Colorado Rockies raise fences, show insight to plan

The Colorado Rockies’ announcement today that they are raising the outfield fences in a few spots in the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field, further signals a change in philosophy to one focused on pitching, speed, and defense.

The change should actually do little to limit the overall offense at Coors which arrives largely from the vast space for baseballs to fall into, and that has not changed. It will rob a few of the cheaper home runs from year’s past — especially in that right-center-field gap that seems to be accompanied by a jet stream — but even those are likely to turn into doubles or triples and not outs.

One interesting aspect will be to see how the ball plays off the higher walls and if it creates for a little more chaos a la San Francisco. The number of triples and even inside the park home runs could go up this season, especially as fielders adjust to the new conditions.

But more importantly than all of that from a local perspective, is that this move is more evidence for the case that the Rockies strategy is to try and mitigate some of the extremes caused by Coors Field and give their pitchers a little more security.

So why not move the fences in and get to fixing the real problem?

It should still be considered, but the Rockies seem to be interested in keeping some kind of home-field, offense-based competitive advantage and are just trying to tone it down a notch. Perhaps experimentation with this new set-up will lead to further changes, but for now, the team seems content to continue to play in an offensive nirvana while also recognizing that the entire history of the team suggests the pitchers could use a little help.

The focus on the additions of bullpen guys and outfielders with speed works perfectly in tandem with this concept. The Rockies aren’t yet ready to make catastrophic changes to the place they call home, but a little normalizing was clearly in order.

It’s going to be a different brand of baseball at 20th and Blake in 2016. Some of that is related to personnel and some to a new look that is bound to have us all wondering if some pivotal play might have had a different outcome with the old fences.

This change makes it much harder to argue that the Rockies have no plan. One can dispute the merits of said plan all day and night, but these moves all point to a team ready to embrace an era built on young pitching and highly athletic, defensively capable position players.

The Troy Tulowitzki and Corey Dickerson trades, the extension of Adam Ottavino along the with acquisitions of Jason Motte, Chad Qualls, German Marquez, and Jake McGree all show that the Rockies think the key to success is to make the games shorter.

Today’s announcement is right in line with everything Jeff Bridich and the Rockies are doing to revolutionize baseball in Colorado.

The question is, will it be a revolution worthy of all the years of strife it took to get here?