The 3 things the Colorado Rockies must do to save their season

The Colorado Rockies woke up on Tuesday morning in a tailspin but are still just a game below .500 with 25 to play and are hanging onto the eighth and final spot in the NL playoff picture.

Arguments will go on and on… and on… over management and the front office and the state of the team and contention windows and the luck of the past and darkness of the future.

But for now, let’s put all that aside and ask a far more limited and manageable question: Considering that there are no further avenues to change the makeup of the team, what needs to happen for the Rockies to grab a playoff spot this year and put themselves in position to be a spoiler in a short series?

These three things:

3. Get more out of Nolan Arenado

There are a few members of the core who could stand to up their game and play closer to their career numbers, but Arenado is easily at the top of that list.

German Marquez needs to tighten things up and Trevor Story has got to cut down on the strike outs, especially in key at-bats, but like with just about any small-to-mid market team in all of pro sports, they will go as their superstar does.

It is no coincidence that the recent bit of sunshine for the team inside the darkness – a three-game sweep of the Arizona Diamondbacks – came with an offensive outburst from Arenado. It’s also no coincidence that their cold stretches match up perfectly with his.

That’s either great or terrible news depending on how you interpret the following data:

(From Statcast at Baseballsavant.com)

We can debate all day about whether or not the Rockies could or should be getting more out of the bottom of their lineup, whether they need to be dramatically reducing the playing time of Daniel Murphy and Matt Kemp (they should) or even back to the time-honored tradition of arguing over the construction of the roster in the first place.

But for this club at this time in this season, there is no way around the fact that these numbers need to change in order for the team’s fortunes to.

Raimel Tapia, in 18 games since becoming the club’s leadoff man, is getting on base at a .455 clip. The 20 time he has been on base, he has score twice.

That’s not on the young guys or aging vets batting 6-7-8, that’s on the superstars in the heart of the order, none more than Arenado.

Of course the good news is obvious. At some point, Arenado will be the monster with the bat he has been throughout his career. The only question is if that switch will get flipped in enough time to turn the Rockies season around.

2. Prioritize defensive lineups

In a typical season, there might be time to see if Murphy’s bat can come back around and outweigh the negative production that his defense is bringing, but Colorado doesn’t have that kind of time.

At this point, Murphy should be a DH only as long as everyone else is healthy and the Rockies must go to the extremes in helping out their pitching in the run prevention game.

Josh Fuentes and Ryan McMahon both bring far more value on defense. Sure, both have shown uneven offense but so has Murphy so you might as well shore up the one thing you can believe in right now and that is that the young guys can pick it.

With the addition of Kevin Pillar to roam the giant expanse in center, the Rockies have the tools to capitalize on their still very strong starting pitching. If they finally start getting star-level production from Arenado, this increase in defensive capability should be more than enough to get them comfortably into the playoffs.

1.  Get Back to Where You Once Belonged

From Arenado on down, there is arguably just one guy playing with confidence for the purplers right now. After Tapia, everyone looks like they are searching for it at the plate. Some of that is just the nature of the game of baseball but a lot of it has to do with Colorado getting away from their early-season approach at the plate.

They’ve become too anxious, are pressing all the time trying to hit a home run with nearly every swing, and as Arenado put it in a recent press conference “not doing the little things.”

During the 11-3 start, the Rockies were driving up pitch counts and getting into bullpens early even when they were struggling with many of these same problems they have now like leaving too many men on base. But they were creating more opportunities through a diligent process they have gotten away from as each guys tries to hit the entire team out of their slump.

This is one of the fundamental ironies of baseball. At a time when they need to be most focused and most pressed to win baseball games… they need to relax.

No the Rockies aren’t the class of the National League. But they are better than this and they know it. And whether or not they want to admit it, most fans and media know that too.

If this wasn’t a talented team, there wouldn’t be so much frustration that they aren’t fulfilling it.

Finishing with 30 wins would be both easily hitting their over on the national consensus and Draft Kings betting lines but still be a massive disappointment for many.

So how do the best that number and finish the season playing their best baseball at the right time? Get your superstar right. Commit to a run-prevention first identity day in and day out. And get back to a team-oriented offensive approach so that Raimel Tapia can stop jogging slowly back to the dugout from second base.