, and here's where the Rockies stack up:
The Rockies are 1st in AVG, OBP, SLG, OPS. - .285/.362/.477/.838
They are 5th in terms of IsoD, or basically patience, behind Washington, San Diego, Milwaukee, and Cincinnati. - .077
They are 1st in IsoP, or how hard they hit the ball on average - .192.
They are 4th in SBs, behind the Dodgers, Mets, and Dbacks - 18.
They are 2nd in homers behind the Phillies - 33.
They are 2nd to last in GDPs (in the good way), with only Philly with less - 14
They are leading the league in BBs - 101
However, they are also leading the league in BABIP, at .321, compared to a league average of .293
So what do we draw out of this? Click past the jump and we'll take a look.
Also check out this spreadsheet if you'd care to take a look at what the whole crew is up to:
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rDrR5jMVWjorV5RiApqasxg
Well, they're clearly hitting the ball well, and waiting for their pitches. That team slash line is the kind of line you'd want to see out of any good ballplayer on your team. A .838 OPS player would be a starter on any team in baseball. The downside is that that high BABIP would suggest that they are batting at a higher average than you'd expect, and suggests they're due to cool down.
The biggest individual offenders in this regard are Seth Smith (.424), Brad Hawpe (.406), and Clint Barmes (.390). Out of these 3, this is going to hurt Barmes most, which we're all pretty aware of, as his plate discipline is rarely existant. His IsoD is at .018, suggesting that if he doesn't hit it, it's an out. As it stand, Barmes' .884 OPS is being mostly driven by slugging. As Hawpe and Smith have much better plate discipline in general, it won't completely sap their high OPS once their BABIP returns to normal levels.
What is good to see is that the team's OBP is at a healthy .362, leaps and bounds above the competition, and even with a normalized BABIP, it probably wouldn't drop too terribly low. We have a top-notch offense, and there's really no denying it anymore. Also, with the high BABIP, the fact that we've grounded into so few DPs tells us that we're not making terrible contact with as many pitches, in terms of rolling one right to the SS.
Outside of Hawpe, the OF has been offensively disappointing, at least in terms of Gonzalez, and somewhat Fowler, but these two are their own discussion entirely.
The real superstud on the team the past 28 days hasn't been who you'd expect. Granted, Hawpe is OPS'ing 1.013, but Troy Tulowitzki had dialed up his game, batting to the tune of .353/.447/.750 with a team-leading 7 dingers. What's more impressive is the fact that he's doing it all with a .340 BABIP, suggesting that while his numbers should come down, they won't drop TOO far when they do drop. Granted, I don't see Tulo averaging more than a double every time he gets a hit, but at the same time, I wouldn't be terribly shocked to see a .320/.410/.520 line out of him once he cools down a bit.
So what am I getting at here? Well, basically that the team is awesome. Sustainably awesome? Well, probably not at the head-and-shoulders level we've been batting above the rest of the NL. Some has been luck, and some has been players just stepping up their games.
How should we feel?
Proud.