Mile High Mystery

    One of the biggest mysteries in Major League Baseball is the situation in Colorado. The Colorado Rockies are a great organization in a great city. However, that organization has been one shrouded in mediocrity.

    In the 22 years since the organization's birth in 1993, the Rockies have only had seven winning seasons, and three playoff appearances. Colorado's best season came in 2007, when the team won 13 of their last 14 games to sneak into the playoffs, and made an improbable run to the World Series before getting swept in four games by the Boston Red Sox.

Helton's #17 was retired in 2014

    Even so, the Colorado Rockies have never won a division title. Each of their three franchise playoff appearances came as a wild card team. One the biggest reasons for Colorado's struggles is their inability to keep star talent long-term. Matt Holiday, Larry Walker, and most recently, Troy Tulowitzki are among the big name bats who have passed through Colorado, only to go ring-chasing with other teams not long after. Getting the big bats to come through town isn't the big problem, as Colorado's Coors Field is known to be a number boosting hitters park. They were lucky enough to house Todd Helton throughout his entire 16-year career. In fact, he is the only Rockies player to have his number retired by the team. The main issue, that has yet to be solved, is the endless revolving door that is the Rockies' pitching rotation. The thin air in Colorado makes it a difficult place to pitch. In the 22 years of the organization, Colorado has never had a bonafide ace at the top of their rotation. They have had a few former aces come through looking to extend their careers to avoid retirement (Oswalt, Moyer), but never a top of the line guy. There was once a time where they thought Ubaldo Jimenez was the long-awaited answer, but that proved untrue, as he punched a ticket to Cleveland after a couple of years.

Jimenez went 56-45 in 5.5 years with the Rockies

    As I said before, Colorado is a tough place to pitch. The thin air makes the ball travel, and often times, carry out of the park completely. Free agent pitchers are quick to avoid the Rockies, and trades often see star players leave Colorado, not come in. This forces the Rockies to grow all of their own talent on the farm. This includes the highly-anticipated debut of the second pick of the 2013 MLB Draft, Jon Gray, who is set to make his ML debut tonight against the Seattle Mariners.

    It remains to be seen if Gray will provide an answer to Colorado's perpetual pitching woes, but there is always something that can be done.Many people think that the answer is to push the walls of Coors Field back to hold the ball in the park better. Actually, this is not the answer. With a 415-foot center field wall, Colorado's Coors Field is already the fifth largest park in the league dimension-wise. Plus with the league's largest park, Minute Maid Park in Houston, announcing the removal of Tal's Hill in center field, and moving that wall in from 435 feet to 408 feet. Coors Field is about to move up that list. It is also the second largest stadium as far as capacity, so moving the walls out even more would be overkill.

2013 1st round draft pick, Jon Gray, makes ML debut tonight vs. SEA

    A possible answer lies in the pitching itself. Since Colorado has to rely almost entirely on it's farm system for talent, that is how the team can improve. A fastball would work in the thin air of the Mile High City, but not everyone can throw 98 mph. Also, most off-speed pitches flatten in that environment, hurting the pitch's effectiveness. This makes it difficult to pitch effectively in town, and calls for less conventional methods.

    The use of pitches like the sinker and the cutter are on the rise in Major League Baseball, as alternative to the conventional four seam fastball, so that pitchers who can't throw 98 mph can have an effective primary pitch. Since both the sinker and the cutter are variations of the fastball, they rely less on air movement, and are less likely to be effected by Colorado's thin air. Plus, these pitches induce more ground balls, which is the way to get outs at Coors. If you keep the ball on the ground you keep the ball in the park.

Coors Field-5th largest field in majors (depth), 2nd largest (capacity)

    Many big names have had success with one or both of these pitches. Mariano Rivera recorded a Major League record 652 saves with ONE pitch-the cutter. He also likely holds the record for most broken bats. Francisco Liriano had two straight seasons with an ERA above 5.00. He developed a sinker, found a home as a solid number two pitcher on a fantastic Pittsburgh Pirates rotation that is bound for the playoffs. Brandon McCarthy and Giants' rookie Chris Heston both throw heavy sinkers that are huge parts of their arsenals. Heston is a right-hander who compensates for a lack of velocity with crafty movement and deception. 

     While these are just a few names that could be on the Colorado watch list, many of price tags might be a little too high for Colorado  payroll. This brings me to my main point: Colorado could go a long way by teaching their young pitching prospects to throw one of these two pitches. At any level in the system, a sinker who prove beneficial and go a long way with the Colorado club.

    I understand that this is not a fix-all, nothing is, but in Colorado, where good pitching is hard to come by, this could certainly provide a fix of some kind. As we have seen in the last couple of years, the Rockies have put some great young talent on the field behind the pitchers mound, and could be a couple of mound pieces away from a championship run. Colorado is a great baseball town, and they deserve great results.

Rebuilding Year

    The first week of the Major League Baseball season is drawing to a close, and coming into Saturday , there are only a handful of teams who are left undefeated. Two of those teams, the Atlanta Braves and the Colorado Rockies remain undefeated, both 3-0. It is a bit surprising that these two teams are the ones still unbeaten, because many people thought that both of these teams were in rebuilding years, a thus wouldn't contend. Now, I'm not saying that these two teams will be playoff teams, I don't know. After all, it's only three games (let's not get ahead of ourselves). But both Atlanta and Colorado are making fans think.

The Rockies are 3-0 in 2015

    Today's post is not about numbers or wins or losses. It is about rebuilding a team and what it means. Using the teams mentioned above, we will look at it. Colorado seems to be in a perpetual state of rebuilding, as they have not put together a season that included the playoffs since 2009, two years after their miracle run to the World Series in 2007.  Those have been their only two playoff appearances since 1995. The Rockies always seem to be missing something, but that doesn't mean that they don't have some good players. When the Rockies think of rebuilding, that means that they do what they can to get more talent around their franchise player, shortstop Troy Tulowitzki. You can almost guarantee that Tulo will be there year after year, seeing the pieces around him change, to try to give Colorado the best chance to win a championship. That's rebuilding.

Atlanta trying to rebound from 79-83 record in 2014

    Coming into the season, the Atlanta Braves had one of the busiest and strangest offseason of any team. Last season the Braves geared up to make a championship run, and when they fell quite short of that goal and missed the playoffs entirely, they fired their longtime General Manager Frank Wren. When John Hart was hired as the new GM, he immediately began making moves, some of which were surprising. They quickly traded power threats Justin Upton, Evan Gattis, and franchise cornerstone Jason Heyward. As if these moves weren't confusing enough, the Braves got nothing other than prospects in return. Many wondered what the Braves would do next and if anyone was safe, but it was assumed that the Braves would hang on to first baseman Freddie Freeman, shortstop Andrelton Simmions, and closing pitcher Craig Kimbrel, because these were the guys that you'd rebuild a team around, especially because all three signed hefty contract extensions the season before.

    Wrong. The morning of Opening Day, the Braves shocked the baseball world by trading Craig Kimbrel to the San Diego Padres. Of the three mentioned about, Kimbrel was probably the most important player to hang on to. In four seasons, Kimbrel 185 saves, more than anyone else in that same four year span. He was widely regarded as the best closer in the game and was already breaking or challenging multiple team and league pitching records.

Craig Kimbrel (46) was traded to San Diego on April 6

    Personally, I was very confused by the move, not just as a Braves fan, but as a baseball fan. Kimbrel is a once in a lifetime talent. The Braves can't expect to give him up in hopes that another one will come along in a few years. That won't happen. I fully expect that Kimbrel will at least challenege the all time saves record before he hangs up his cleats. Kimbrel is not just another great player. He is a player like Mariano Rivera, Derek Jeter, Mike Trout or Chipper Jones. These are guys that you rebuild around, players who are so good and so important to their franchises, that you put players around them and under no circumstances do you make them a casualty of rebuilding.

    The Braves are 3-0 because this year's lineup is arguably better than last year's as far as making contact and putting the ball in play. They don't strikeout as much and don't rely so much on the home run. That being said, they have not yet felt the sting of letting Kimbrel go, but they will. In today's game, I guess it is a bit naive of us to believe that players will stay with one team for an entire career-that's just business-but their are franchise players that you build around, and then their are franchise superstars that you put in a glass box and hang on to no matter what. Kimbrel was a glass box player, and the Braves missed it.

    Every team rebuilds eventually, and every team does it differently. Whether you do it little by little like the Rockies, or you overhaul and start over like the Braves, every team's time comes. It's part of the game. The rebuilding process may take a year or it may take 100 years-sorry Cubs-but it will happen.

    Despite that, both Colorado and Atlanta are playing very well so far this season. We'll see how far they can go.