Calm down; one series does not a season make. The Rockies opening series sweep of the Brewers was fun to watch, but let’s pump the brakes before we plan the parade route.
Curmudgeon.
Negative Nancy.
Buzz kill.
Call me what you want, but the truth is the Colorado Rockies face a formidable uphill battle if they want to finish the season above .500.
Walt Weiss’ club couldn’t have had a better start to the season in Milwaukee. Heck, it was a great start. The Rockies crushed the ball, racking up doubles at a historic clip. Kyle Kendrick tossed seven shutout innings, allowed only seven hits and he did that on a very efficient 93 pitches. Jordan Lyles and Eddie Butler were both very good, and Adam Ottavino looked unhittable. I have to give credit where credit is due.
On the flip side, last year’s demons reared their ugly head last night. Winning games 10-0 is fun, but blown saves kill teams. Last night, LaTory Hawkins did just that; and for a team that led the league in that category a year ago, that’s a major concern. While Hawkins didn’t ultimately cost Colorado the win, it left much to be desired.
Three games against a team that only finished two games above .500 last year is not a big enough sample size to determine anything, on either side of the spectrum. There are still major questions that need to be answered before declaring that this franchise has turned a corner. And frankly, the number of questions marks is what leads me to believe this season will be another disappointing one.
Chief among the questions is health; can the Rockies prove their history of health problems is behind them? The team came out of spring training relatively healthy, but to dismiss injuries as an area of concern for this team is silly. Over the last two seasons, the team’s best two players, Carlos Gonzalez and Troy Tulowitzki, have missed an average of 88 games. That’s not bad luck; that’s a trend. If Colorado’s two superstars can’t buck history and stay healthy, the Rockies can’t complete.
Can the bullpen sustain their hot start? Last season, this group was an unmitigated disaster; no lead was safe when Weiss turned the game over to his bullpen. Outside of Tulo and CarGo staying off the DL, the bullpen’s improvement is this team’s biggest question mark. If each arm in the pen is the proverbial “gas can,” it won’t matter how many home runs Colorado hits.
Can Nolan Arenado and Corey Dickerson build on their fantastic 2014 campaigns or will they regress? Dickerson and Arenado shined bright in their first full season at 20th and Blake, but the scariest two words in professional sports are “sophomore slump.” As Denver saw with Nathan MacKinnon, second-year slides are no joke; they can bite the best of the best. Once MLB pitchers have time to figure out young hitters, they normally do.
Last, but most certainly not least, is Colorado’s starting rotation. Were the performances by Kendrick, Lyles and Butler a mirage or a sneak peek of what’s to come? With Jorge De La Rosa on the mend, Weiss is leaning on unproven young arms and a Philadelphia castoff as his ace. Excuse me if that doesn’t exude confidence.
No one is nitpicking here. Tulowitzki, Gonzalez, Arenado, Dickerson, the starting rotation and the bullpen all have a lot to prove. That’s the core of this team and proclaiming they answered every question after three games is nonsense.
There’s a fine line between pessimism and realism, and often people confuse the two. Being blindly negative is pessimistic; acknowledging that the Rockies still have a ton of questions to answer is realistic.
No one can argue that the Colorado Rockies didn’t start the season on the best possible foot. The Rockies didn’t sweep a series last season until Sept. 5; to accomplish that in the first three games is amazing.
That said, one series does not a season make nor does it answer any questions.