Welcome to the 2019 edition of Ranking the Rockies, where we take a look back every player to log playing time for the Rockies in 2019. The purpose of this list is to provide a snapshot of the player in context. The “Ranking” is an organizing principle that’s drawn from Baseball Reference’s WAR (rWAR). It’s not something the staff debated. We’ll begin with the player with the lowest rWAR and end up with the player with the highest.
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No. 10, Tim Melville (0.8 rWAR)
Tim Melville was drafted out of Wentzville Holt High School (Missouri) by the Kansas City Royals in the fourth round of the 2008 class. He has since been a minor league journeyman, only making three major league starts before being called upon by the Rockies this year.
Melville began 2019 working at Little Miss BBQ in Phoenix, near ASU (ranked 7th best eatery in the Valley by Yelp). In his first start at Chase Field, he even mentioned that he and his girlfriend spent Opening Day in the stands watching the Red Sox take on the D-backs. Little did he know that he would be making his first start since 2017 in that same stadium pitching against those same D-backs. In his Rockies debut, he pitched seven innings of two hit, one run ball and picked up the win. He also made sure the Rockies weren’t swept by the Diamondbacks. In his second start, he pitched against the Atlanta Braves on August 26 in the April 10 make up game. In that game, he pitched five innings of five hit ball without yielding a run. The Rockies went on to win for the first time in four games, but Melville didn’t get a decision. His first loss came on August 31 against the Pittsburgh Pirates, also his first game not on YouTube. He only lasted two innings and was blasted for five runs on seven hits. Melville would go on to make seven starts for the Rockies, finishing 2019 with a 4.86 ERA in 33 ⅓ starts. He only gave up 18 earned runs, but nine of them were home runs.
Tim Melville was the feel-good story of a lost 2019 season. He was the guy who started the year working at a barbecue joint and finished the year with an outside shot to make the 2020 starting rotation. He was also the guy who brought cookies for his teammates on the last day of the season.
The Rockies outrighted him to Triple-A Albuquerque, which means that if he is back on the team in 2020, he’ll need to do it as a feel good story again. And those are never quite the same the second time around.