Are the Colorado Rockies postseason bound? Eno Sarris at FanGraphs thinks so. In his ten bold predictions for the 2017 season, his second prediction is that the Rockies will be making the postseason.
Sarris’s prediction is not because of the offseason moves that the Rockies made; instead, it’s because of the strength and depth of the Rockies rotation. While Jon Gray is seen as the Rockies’ ace, and rightfully so, the depth behind him is young, good and plentiful and that combination is worth getting excited about. Sarris writes:
But this is more about the lesser-known names behind Gray. Tyler Anderson doesn’t have a ton of pitches, but his cutter/four-seam/change combo has proven itself to be major-league worthy at least. Chad Bettis only has average velocity, but his four-pitch combo has kept hitters off balance enough to call him a viable starter, as well. Tyler Chatwood may only have the two fastballs and a slider, but he throws the curve sometimes, and his sinker is all world. All three are adept at getting ground balls, and the rotation just put up their second-best rate since they started tracking that number.
The depth doesn’t end there either. Sarris also references one of his articles from a week ago that looked at starting pitching depth among all teams using the strength of their sixth, seventh and eighth starters. The Rockies placed sixth among all major-league team on the strength of Jeff Hoffman, German Marquez, Chris Rusin and, yes, even Jordan Lyles.
While there are those who haven’t liked the direction of the Rockies offseason, it’s refreshing to see that the expected improvement from the Rockies young players may be enough to put them over the top and playing baseball in October.