The Colorado Rockies are currently in first place in the NL West, gearing up for a nine-game home stand starting tonight. While they’ve been dominant on the road, the Rockies have left a lot to be desired at home, going 7-11. Can they get the offense into gear on this home stand?
Former Rockie Jason Hirsh joined Eric Goodman and Les Shapiro on Mile High Sports AM 1340 | FM 104.7 and shared his thoughts on the Rockies ice-cold offense.
Colorado’s offense ranks just 24th in all of baseball and are in need of some answers at the plate.
“This is the direction that baseball’s going now,” said Hirsh. “You’re going to have a lot of strikeouts. Just in the league in general, were seeing more strikeouts then hits right now. Batters are trying to put the ball into the air.”
The landscape of baseball has changed. Players around the game are hitting more home runs than ever before. But with that, the strikeout rate is the highest it’s even been.
“That’s how guys are getting paid. They’re getting paid to hit doubles and dingers,” Hirsh continued. “I think across the board, it’s not just the Rockies. I think Major League Baseball in general is seeing a spike in strikeouts.”
Pitchers are also throwing harder than ever, which has led to more swings and misses at the dish.
“Pitching staffs are throwing moving stuff at speeds in the upper 90s, and some of these guys are touching triple digits,” said Hirsh. “It’s become a much more difficult game to hit for contact, so they’re just trying to swing for the fences to make up for that.”
Speaking of struggling at the plate, Ian Desmond has been very underwhelming for Colorado, and Hirsh also discussed the team may have to look elsewhere at first base.
“I’m sure the front office has had many conversations about, ‘What do we do? When do we decide to cut ties if we want to cut ties?'” Hirsh continued. “What’s the move here? I think everybody’s trying to scratch their head and figure it out.”
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