What's wrong with the Rockies bullpen?

The 1996 American classic of cinema, Space Jam, tells the tale of an alien species that comes to Earth and, as a part of their nefarious plan, embarks upon sapping the talent from some of the best basketball players in the world.

While the “official story” is still that ability-stealing aliens who store their new skills in a glowing ball “do not exist” there is something very real about the results of their dastardly deeds.

In one montage, the afflicted players are seen searching for any remedy, including taking turns on a couch talking to a therapist.

This couch is a place that, at least symbolically, all professional athletes have been in at some point in their career.

Right now, Colorado Rockies reliever Chris Rusin is on that couch, searching for answers.

After a season in which he was arguably the most reliable reliever in the Rockies bullpen—posting a 2.65 ERA (191 ERA+) over 85 innings of work—Rusin has stumbled out of the blocks in 2018. And then gotten up for just a second and fallen back down again.

There is no way to sugar coat his 6.27 ERA (74 ERA+) in the 18.2 innings he had pitched before things got even worse on Saturday afternoon.

I asked manager Bud Black if he has been able to pinpoint why Rusin hasn’t seemed to find anything that will work for him so far this season.

“I think with Chris, it just looks like the command of all of his pitches is just a little bit off,” he replied. “I think you’re probably seeing it the right way. I don’t know whether we gotta get back to the drawing board but we gotta take a little bit closer look at that.”

He’s been worse across the board. A walk rate that has never gone above 3.6 in his career (when he was a bit player in Chicago) has ballooned out to 4.3. He is giving up 2.4 home runs per nine innings, nearly double his career high, and there is no solace to be found in stats like FIP that suggest he has been in now way unlucky. The eye test confirms he has given up more hard contact this season that he did almost all of last year.

And this presents a problem for a Colorado Rockies team whose identity has become much more about run prevention than run creation.

With Carlos Estevez on the 60-day DL, the team has already needed to reach for some depth in their bullpen, calling up Harrison Musgrave and Brooks Pounders, each of whom has looked solid and a bit overwhelmed in short spurts so far this season.

But with the backend solidifying into one of the most formidable in the game, and the young rotation showing once again that there are still growing pains to be had but an enormous well of potential to be tapped, the bridge between them must be as fortified as possible.

His mental approach, work ethic, and ability to make quick adjustments as evidenced by the addition of a quick-pitch to his arsenal, all suggest that Rusin could be a few tweaks away from getting back to his old self.

The same can be said for Jake McGee and Bryan Shaw, both of whom have had up-and-down seasons. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest they will right themselves.

But, unlike with the offense, the Rockies must be quick to shake things up if they continue to flounder. Antonio Senzatela and Jeff Hoffman could be seriously considered as potentially reliable relievers. There’s a solid stable of arms in Triple-A including Jairo Diaz, Austin House, and Jerry Vasto who might make interesting considerations.

If they aren’t comfortable with any of those guys, though, as strange as it may seem, the move the Rockies make at or leading up to the trade deadline might need to be in acquisition of yet one more relief arm.

The ideal scenario is still that some mix of their already talented group can figure it out, but Colorado can’t afford to kick too many games away when the offense fights the way they did in the second two games of the San Francisco series.

As I said this offseason, the offense will be up and down all year. So when it is up, the pitching can’t be down.