Typically teams that are completely out of it by late July are selling at the trade deadline.  They are trying to rebuild for the future.  The Rockies are a unique case in 2012, though, in that they don’t have anyone to trade that would bring back pieces to rebuild for the future.  Usually teams trade players with expiring contracts that they won’t be able to sign in the offseason or know the player won’t come back to play for the team.  The Rockies have favorable contracts with many of their players and are not going to be trading superstars Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki.

They did make a few moves heading into the craziness that is the trade deadline.  They shipped Marco Scutaro (who is on a 1 year deal) to the San Francisco Giants for a couple prospects.  Scutaro isn’t the kind of player that is going to command elite prospects in return, so the trade probably won’t make much of a difference.  They also cut ties with Jeremy Guthrie, who started on opening day for Colorado.  In return, the Kansas City Royals sent struggling pitcher Jonathan Sanchez

Jonathan Sanchez making his first start for Colorado at Coors Field

(formerly of the San Francisco Giants).  Sanchez is familiar with Coors Field because of his time with the Giants, but he has not been sharp this season.  Before the trade, the Royals had sent him down to AAA.  He has great stuff if he can keep it in the strike zone…but the problem is that he tends to throw a lot of balls.  He even has a no-hitter to his name, but he also had 8 walks in that game.  That sums up his potential right there.  He’s had two rough outings in his debut with the Rockies on July 23 and July 29 giving up at least 5 runs in each start and only lasting 4 innings and 4 1/3 innings in those starts.

This season could be seen as the most disappointing season in Colorado Rockies history.  While the expectations weren’t too high coming in, no one saw them having the 2^nd worst record in baseball as we enter August.  Only the Houston Astros have a worse record than the Rockies.  The Rockies need to find some pitching to complement their offense.  Too many times they lose games where they score at least 6 runs and have over 10 hits.  Their rotation is awful and their bullpen isn’t much better.  Fans continue to pack Coors Field, although lately there has been as much of the opposing teams color in the crowd as the home purple and black.  Either way, Rockies games are exciting to watch because at least one team (usually the visiting team) is going to have a hit parade.

The Rockies are trying everything to make their pitching staff better.  Last week the team decided to go with a four man rotation, as opposed to the traditional five. They would limit the starters to roughly 75 pitches and then give it to the bullpen.  Part of the reason for this is because the starters can’t get past the 5^th inning anyway, so might as well do it on purpose, right?

I’m not so sure.  Then again, nothing is really going to fix this rotation.  Hey, in other news, the Rockies won 11-10 Thursday. They had a seven run lead after two innings but still needed to make it interesting.

With the new playoff format of two wild card teams, there are going to be a lot of teams still in it for a while. The Rockies are one of the few teams that can say “we’re out of it already”. And they’ve been out of it for over a month now.

Obviously the problem has been pitching. The Rockies need to score 10 runs to win a game.  They rank 4^th (out of 30 teams) in runs scored and 3^rd in batting average, on base percentage and slugging percentage.  But their rank dead last in a four pitching categories (ERA, Quality Starts, WHIP and BAA).

A quality start is defined by having the starting pitcher pitch at least 6 innings and not giving up more than three earned runs.  The Rockies have had 17 of those this season…out of 75 games. That’s only 22%.  Horrible.  And with this new four man rotation, they are unlikely to get any quality starts any time soon.

Despite having the third worst record in baseball, fans are still coming out to the park. Credit the dedicated fans. We’ll see how long that lasts.  If anything else, the Rockies provide an entertaining game…lots of hits by the opposing team. And if the Rockies are going to win, lots of runs are going to be scored by both teams in most cases.

In other news, the Rockies pitching coach Bob Apodaca resigned his position and now the Rockies will have two pitching coaches. He had been the pitching coach for ten years, which is quite remarkable considering the fact that the Rockies have never been known for their pitching.

Carlos Gonzalez made history between Wednesday and Thursday last week when he hit a home run in four consecutive at bats. Several others have done this in Major League history, but never in Colorado Rockies history.  His next official at bat, after an intentional walk, was only a double (if you have him in your fantasy leagues you might as well trade him because clearly he isn’t hitting home runs anymore, just lousy doubles). Oh, and then he stole third and scored later in the inning.

Gonzalez can do it all. Just think what Rockies fans were thinking in 2008 when they traded away star player Matt Holliday to Oakland for Carlos Gonzalez, Huston Street and Greg Smith.  The A’s got Holliday for half a season before trading him to St. Louis after a sub-par stint while the Rockies got a five tool superstar.  Sports Illustrated called the trade “very good” for Oakland and “inexplicable” for the Rockies.  Funny how hindsight is always 20/20.  While Holliday has been a very good player for St. Louis, he isn’t a five tool player and is six years older.  It’s now clear that Colorado benefitted from the trade.

Would you believe that Carlos Gonzalez has never been an all-star?  He’s been an elite player for three seasons now and has yet to make an all-star team. It can be difficult when you have the best shortstop in the National League in Troy Tulowitzki on your team but Gonzalez still deserves to be an all-star.  Sometimes those selected to start the all-star game is based too much on a popularity contest, but Gonzalez deserves to be a starter. He’ll definitely be going to Kansas City this year anyway because every team gets a representative and he is clearly the best Rockies player in 2012. But he needs to be starting.

Can you name three other outfielders that deserve starting spots over Gonzalez?  I could see Andre Ethier starting because he’s hitting .314 with 9 HR and 46 RBI for the best team in the national league. Matt Kemp would obviously be starting if he was healthy, but he isn’t and probably won’t be. Then the other outfield spot would go to Giancarlo Stanton, Melky Cabrera or Andrew McCutchen. But Gonzalez is easily there (as of today). He has the highest OPS (on base percentage + slugging percentage) out of all qualifying outfielders.  In the end though, he probably won’t start because the Rockies are not nationally popular and their record is not good. But they’ve won 9 of their last 12 and if that kind of play continues prior to the all-star break in July, more exposure is sure to come Gonzalez’s way.

NOTE: Waited until Tuesday to get this out because the early vote results were published.  Gonzalez currently sits in 13^th place among outfielders in votes with only 386,000+ votes.  Some notable names ahead of him (that should not be ahead of him) include:

Matt Holliday, Jason Heyward (.235 batting average), Hunter Pence (.264 avg.) and Jay Bruce (.259 avg.). Oh and by the way, all have less RBIs and HRs than Mr. Gonzalez. I know part of it has been Colorado’s poor start to the season, but sometimes greatness needs to be acknowledged, regardless of the team’s record.  Gonzalez is a superstar and it’s time the rest of the nation realizes it.

Rockies wish they would fall asleep on April 30th and wake up on June 1st after two awful May campaigns in a row.

If I were the Rockies, I would find some way to get baseball to take a 31 day break from April 30^th to June 1^st. This is the 2^nd consecutive season in which their May has been awful.  Nothing is going right and the Rockies are sliding into a hole they might not be able to get out of.

Last season Colorado was the only team that could not register double digit wins in the month of May. An 8-21 month was too deep of a hole to dig out of the rest of the season.  That was also bad enough for the worst record in the month.  Flash forward to this season and it’s the same story.  After going 11-11 in April, Colorado is 6-17 in May before play on Sunday – worst in major league baseball.  In the past, the Rockies would at least be able to play solid baseball at home.  Not the case this month.  A 2-8 home record in May makes it difficult to be optimistic going forward.

Again the problem has been pitching and defense.  The Rockies lead the league in runs given up.  In games where the pitching seems to hold the fort down, the offense is nowhere to be seen.  The team has yet to put it together for a long stretch.  They better start some type of consistently good play soon or there will (and should) be a lot of changes headed their way.

Next up for the Rockies:

4 games at home against the Houston Astros; 3 games at home against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

A winning record in these seven games would go a long way to help Colorado turn their season around.

Any Rockies fan will tell you that it has been an exciting, yet frustrating start to the season.  We’re now 30 games in, and at 13-17 the Rockies are not playing well enough to sniff the playoffs this season.

At the very least Rockies games have been exciting.  With a lineup typically featuring Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Todd Helton and Michael Cuddyer hitting in a row, the Rockies are never completely out of a game.  They have had games in which they’ve scored 17 and 18 runs this season.

Todd Helton hits a grand slam against the New York Mets to tie the game in the 8th only to have the bullpen blow the game the next inning.

The biggest reason for the poor start to the season has been pitching.  The rotation is a mess and the bullpen is a disaster. When the starting pitcher is finally able to have a quality outing, the bullpen blows the lead. If the team is able to put up some early runs in support of their pitchers, somehow they’ll find themselves needing to put up a couple of runs in the 9^th to stay in the game.  It’s been a rollercoaster ride so far and been exciting to watch, but ultimately disappointing as losses keep piling up when wins are needed.  If someone can provide some sense of stability in the starting rotation and bullpen, then maybe the Rockies can start putting together a long winning streak.

There’s an old saying in sports: defense wins championships.  In baseball, defense is part of the game, but in this reference it’s pitching (along with a good defense) that wins championships.  Either way, that doesn’t bode well for the 2012 version of the Colorado Rockies (or any version of the Colorado Rockies since their inception in 1993).

The Rockies defeated the Arizona Diamondbacks 7-6 Friday night in the first game of a three game set.  If the Rockies are going to make a run at the playoffs this year, they’ll have to win a lot of games the same way they did Friday night; by scoring more runs than the other team. Okay, I’m kidding, they obviously need to score more than the other team to win games. But the real point here is that they’ll have to win games by scoring 7 or more runs.

Jamie Moyer had already logged 566.1 innings as a major league pitcher before the Berlin Wall fell.

The Rockies have a good lineup that will keep them in a lot of games. The problem is their pitching, namely their starting rotation. Although Jamie Moyer can still pitch a decent game at the major league level at 49 years old, you know your rotation is less than spectacular when your local batting cages pitch faster than Moyer. You also know you’re desperate for some starting pitching when you have a pitcher starting for you who began his career before the Berlin Wall was taken down.  I don’t mean to rag on Moyer, but it’s too fun not to.

Aside from Moyer, the starting rotation has other holes in it too. The Rockies have lots of young pitchers who need to pitch to their potential for this team to go anywhere this year. Juan Nicasio has shown flashes of quality stuff in his limited time with the major league club, but Friday night’s performance can’t become the norm. It took him 44 pitches to get out of the 1^st inning and left the game before completing 3 innings with 91 pitches thrown. Even if he is able to wiggle out of jams and limit damage, too many pitches will wear down the bullpen.

Matt Cain (right) and Tim Lincecum proved how vital pitching is to win a World Series in 2010.

The lack of quality in the starting rotation puts added pressure on the lineup.  Having to feel like you have to score a lot of runs to win a game is not always the best feeling.  When you add to that the fact that they haven’t been hitting lefties well to start the season, it makes it tough to win ball games.  But back to my original statement: defense wins championships. If the pitching isn’t always going to be on, you have to make sure you play solid defense to build pitchers’ confidence. The Rockies have been kicking the ball around thus far and it’s hurting the team. In the case of Moyer’s last start on Thursday against the San Francisco Giants, Dexter Fowler dropped a routine fly ball that extended the inning. Eventually Moyer couldn’t get out of the 6^thand the Giants tacked on two more runs that inning because of the error. The Giants won the game 4-2. Every run surrendered matters, and errors only make it more difficult for these pitchers to do their job well.

In the meantime, it will be fun to watch this team.  Although I personally love a good pitchers’ duel, offense sells tickets. Watching these hitters mash the ball to keep their team in games will make for some high-scoring excitement.

Welcome to your 2012 NL West Round Table Preview with Rockies beat writer Steven Folsom and Diamondbacks writer Matthew Hesse.  2011 brought many surprises in baseball and one of those was the NL West.  The Giants didn’t repeat and the Diamondbacks stormed back from a last place finish in 2010 to winning the division in 2011.  What will 2012 bring?  Well, let’s get started.

Biggest offseason addition

Steven:  My initial thought was the Diamondbacks trade to acquire P Trevor Cahill from the Oakland Athletics, but I feel he needs to prove he can regain his 2010 form.  He’ll be moving from a pitcher’s friendly park to a hitter’s friendly one.  In the meantime, I’ll go with the Rockies and their free agent signing of OF Michael Cuddyer.  He is valuable because of his versatility in the field.  His bat should love Coors Field and will provide a formidable foursome with Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki and Todd Helton.

Runner-up: Padres trading for P Edinson Volquez and 1B Yonder Alonso from Cincinnati.

Matthew:  Michael Cuddyer and Trevor Cahill are pretty obvious key additions.  I think the Giants potentially have the biggest addition adding bats in the Bay Area with Angel Pagan and Melky Cabrera.  These moves will help the Giants keep the Diamondbacks honest.  Are these power hitters who will put up MVP numbers?  Absolutely not, but they can help get the Giants some runs on the board with decent base hits.

Runner-up:  It will be interesting to see how Jeremy Guthrie performs for the Rockies.  He faced some tough teams out in the AL East.  Playing against some quieter bats and pitching in pitcher friendly ballparks in the NL West could help his numbers.

Biggest offseason loss

Steven:  I don’t feel like any team had a significant loss in the offseason, but I’ll go with former Giants OF Andres Torres. He was such a sparkplug for a weak Giants offense on their way to winning the World Series in 2010.  Injuries caused him to have a very poor 2011 campaign, but if he regains his 2010 form with the New York Mets in 2012, the Giants will miss him atop their lineup.

Runner-up: Former Padres P Mat Latos traded away to Cincinnati.

Matthew:  Padres losing Mat Latos was a huge loss.  Yes, they got some significant talent in return but it will still sting the rotation.  Combine that top-of-the-line starter with the loss of their closer Heath Bell and the Padres are in shambles.  They didn’t win a ton of games in 2011 but it will only get worse in 2012.

Rockies 3B prospect Nolan Arenado should get an opportunity to help the club at some point this season.

Prospect to watch for

Steven:  The Arizona Diamondbacks rotation already is formidable, but whenever RHP Trevor Bauer makes his way to the big leagues this year the rotation could potentially be dominant.  Bauer has been compared to Giants P Tim Lincecum (who happens to be a two-time Cy Young award winner) and was selected 3^rd in last year’s draft.

Runner-up: Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado.

Matthew:  As a Diamondbacks fan I hope that no one sees Trevor Bauer in 2012.  If we see Bauer that will be because of an injury or because Collmenter/Saunders have performed that poorly.  The prospect to look out for in 2012 is Drew Pomeranz.  He debuted in the Majors at the end of the season in 2011 for the Rockies and he was sharp in spring training this year.  The Rockies biggest question mark is in their rotation and Pomeranz is ready for that role as a starter.

Runner-up:  Tie between Diamondbacks Trevor Bauer (pending their starters performance) and Rockies 3B Nolan Arenado.

Position Player of the Year

Steven:  There are MVP candidates scattered throughout this division, but my choice is Diamondbacks OF Justin Upton.  We sometimes forget he is only 24 years old. He has already been a great player, and the thought of him improving as he enters his prime can only cause opposing pitchers to tremble.

Runner-up: Tie between Rockies SS Troy Tulowitzki and Dodgers OF Matt Kemp.

Matthew:  Matt Kemp will get it done for the MVP this year, not only in the NL West but the entire National League.  Upton will put up great numbers and so will perennial MVP candidate Troy Tulowitzki.  However, Kemp will be energized by the purchase of the Dodgers and he will be looking to get other players excited to come out west and re-energize this Dodgers franchise.  They may not be a threat this season, but the Dodgers will be a tough out for years to come.

Runner-up:  Diamondbacks OF Justin Upton

Kershaw looks for continued success in 2012 after winning the Cy Young last year.

Pitcher of the Year

Steven:  Dodgers Clayton Kershaw was last season’s Cy Young award winner.  The Giants have a two-time Cy Young award winner in Tim Lincecum.  I’m not going to choose either of them.  Instead, my money is on Lincecum’s teammate Madison Bumgarner.

Bumgarner had a horrible April last year and still ended the season with a 13-13 record and a 3.21 ERA.  I think the Giants offense is better this year, giving Bumgarner more opportunities at wins.

Runner-up: Dodgers P Clayton Kershaw.

Matthew:  In 2011, the NL West was dominated by pitching and 2012 will only get better.  The Dodgers, Giants, and Diamondbacks all have at least one Cy Young candidate.  It is hard to pick against Clayton Kershaw.  Bumgarner could easily get off and running but unless the Giants get run support he will more likely be close to the record he had last year.  Kennedy and Hudson had amazing years for the Diamondbacks.  The problem with them is they were almost too flawless that there will be a drop off in 2012.  Come September Kershaw will be the 2012 Cy Young candidate from the NL West but will not repeat as Cy Young winner.

Runner-up:  Diamondbacks P Ian Kennedy

Biggest disappointment for 2012

Steven:  Padres OF Carlos Quentin comes over from the Chicago White Sox to try to hit home runs where fly balls go to die at Petco Park.  It won’t help matters that he has been injury prone the last few seasons and will miss at least the first month of the 2012 season with a knee injury.  But my choice isn’t solely based on the injuries, it’s the anticipated drop in production.

Runner-up: Giants OF Melky Cabrera

Matthew:  The entire San Diego Padres team.  The players added in the Mat Latos trade will not perform to their potential and neither will players like Carlos Quentin.  The Padres will post one of their worst seasons since 2008.

Biggest surprise for 2012

Steven:  For me it will be Giants P Madison Bumgarner.  I think he will be in the Cy Young discussion in September.  Being in the same rotation as Tim Lincecum and Matt Cain makes it difficult to generate Cy Young buzz, but I think he’ll be their best pitcher this season and generate discussion for the award.

Runner-up: Huge year for Dodgers OF Andre Ethier.

Matthew:  My surprise for 2012 will come in the form of a GM in Kevin Towers for the Diamondbacks.  I see Towers trading Chris Young if his strikeout rate doesn’t improve.  In 2010, Towers traded Mark Reynolds who struck out a lot.  In 2011, Towers traded Kelly Johnson who struck out a lot as well.  Chris Young struggles in the same sense, but is still a fan favorite.  At the end of the day though, Kevin Towers is a very smart GM.  Each trade has been beneficial and Towers will not trade Young for a bag of peanuts and with 4 strong outfielders one of the outfielders is expendable.

We both agree Buster Posey will be the comeback player in the division this season.

Comeback player of the year

Steven:  There’s one clear choice on this one and it’s Giants C Buster Posey.  He hits in the middle of their lineup and catches a top pitching staff.  His season-ending injury last season derailed the Giants’ quest for another championship.  As Posey goes, so go the Giants and that is why I have them winning the NL West in 2012.

Matthew:  Buster Posey will be the comeback player of the year for the NL West.  Mainly, because he was out all of last year and he will be looking to get the Giants back where he is comfortable, first place.  Another player to look out for is Jeremy Guthrie in his new environment.  He might be able to bounce back and have a career year.  Whether this happens or not remains to be seen but it is very possible.

Expected records and finish

Steven: 

1. San Francisco Giants 90-72
2. Arizona Diamondbacks 88-74*
3. Colorado Rockies 83-79
4. Los Angeles Dodgers 78-84
5. San Diego Padres 68-94

Matthew:

1. Arizona Diamondbacks 89-73
2. San Francisco Giants 88-74*
3. Colorado Rockies 85-77
4. Los Angeles Dodgers 74-88
5. San Diego Padres 64-98

*Wildcard

There you have it from two writers who have their eyes squarely on the NL West.  It will be interesting to see how the first couple months of the season play out and what kind of moves may result (i.e. Matt’s observation of OF Chris Young being expendable).  Although it seems the national media is not paying much attention to this division, I think I can speak for Matt when I saw we both think this will be an exciting divisional race all season.  Being out west can be difficult to attain national attention (unless you’re Albert Pujols) but I think it will be a tight race throughout.

Thanks for checking out our NL West preview.  Look out for more Round Table articles from NL West writers as we progress through the season.  You can follow Matt for Diamondbacks and other baseball related thoughts in between articles on twitter @matthewrhesse and you can follow me @steven_folsom.

Longer days and warmer temperatures can only mean one thing: Colorado Rockies baseball is back.  The Rockies enter their 20^th season as a professional baseball franchise and aim to win their first N.L. West title.  There is always a lot of shuffling of players during the off-season and this winter was no different.  Here is a recap of the Rockies key moves they hope can push them into the playoffs in 2012.

Michael Cuddyer, OF

Michael Cuddyer was Colorado's big offseason addition through free agency.

Cuddyer comes over from Minnesota via free agency.  He signed a three-year contract with Colorado and at 32 years of age can seem like a risky move for Colorado.  Hitting 20 HR and 70 RBI in a very pitcher friendly Target Field should translate well to hitter friendly Coors Field.  Cuddyer has been valuable in the past with his ability to play almost anywhere.  Though he’ll primarily play outfield for Colorado, he can also play third base, second base and first base (which is nice to give Todd Helton a day off while keeping a solid fielder in play).  Most importantly, Cuddyer will provide the lineup with some extra pop where he will most likely hit 5^th or 6^th depending on the match-up.  He should be a solid addition to an already potent lineup.

Marco Scutaro, 2B

After spending the last 8 seasons in the American League, Scurato comes back to the National League to replace Mark Ellis, who has moved on to the Los Angeles Dodgers.  Scutaro provides Colorado with a reliable glove at second, though a slight downgrade from the always dependable Ellis.  Where he may lack with the glove, he makes up for with his bat.  Scutaro has hit 30 HRs in his past 3 seasons.  The Rockies gave up RHP Clay Mortensen for Scutaro in a trade with Boston on January 21, 2012.  Scutaro could find himself hitting 2^nd for the Rockies, but also could slide down in the lower third of the lineup to provide some stability down there.

Ramon Hernandez, C

Hernandez signed a two-year contract in the off-season to start at catcher for the Rockies after the organization traded C Chris Iannetta to the Angels for RHP Tyler Chatwood.  Hernandez, a career .266 hitter, should enjoy hitting at Coors Field (who wouldn’t?).  His most important attribute might come as a manager of the young pitching staff.  Hernandez has been the backstop for some great staffs, including the Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder and Barry Zito powerhouse in Oakland from 1999-2003.

Jeremy Guthrie has thrown at least 200 innings each of the past three seasons.

Jeremy Guthrie, RHP

Guthrie was acquired from Baltimore for RHPs Jason Hammel and Matt Lindstrom in early February.  While his numbers aren’t amazing, he has been able to pitch at least 200 innings in each of the past three seasons.  I think a change in scenery could help him this season.  He will also be counted on to help younger pitchers on the staff (Pomeranz, White, Nicasio) with what it means to be a major league pitcher.

Other news and notes:

Some other notable transactions include the trade of Ty Wigginton to Philadelphia for cash considerations, the free agent signing of 3B Casey Blake to replace Wigginton at third and the Major League camp invite to 49 year old Jamie Moyer.  Reports so far this spring put Moyer’s fastball around 82 mph, but still able to get movement on his pitches and should be a contender to make the team in April.

Three trades to note in the off-season were the departure of 3B Ian Stewart to the Chicago Cubs for OF Tyler Colvin and INF DJ LeMahieu, former OF Seth Smith being sent to Oakland for RHP Guillermo Moscoso and RHP Josh Outman, and finally former Rockies closer Huston Street was sent to San Diego for LHP Nick Schmidt.

I only highlighted the major moves the Rockies made this offseason even though more were made.  The Rockies come into the 2012 season with a lot of promise but need their young pitching staff to pitch well in order to catch up to division favorites San Francisco Giants and Arizona Diamondbacks.

Look out for my next article which will be a roundtable preview of the N.L. West with fellow ProSportsBlog writer Matthew Hesse of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  It should be up in the next few weeks.  After that we will be ready to hit the ground running on another exciting season of Colorado Rockies baseball.

The 2011 baseball season was an up and down roller coaster ride for fans of the Colorado Rockies.  After a long 6-month season, Colorado finished 73-89 and 4^th place in the N.L. West.  Though it was disappointing for some fans, there are many reasons for optimism going forward.

Three reasons for optimism for 2012:

Troy Tulowitzki will anchor the Rockies lineup for years to come

1. Colorado has the best shortstop in the league in Troy Tulowitzki.  At 27 years old, Tulowitzki is just entering the prime of his career.  In 2011, Tulowitzki batted .302 with 30 HRs and 105 RBI.  More importantly, he is the clear leader of the club.  He was always first to put the onus on himself to be better for the team to be successful.  You want to have your star player crave success and despise failure.  He will always be able to keep the rest of the players on track by his example and leadership.
2. Carlos Gonzalez looks to be quite the steal in the Matt Holiday trade back in 2009.  The Oakland Athletics gave up on the young outfielder, but he has flourished the past two seasons in Colorado.  After a fantastic 2010 campaign that included a .336 average with 34 HRs and 117 RBI, Gonzalez had a solid 2011 season.  Gonzalez batted .295 with 26 HRs and 92 RBI in 100 less at-bats.  The impressive batting statistics do not illustrate the value he brings to the Rockies. He is a great fielder as well and will only be 26 heading into the 2012 baseball season.  Even though Gonzalez spent the majority of the second half of the season injured with wrist and forearm problems, he was still able to produce when he was on the field.  Tulowitzki and Gonzalez make for a dangerous one-two punch going forward for Colorado.
3. Finally, Colorado was a little weak in pitching this past season.  A reason fans should be optimistic for next season is because the Ubaldo Jimenez trade in July brought back two solid starters for the Rockies.  Though Alex White struggled for the Rockies after the trade, he is still only 23 years old.  After a full off-season of preparation and maturity, White can improve on his 2011 season with a better 2012 campaign.  The other pitcher in the Jimenez deal was Drew Pomeranz.  He was able to make four starts in September for Colorado.  Three of those four starts were solid, with one being an awful, throw-away start that you can sometimes expect from rookies.  Pomeranz is still very young (he’ll be 23 next season) and raw.  With some coaching and increased big league experience, Pomeranz could shine in the years to come for the Rockies.

Injuries and under-performance played a big role in the disappointing season for the Colorado Rockies.  But, because of those injuries and lack of performance, younger players were able to get some time in at the major league level in September.  Jordan Pacheco played at first base and third base and was hitting 3^rd down the stretch and still played well.  He ended the year with a .286 batting average and 14 RBI in only 21 games.

Another solid contributor for Colorado was Catcher Wilin Rosario.  Prior to his call-up, he had represented the Rockies organization two straight years in the Futures Game (which is held during the All-Star break to highlight the best of what is to come for Major League Baseball).  His batting statistics were not overly impressive, but his promise is.  He stands to have a shot at being the starting catcher next season if he has a solid Spring Training.  If not, the organization will likely send him down to AAA so he can play every day and eventually call him up when they are ready for him to take over fulltime.

Final Numbers:

Colorado finished the season with some solid batting statistics but lacked in the pitching department.  Here are the final statistics (out of 32 teams):

Offense:

Runs – 735 = 7^th in ML

Batting Average – .258 = 9^th in ML

On Base Percentage – .329 = 7^th in ML

Slugging Percentage – .410 – 11^th in ML

 Pitching:

The Rockies hope Pomeranz will help bring the pitching in line with the team's batting

ERA – 4.43 = 26^th in ML

Quality Starts – 71 = 28^th in ML

WHIP – 1.38 = 23^rd in ML

Batting Average Against – .265 = 25^th in ML

Clearly the Rockies will need to get their pitching ranks closer to their batting ranks to get the team back to where they expect to be.  It will be interesting to see the moves the organization makes in the off-season to help make that goal a reality.

The mood among Rockies fans concerning their manager Jim Tracy seems to be increasing in negativity.  Twitter has been buzzing lately with comments on Tracy and how he handles the club.  Unfortunately for Tracy, the buzz has been unpleasant.

Fans wonder why the Rockies have underachieved this season.  When a team struggles, the first person to usually receive much of the blame is the coach/manager.  Although Tracy has caused Rockies fans moments of irritation this season (and in 2010), it appears he will be back as Colorado’s manager for the 2012 season.

Because the Rockies have had productive seasons from SS Troy Tulowitzki, OF Carlos Gonzalez and 1B Todd Helton, the finger tends to be pointed at Tracy for the poor record.  One thing to consider, however, is how awful the pitching staff has been this season.  Tracy is not the one going out there and giving up the hits and runs Rockies pitchers have been all year long.  He is the one putting the starting pitcher on the lineup card and deciding who comes in after the starter though, and that could be the biggest gripe Rockies fans have with Tracy.

There have been some injuries this season that have been difficult to overcome for Colorado, a major contributor for their inconsistent play.  Regardless of who is managing next year, the team has to acquire and/or develop pitchers.  Right now, Rockies starting pitchers are not doing their part.  Aaron Cook, for example, is 3-8 with a 5.82 ERA this season.  He has given up 55 earned runs in 85 innings pitched.  That puts a lot of pressure on the offense to score whenever they see Cook’s name on the lineup card.

Colorado is looking to the future at this point in the season.  As September begins, so do the auditions for some potential permanent fixtures with the major league club.  Because the AA affiliate of the Rockies is making a run at the playoffs, those September call-ups might be delayed a few days.  Once they are called up, it will be exciting to see which players can be seen as contributors for the future of the Colorado Rockies.