The Colorado endured their 5th straight losing season and 17th overall in 23 years of existence . They play in a crazy park that wreaks havoc on their players for home/road splits. They must take a realistic approach right now – and trade all of their marketable players – and rebuild for the 2 or 3 years down the road. The Rockies now play in a suddenly tough NL West – where the Dodgers, Giants and surging D’Backs all reside.

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They are one of the weirdest franchises in the Major Leagues – and play in an equally weird atmosphere in Denver – that furthers the hard line it is to have a successful franchise.

6 winning seasons in 23 years of existence is very paltry. Despite the shortcomings on the field, the club still draws over 30,000 fans per game.  Maybe the reason is fans love offense.

In 2016 the club will look to end 5 straight years of losing seasons – and also erase a 7 year playoff drought.

It is tough to fathom things are going to change very much in the coming campaign.  The brass is looking to trade all of their outfielder and the left side of their Infield have both shared their displeasure with playing in Colorado this year.

CARGO’s battering mate Nolan Arenado emerged as the premiere 3B in the National League in 2015 3 Slashing .287/.323/.575 – with a league leading 42 HRs and 130 RBI. At 24 next year, he is coming off both a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger year. Can he hold on until the club becomes competitive before losing his patience with the organization?

The Rockies should try to flip Carlos Gonzalez in a trade for 6 years of a Starting Pitcher that has great promise. 

The 29 year old OF will never have higher value in the next 2 campaigns with just $37 MIL left on his contract.

A possible trade partner could be the Mets.

The Infield is not that bad if everyone can stay healthy.  Jose Reyes and D.J. Lemahieu are decent offensive threats at SS and 2B to help Arenado, and the tandem of Ben Paulsen and newly signed Free Agent Mark Reynolds cover 1B.

Justin Morneau would definitely be a flier for some team based on his recent concussion history. Although he did recently win a Batting Title for the Rockies in 2014.  Colorado intends to fill the void with a tandem of sub par players after 23 years from Galaragga, Helton and Morneau at First Base to start the franchise/

The Catching seems to be alright in 2016 with Nick Hundley on the 2nd year of his 2 year contract.  He is above average for all backstoppers.

Really the lineup is never the problem.  Pitching has plagued the franchise for years now. No Starter or Reliever that logged over 35 Innings held an ERA under 4 for the entire campaign in 2015, and you simply will never win that way.

Jon Gray and Eddie Butler need to take the next step to in the MLB for the club to even be relevant in 2016.

Tyler Chatwood is also coming back from Tommy John Surgery that has had him sidelined from the Majors since April of 2014.

Jorge De La Rosa is the ALL – Time franchise leader in wins, and along with Ubaldo Jimenez and Jhoulys Chacin, have been the only chuckers to really navigate pitching in Denver.

The Starting LHP is entering his 35 year old season – and is in the last year of his contract.  Perhaps the management should see fit to extend this guy for whatever he wants cash wise to remain in Colorado.

On the Relief side of things they still Adam Ottavino listed as the clubs Closer on the Roster Depth Chart however he is still recovering from April Tommy John Surgery.

Earlier this week the Rockies did ink a pair of Veteran Relievers in Jason Motte 2 YRs/$10 MIL and Chad Qualls 2 YRs/$6 MIL – which is a nice idea in principle, but if 2016 turns out to be a non competitive year – these guys should be good trade fodder.

Boone Logan is about the only effective Lefty on the roster. As the case with most of the throwers – his road/home splits reflect the Denver thin air.  He held a 2.30 ERA on the road and 5.95 ERA at Coors Field.

Colorado might as well cellar dwell for the next 2 or 3 years – and trade all veterans before hoping to regroup later on.

With spending only around $70 MIL on total team payroll so far the club is obviously not looking to add significant pieces.  You have to factor they are playing in the same Division as the Dodgers, Giants and now the revamped Arizona Diamondbacks.

The Rockies have some financial flexibility moving forward with no contracts stretched past the 2018 season.

Realistically, the brass should consider trading all players even entering Arbitration like Charlie Blackmon, Corey Dickerson, Brandon Barnes and maybe even Nolan Arenado (yes if he is not happy and becomes a malcontent, it will cost a lot of money in Arbitration going forward).

Colorado would follow in the footsteps of what Houston just accomplished and what Atlanta is supposed to be doing.

The only sustained success the club has had was on the heels of drafting Troy Tulowitzki, Matt Holliday and Ubaldo Jimenez, coupled with a strong few years of Bullpens and average starters from 2007 – 2010.

Methods of winning always seem to change in the MLB, but Pitching remains constant.  If I were on the management staff that finalized who I selected, I would do nothing but draft pitchers that throw hard – and especially chuckers that throw splitters and cutters.

Results have shown the home club always leads the league in home Batting Average, so I would look to trade pitchers for positional players later on when they become close to big league ready.

It is a hard problem to solve with the growing epidemic of Tommy John Surgeries as well.  Colorado has been with many UCL tears over the seasons.

However Colorado proceeds, they truly have awesome fans to still be drawing that many fans back to the park after so many seasons of losing. 

Coors Field is still a hitting haven. While the averages have all dipped approximately 10% since the Humidor was placed into the facility over a decade ago, it still remains the premiere place for any of the MLB’ers to bat. Some of the organizational players will not hit as good on the road, with playing in the NL West, in cavernous parks like Dodger Stadium, Petco Park and AT & T Park, however the weight will only affect their overall numbers away from the thin air.  Colorado has led the NL in 22 of 23 in home Batting Average since entering the MLB.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

I am happy to be back at the helm of the MLB Reports, after completing my record 224 Games in the MLB Trip in 2015.  It was the 4th time I have seen all 30 MLB Parks since 2008. 

During that time away I was fortunate to do 100 Media Interviews and be named the Baseball Blogger Alliance President.

Interview on CSN Philly during the month of July.

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