Colorado Rockies Pair of Rookies Providing Hope in 2017
By Jason Burke
Thursday in Milwaukee and Friday at home against the Dodgers, the Colorado Rockies sent rookie pitchers to the mound. They combined to provide hope for the Mile High fan club and to anyone else that’s paying attention.
The Colorado Rockies had a rough spring training in terms of injuries. David Dahl and Ian Desmond were the big blows, while Chad Bettis (get well soon!) was the most serious. However, the Rockies just keep rolling along, and with their win over the Dodgers on Friday now share first place with the Arizona Diamondbacks at 4-1. The reason for that is simple: Pitching.
Thursday’s starter, Antonio Senzatela, Colorado’s number ten prospect entering the season, had never thrown a pitch above Double-A, and he only accumulated 34 2/3 innings worth of those. So he went out and fired five scoreless innings against the Brewers, allowing two hits and three walks while striking out six. Yes, the Brewers are rebuilding, but his first outing didn’t appear too big for him and that is something that should be encouraging to Rockies fans.
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On Friday the club returned home for some stiff competition against everyone’s pick to win the NL West and tossed out another rookie in left-hander Kyle Freeland. Freeland is a hometown kid that was taken by the Rockies 8th overall back in 2014 and yesterday he got to make his big league debut in the city he was born in, tossing six innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits and two walks while striking out six.
The Rockies won both games 2-1, which almost says even more about the kids they’ve brought up. Both games were close and the pitches they were making counted. It’s not like the Colorado offense had pummeled the opposing pitcher and the rookies could throw fastballs and hope for the best. They had to pitch, and they rose to the occasion.
I wrote in the Rockies team preview before the season started that the team wasn’t sunk due to injuries just yet. The injuries they’d suffered were mostly on the offensive side of things, and they have plenty of offense to begin with. The true test for the Rockies this season, and why everyone was picking them as a sleeper was because of their improved pitching staff, and that largely hasn’t changed.
Entering play on Saturday, the Rockies staff ranked 1st in fWAR at 1.1. Their bullpen, which ranked 21st last season, now sits at number 4. The optimism that swirled around Colorado this offseason is starting to creep back, and oddly enough that optimism is there because of their pitching staff.
It’s still early, but these Rockies just don’t feel like the same teams that got into shootouts and hoped for the best. GM Jeff Bridich has a plan, and it appears as though it’s working.