Did the Colorado Rockies seven-game win streak mean anything? Does it mean anything that it so dramatically and ungracefully came to an end with a pair of beatdowns in San Francisco?
It all depends on your priorities.
If you were hoping that this stretch signified a changing of the guard, a flipping of the switch, some kind of new normal that might prevail through the rest of the season and make the club semi-relevant in 2024… Well, you were always headed for disappointment.
On the other hand, it would be foolish to chalk this stretch of games entirely up to a string of good luck or even just the balancing out of the scales.
For those predicting an historically bad season, the last week might give only a slight reason for pause. After all, the Rockies are still 15 games under .500 and on pace to comfortably clear 100 losses.
But the “why” of it all breaks down far more interestingly than just an adherence to the Law of Big Numbers.
Make no mistake, there has been a bit of that, especially in the bullpen where pitchers like Tyler Kinley and Justin Lawrence both began the year pitching unsustainably bad. Both have been much better over the last week (a little more in Lawrence’s case) giving Colorado suddenly four relievers (along with Victor Vodnik and Jalen Beeks) who are helping them to secure wins when they were blowing them before.
The biggest help in this department has been the recent steadiness of starters Cal Quantrill and Austin Gomber. Depending on how you feel about the long-term study of Coors Field, it could have been expected for Quantrill to pitch to his career numbers but the quiet emergence of Gomber is something to keep an eye on.
Gomber finished 2023 strong and was able to post 1.0 bWAR and a 90 ERA+ by the end of the year despite a dreadful start. He has already doubled that production this season with a 2.0 bWAR and is currently sitting with an incredible 152 ERA+.
Ryan McMahon has been playing like an All-Star all season, Brenton Doyle has taken massive steps forward on offense, and Ezequiel Tovar is showing exactly the kind of steady progress you’d like to see out of a 22-year-old second-year player.
Youngsters Hunter Goodman and Jordan Beck have bounced back a bit from slow starts and have also contributed during this stretch. Whether or not those types of performances become more regular will be one of the biggest factors in whether or not there are any more winning streaks this season.
Other than McMahon, each of these players is in the early stage of what they hope to be a long Rockies career. And even in the case of McMahon, as we recently discussed on the 20th and Blake Podcast, he may be in for a Charlie Blackmon-esque mid-career renaissance.
Naturally, on a team with so many players still trying to establish themselves in the big leagues, there are going to be ups and downs. What we’ve just witnessed was one of the ups. There will be more downs.
It was never going to last forever and this team is still most likely to end up in the cellar again but we are starting to see the shift toward a new era and that’s coming with a better brand of baseball. Occasionally.
It only takes a few players emerging quicker than expected to move that window of opportunity up, though. As this team gets healthier and continues to graduate its top prospects, the chances will be there to do just that.
Remember, Beck was widely considered to be the Rockies fourth or fifth best prospect coming into this season. There are more on the horizon and they’ve got the third overall pick in an upcoming draft that is said to be stacked with talent.
No, they aren’t fixed. Yes, there is a long way to go on the road back to relevancy. And that road is likely to be a bumpy one. But some of the signs along that road are starting to point toward a better future.
It’s also worth remembering from time to time that at some point this team is going to add German Marquez and maybe Antonio Senzatela back to the mix. Neither should be counted upon as a savior of anything, especially immediately coming off Tommy John surgery. Nolan Jones and Kyle Freeland will also eventually return and it’s unlikely that either struggle as mightily as they did to start the year.
So while we should have our eyes firmly planted on the long-term future, don’t be surprised if this all combines to result in far more mini hot streaks than those who predicted 120 losses were expecting.
