De La Rosa emerging as key starter in rotation ... again

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A young revamped starting rotation needs a stable veteran to feed off of and Jorge De La Rosa has emerged again despite his tough first part of the season.

Despite his struggles early, De La Rosa appears to be stronger than the beginning part of the season. De La Rosa posted a rough 10.18 ERA in April and a worse ERA 11.81 in May, placing him on a steep uphill climb. The Rockies starting pitcher responded well after his bumpy few months with an ERA 1.96 in June, 4.21 in July and 3.90 in August.

De La Rosa’s woes in the beginning part of the year placed him in the bullpen for a period of time. It was there where the pitcher from Monterey, Mexico started his quick rise back to prominence with the Rockies rotation, registering a 1.13 ERA in that time. With help from the pitching coach, he made the necessary changes in mechanics to his delivery involving a quicker hitch in his windup.

The pitcher with the most wins in Rockies’ history, De La Rosa has struggled with the first pitch against any batter. In 51 plate appearances and 46 at-bats where hitters jumped at the first pitch, they have a batting average of .413. This is where De La Rosa needs to correct as the season winds down. The first pitch is typically the best pitch in an at-bat; therefore, De La Rosa must mix his pitches consistently to hitters keep them off balance.

Coors Field has always been a struggle for starting pitching, but De La Rosa has defied logic for the past eight seasons with the Rockies. A career ERA of 4.29 with the franchise may not seem adequate, but for the left-hander to accomplish a ground ball percentage close to 50 percent is recipe for success in Colorado. Unfortunately, De La Rosa has tallied around 30 percent fly balls this season and a higher home run-to-fly ball percentage (ten percent to left-handers and 16 percent to right-handers) that can chase a pitcher from the mound easily.

De La Rosa is the experience in a young pitching staff who have performed better than in recent years now that the farm system has been retooled with young arms. The Rockies will have a decision to make with De La Rosa after this season is concluded and as the old adage goes, “it is not how you start, it is how you finish.” If the team decides to cut ties with the veteran, the Rockies would have a significant youthful movement in the rotation, but every team needs an expert to feed off the experience.

The Rockies left-hander will face the Arizona Diamondbacks on Friday where De La Rosa has a 10-8 record with an ERA of 3.19. De La Rosa will look to continue his recent success of pitching past the sixth inning. Since Jul. 1, the left-hander has thrown beyond the sixth inning eight times, but his most recent resulted in only five innings due to a high pitch count.

It is not just the young pitchers who have performed over the course of the season, but De La Rosa who has seen a re-emergence with the rotation.