Rockies caught on a snag with the back end of their rotation: Tyler Anderson remains an issue | The Athletic ($)
The Colorado Rockies rank 11th in baseball in starting pitching fWAR. When ranking the top three starters on each team, the Rockies rank 8th, with a top three (Kyle Freeland, German Marquez and Jon Gray) that pushes ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers, New York Yankees and St Louis Cardinals— three teams that are ahead of the Rox in the overall rankings. The back end of the Rockies’ rotation remains the question mark. Antonio Senzatela has been very up-and-down, while two of Tyler Anderson’s last two losses have been egregiously bad (a combined game score of 31).
It’s not hard to see what’s going wrong for Anderson visually, reports Nick Groke of The Athletic. He’s leaving pitches right down the middle of the plate. Physically, everything checks out perfectly fine for Anderson. The Rockies will need him to get right, as they won’t have the luxury of skipping his starts down the stretch.
BSN Rockies Podcast: Ryan McMahon opens up on his role in a thrilling pennant race | BSN Denver
In the latest episode of the BSN Rockies podcast, we get to hear clubhouse audio of Nolan Arenado talking about his recent struggles at the plate. Arenado believes that his slump is simply that— and does not have anything to do with injury. Drew Creasman is also joined by guests Patrick Lyons, Manny Randhawa, and Rockies’ infielder Ryan McMahon.
How does the Rockies’ division title drought stack up? | MLB.com
MLB.com’s David Adler looks at how long it took each expansion team to win a division title. Currently sitting on 25 years without winning their division, the Rockies are looking to make the Miami Marlins the only team to reach 26.
10 Degrees: Here’s why September baseball may not be so bad after all | Yahoo Sports
Given where the Rockies are in the standings, I would argue that there’s not a single thing bad about September baseball. Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports lists 10 items that indicate what’s exciting about this September. Two of these bullet points revolve around Freeland, who is potentially working himself into a member of the top four in the Cy Young conversation. For his part, Freeland thinks Jacob deGrom of the New York Mets should win the prestigious pitcher award.
10 players who got snubbed out of a September call-up in 2018 | MLB Daily Dish
If I were to pick two Rockies’ September call-up snubs, I would probably go with Jeff Hoffman and Jordan Patterson. Patrick Karraker of MLB Daily Dish has two other players in mind, and they’re certainly interesting to think about. They are Pacific Coast League Most Valuable Player Josh Fuentes and outfielder Mike Tauchman. Tauchman has struggled in a small sample of MLB playing time, but has shown that he has nothing left to prove in Triple-A, where he slashed .323/.408/.571 in 2018.
Bowden: Scouting the Top 20 impending free agents, and finding their best fits | The Athletic ($)
Jim Bowden of The Athletic ranks the top 20 free agents of the upcoming 2018-2019 class. Possible fits for the Rockies include A.J. Pollock, Michael Brantley, Nick Markakis, Andrew McCutchen, or a return for DJ LeMahieu.
Around Baseball
Christian Yelich claps back at former Marlins exec David Samson for being “anti-player” | Fish Stripes
Former Marlins executive David Samson was called out by Christian Yelich for being “anti-player” on Twitter on Sunday night. Ely Sussman of Fish Stripes provides the details.
Here’s the reason why Madison Bumgarner has leaned on the curveball this season | McCovey Chronicles
Bryan Murphy of McCovey Chronicles explores Madison Bumgarner’s recent regression.