Where will the Rockies finish in 2011

[Kingdom]

By now, you know that Colorado sold all of its mountains and John Elway memorabilia in order to fund contract extensions for Carlos Gonzalez, Troy Tulowitzki, Jorge De La Rosa.. yeah one of those don't belong, but hey, who's to stop them. They added Matt Lindstrom, Felipe Paulino, and resigned Betancourt for pen depth and they'll need a bounce back year from Aaron Cook to round out the rotation. They also added Wigginton and Jose Lopez for utility depth. They have several guys capable of a lot of power, as well as stealing a lot of bases. It will be important to see how the young corp of Gonzalez, Tulowitzki, Jimenez, etc do following last season and if Huston Street can avoid.. Huston Street injuries or Huston Street collapses. Dun dun dun, stay tuned kids.

[love_that_reefer]

I have the Rockies finishing third. The bullpen is shaky and the rotation is too. Jimenez and Chacin look sharp but the rest isn't that impressive. Jorge de la Rosa is decent when healthy but he usually isn't. The Rockies have the offense and should be deeper on the bench with guys like Wiggington and Jose Lopez but in the West, pitching dominates. Guys like Ianetta, Stewart, Fowler and Young Jr. really need to turn a corner for this team to finish higher.

[realmofotalk]

I think you both are selling de la Rosa short. He's a power lefty who gets hitters out with his changeup. Plus his strikeout totals make him a valuable pitcher in rotisserie formats.

[love_that_reefer]

Only thing short about de la Rosa are his seasons. Sure he can strikeout guys but he can also get hit very hard and is hardly ever healthy.

[Trendy Bastard]

I have them finishing second and around .500.. Not a good team, but will win some games in a meh division. The only way they make the playoffs is if the Giants fall on their faces.

[realmofotalk]

I'm just saying...just like on-base% is for hitters, strikeout rate is the most fundamental stat for pitchers because conversely, a strikeout eliminates all possibility for a hitter to get on base. And a preemptive fuck you from me to anyone who try to bring up Broxton as a counterexample. When a pitcher throws hard as he does, of course he'll have moments when he gets hit very hard.

[Kingdom]

He wasn't worth his extension. He can be a solid pitcher, in between his 09 and 10 seasons, sure. But he is injury prone and doesn't go far past 5 innings prone.

[love_that_reefer]

No one is denying his strikeout rate but strikeouts aren't everything. He's only finished in the top 10 once in K/9 and has only once pitched 185 innings which is the main issue with Jorge.

[Kingdom]

I went with second. I think it's easy to see LA, San Fran, and Colorado all having the ability to win the division or finish third. Cop out, sure. But this seems to be a very tight division, on paper, at this point

[realmofotalk]

No one is denying his strikeout rate but strikeouts aren't everything. He's only finished in the top 10 once in K/9 and has only once pitched 185 innings which is the main issue with Jorge.

I actually just wanted to make the point that I'd rather have a strikeout pitcher who gets hit hard occasionally like Broxton or de la Rosa than a pitcher who has to get hitters out by inducing batted balls in play.

[Fitzy]

This team if they could add one more top of the rotation starter they would take this division. Because I don't see this happening the Giants and they quality of pitching will hold them off for first place in this division as the Rockies will fight teams such as the Brewers, Cardinals, Marlins, and Braves for the wild card in the National League.