This Week in Purple: Back at It!

The weekend is a great time to kick back and reflect. This Week in Purple is the place to catch up on the news from our team at Purple Row. You’ll find links to Rockpiles and other content below as well as a platform for community discussion in the comments.

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The Rockies have completed the first week of their second half and have yet to lose a series! They took two of three from the New York Yankees, and split a two-game set against the Astros. They also beat the Miami Marlins last night by a score of 6-1. They have also out-homered their opposition 14-3 (more on that later). Are the Rockies finally turning a corner of the second half?

That said, here’s what our writers had to say about this week:

To Read

• The Rockies starting rotation is in shambles, to put it lightly. They lost Germán Márquez to Tommy John surgery earlier this year and Antonio Senzatela to the procedure just last week. They also lost Kyle Freeland to a shoulder injury, but hopefully he’ll be able to return before the end of the season. Austin Gomber is currently the only starter still here and healthy from Opening Day. And from a prospect perspective, Ryan Rolison re-injured his shoulder in June and was placed on the 60-day IL again, and Gabriel Hughes was placed on the IL with a potential injury to his throwing arm. It’s been a rough year for Rockies pitching, and Kenneth Weber looked at the woes and how they have affected the organization for his Monday Rockpile.

• For her Tuesday Rockpile, Renee Dechert evaluated the Rockies defense using Fielding Run Value — a metric for capturing a player’s measurable defensive performance by converting all of Statcast’s individual defensive metrics from different scales onto the same run-based scale, which can then be read as a player being worth X runs above or Y runs below average.” It takes into account Outs Above Average, Fielder Throwing Runs, Catcher Blocking, Catcher Framing and Catcher Throwing. What does it show for the Rockies over the last three years? Namely, Ryan McMahon has been their best defender over the last three years, and Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar are awesome youngsters (among other things).

• For his Wednesday Rockpile, Skyler Timmins proposed something interesting: should Michael Toglia abandon switch-hitting? Skyler looked at the data for Toglia’s right and left splits, and concluded that he should, perhaps, only left-handed. What do you think?

• For his Thursday Rockpile, Evan Lang asked Matt Koch about his baseball journey. He was drafted in 2012 in the third round by the New York Mets and finally made his MLB debut in 2016 with the Arizona Diamondbacks. He then struggled with some injuries and spent some time playing in Japan before coming back stateside in 2021. So far for the Rox, he has made nine appearances without allowing a run through 10 ²⁄₃ innings. Not too shabby!

• Finally, for her Friday Rockpile, Joelle Milholm looked at the Rockies stats in their five games since the All-Star Break. At the time of Joelle’s writing, the Rockies were 3-2 and outscored their opponents 23-22. Most notably, though, they out-homered their opponents 11-3 (before adding three more homers on Friday night). C.J. Cron has hit three homers; Kris Bryant and Nolan Jones have a pair each; and Randal Grichuk, Ryan McMahon, Michael Toglia, and Alan Trejo have added one bomb apiece. They’re averaging 2.2 homers per game (up from 0.89 pre-ASB). Such fun! Could this be a turning point for the Rockies offense?

To Listen

• Affected by Altitude: Sent from my iPad — This week, Skyler and Evan discuss the worsening injury luck of the Rockies, do a brief draft recap, and dip into the mailbag to answer questions from listeners!

• Every Rockie Ever Podcast: Jason Giambi — In this new episode, Skyler and Dustin look back on memorable moments of the Great Giambino.

Weekend Discussion Topic

Is it time to start talking about Brenton Doyle or Ezequiel Tovar for Rookie of the Year honors? What about Gold Gloves or other honors? Let us know your thoughts!

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