There is no such thing as slugging your way to a championship.
If there is any reason to question why the Colorado Rockies need to focus on pitching as the trade deadline approaches, the answer has been abundantly clear over the past week.
Thursday night would have been enough to make fans sick, if they weren’t still in complete shock over the trade of Troy Tulowitzki earlier in the week. After scratching and clawing to score eight runs against a Cardinals team that started Carlos Martinez, a starter who has an ERA below 2.00 for the last two months, the Rockies blew a two-run 9th inning lead to lost 9-8.
For the fifth straight time out, John Axford completely blew it. He not only looks lost on the mound, he looks like he doesn’t want to be out there. He looks like he is convinced that no mater what pitch he throws, it will either be out of the strike zone or it will be driven deep into the bleachers. Yet, the Rockies have no other choice with the game on the line. There are no other options.
The Rockies literally have no one in the bullpen who is trustworthy. Not a single pitcher in the pen inspires a shred of confidence to the fan base. Most of the time a bad situation gets worse, or a good situation goes bad in a hurry. It simply is a terrible situation for the Rockies.
It is games like Thursday that point to the fact of just how important good pitching is. That doesn’t just mean the five starting pitchers on a team, it means all 12 pitchers, including seven guys down in the bullpen who are going to be pitching in high leverage situations on a regular basis.
What the last couple of weeks, and frankly the last several years, have shown the Rockies is how poorly their entire roster of pitching is constructed. It has shown how depleted the farm system is and how far away the Rockies really are when it comes to putting together even a serviceable pitching staff.
The fan base continues to root on Jon Gray in Triple-A, but the reality is, Gray can only pitch every fifth day, and even then, he looks like he will be highly dependent on the bullpen to finish off the final two or three innings. Gray may be the biggest Rockies prospect, but the team is going to need to fill several gaps, and frankly, there isn’t really anyone ready to step into a Major League role that would be dependable. The Rockies are going to have to figure out a way to acquire that type of talent.
When the Rockies traded Tulowitzki, it seemed like it would kick off a week of busy activity for the team. However, after the trade of Tulowitzki and LaTroy Hawkins, the Rockies have been quiet. They may be trying to move several members of their squad, but it might be the asking price that is holding other teams back.
Despite Carlos Gonzalez’s past 10 days, there might be an understandable hesitation for teams to want to part with any of their top prospects to acquire him. He’s dealt with several injuries, including odd, in-explainable injuries over the past few years. His production is still pretty good when he is healthy, but he also possesses some of the largest Coors Field home and road splits of anyone.
Rockies fans may not like to hear it, but it is likely that many teams around the league discount the value that CarGo can bring to their team because they believe that he is a Coors Field creation.
It is no fun for the Rockies right now. They are trying to figure out if they are in full rebuilding mode or if they feel like the trade of Tulowitzki was enough to fill some of the gaps that this team needs to fill to finish off the season and start trying to build through free agency.
One thing is certain, the Rockies need pitching and they need plenty of it. This team is one of the worst constructed teams in recent years, and that is a bold statement.
