How long should Walt Weiss keep his starters on the mound?

The Rockies pitching staff has been one of the hottest topics of the baseball season, as they actually look to be decent for the first time in a long while.

But it’s not all fun and games, because on several occasions Walt Weiss has seemingly pulled the trigger too early, pulling his starter in favor of his bullpen. In fact, the only Rockies pitcher to last more than seven innings all year was Tyler Chatwood, and he only did it once.

“They won’t let Jon Gray go over seven innings, they just won’t let him do that, they put in the bullpen and the bullpen loses it for him. It’s not bad luck, it’s bad management,” Gil Whiteley said.

Although Gil does have a point — Gray, Chatwood and Chad Bettis have been pitching better than the Rockies are used to — their starting rotation is still dead last in baseball in terms of ERA; at 5.43 it’s actually higher than it was last year, 5.27.

Conversely, the bullpen’s ERA is actually 4.03, which places them 21st in the MLB. Last year, the bullpen was sitting where the starters are now, in last place with a 4.70 ERA. Pitchers like Miguel Castro and Eddie Butler have been shutting down hitters coming out of the bullpen.

Weiss may have more trust in the bullpen because the stats don’t lie: The bullpen is pitching better overall. It could be debated all day long whether Weiss should leave the starters in longer or not, but we all know no matter what he decides the Rockies pitching staff is still one of the worst in the league.

Listen to the rest of the full conversation below …

Catch Gil Whiteley Monday-Friday from 11a-1p on Mile High Sports AM 1340 and FM 104.7, or stream live anytime for the best coverage of Colorado sports from Denver’s biggest sports talk lineup.