Blake Street Stroll: Finding the silver lining in the Rockies difficult stretch

The Rockies are mired in a slump, the offense can't hit right now, they aren't clutch blah blah blah... The offense will be fine. The lineup is loaded with talent and we have already seen what it can do. The fact that the entire offense seems to be slumping at the same time coupled with facing excellent pitching is what has lead to the recent struggles. Nothing more, nothing less. They will be fine, I almost guarantee it.

There are several reasons to be extremely optimistic going forward. First, the Rockies are still 19-17. If somebody told me at this point in the year that the Rockies would be two games over .500 I probably would have taken it. Now, do I think this team has the potential to be even better? Yes. Why? The pitching staff.

Taking just the nine games from May in which the Rockies are 3-6 the staff has a 3.36 ERA, good for 8th best in all of baseball. They are also doing a good job keeping the ball on the ground and preventing it from flying out of the ball park, as they rank 8th in ground out's recorded with 88 and they have only allowed 6 HRs, so far good for 4th best.

Also encouraging for the staff is they rank near the middle of the pack in WHIP at 1.29 this month. Considering they have played at hitter friendly Coors Field six of the nine games so far that is even more encouraging. Going into May if we knew the pitching would be this good we would probably expect a 6-3 record or better not 3-6.

All this to say that when the offense comes around the Rockies are due for a good winning streak. If the pitching continues at this rate the Rockies will be fine. Is it frustrating to waste good pitching like this? Absolutely, but it's easy to get caught up in what the Rockies have been doing poorly and forget about what they are doing well. Remember the disaster that was 2012 for the pitching staff? Of course you do. The fact that the Rockies are even in these games where the offense has been so bad is a sign of good things to come.

Also, if there is a fear that the pitching will regress (which it likely will), but hopefully the Rockies have enough arms in reserve that can step up if needed. The bullpen is being a bit overworked, but they have pitched so well that it's not the worst problem in the world to have. Tyler Chatwood, Drew Pomeranz, and possibly Roy Oswalt are waiting in the wings to step in and replace some current starters if they can't work deeper into games, so I don't see that being a problem right now. They have even more depth when you consider Chris Volstad, Aaron Cook, and from a relief perspective Rob Scahill.

Unlike last year when the pitching struggled the Rockies seem to have the organizational depth to cover that this year should the need arise again. With that in mind I'm pretty optimistic that the Rockies pitching is going to be very solid going forward and not just an early season mirage. Once the offense gets out of this slump the Rockies should win a lot of ballgames.