2014 Colorado Rockies: Tulo's Time

WayBackVazquez

white knight against high school nookie
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Aug 23, 2006
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It looks like Sox and Rocks is asleep at the wheel, so seeing as how my fantasy team has four Rockies starters, I may as well start this thread.
 
The Rockies have started 20-14, and have the best differential in baseball (+37) thus far. Tulo is absolutely destroying the ball, hitting .408 with a 1.298 OPS thus far. He was named player of the month in April and has started May by going 10 for 15 with 2 HR and a 1.856. If he can stay healthy, this could be an MVP year for him. The big surpise has been the resurgence of Justin Morneau, who has been MIA for about the last five years, but has thus far put up a .963 with 7 HR. We'll see if he can stay healthy and keep it up. Pleasant suprise number two is Charlie Blackmon: .988 OPS and 6 HR. Cuddyer was allso looking good at the plate until landing on the DL.
 
On the pitching side, young Jordan Lylse looks like he may have taken the next step, going 4-0 thus far, with a 3.43 era and a 24:10 K:BB. The Rockies' 5-man rotation has 130 K to 55 BB. Definitely what you want to see for a Colorado staff.
 

AbbyNoho

broke her neck in costa rica
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Jan 20, 2006
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Tulowitzki is one of those guys who you hope has an injury reputation simply because of bad luck, rather than a legitimate issue with a predictive quality. He's so good on both sides of the ball. It's fun to watch him play.
 
A little more disconcerting for the Rockies is the play so far of Carlos Gonzalez, who didn't have a good month of April. I'm not a big CarGo fan, because his offense was so greatly boosted last season by a .368 BABIP which helped cover up the 27.1% K-Rate. One odd thing about him, though, is that the Coors-Effect doesn't seem to be the reason for his huge BABIP, as it was only .331 at home and .407 away. 
 
This year the home BABIP has pretty much stayed the same (.333) but has plummeted on the road (.213), so there is room for improvement as the road BABIP normalizes to some degree.
 
One good sign is that his K-Rate has decreased from last years 27.1% to 19.7%, so if he can maintain that and get the walk rate back up from the current 6% to at least last year's 9.7% and improve the road BABIP with some better luck he can return to being a solidly above average player, even if he isn't the superstar he was last season. 
 

WayBackVazquez

white knight against high school nookie
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Aug 23, 2006
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Andrew said:
A little more disconcerting for the Rockies is the play so far of Carlos Gonzalez, who didn't have a good month of April. 
 
Way too early to worry. He didn't have a bad April; he had a bad second half of April. He was sitting at .286/.357.556/.913 the morning of April 19.
 
He's gone .211/.224/.404/.628 in the 14 games since.
 
Last year after starting 1.222, he went .214/.287/.369./.656 in the 22 games starting April 19.
 
He was also at .640 OPS on May 6, 2011 and finished the year at .889. He's a notoriously slow starter, and I don't think there's anything to worry about with him yet.
 

AbbyNoho

broke her neck in costa rica
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Yeah, but my 'concern' is more linked to the fact that I think when he was good a lot of it was good luck to begin with. I don't think his true talent is as good as he has been.
 

WayBackVazquez

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Aug 23, 2006
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Andrew said:
Yeah, but my 'concern' is more linked to the fact that I think when he was good a lot of it was good luck to begin with. I don't think his true talent is as good as he has been.
 
He's got a .926 OPS over his last 4 seasons. That's a very long lucky streak.
 

AbbyNoho

broke her neck in costa rica
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WayBackVazquez said:
 
He's got a .926 OPS over his last 4 seasons. That's a very long lucky streak.
 
Of course there's no denying that he has been fantastic. But his success seems to frequently go against what we expect to see out of super-star players in some of the peripheral stats. It's well beyond my level of expertise to figure out how or why, but he is absolutely one of the most fascinating players in the game today, even if just for that. 
 

WayBackVazquez

white knight against high school nookie
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Aug 23, 2006
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Carlos went 5 for 5 last night in the Rockies' 12-1 win. His OPS has gone from .754 to .825 in the past two games.
 

Warning Track Speed

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Jul 20, 2005
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astride the divide
These guys are delivering a pants-down ass-kicking to the Rangers this week. 9-2 tonight and 29-5 in the first three games of a four-game home-and-home. They avoid Darvish in the series.
 

Madmartigan

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WayBackVazquez said:
Is a team OPS of .866 any good?
 
And they have a team 1.001 OPS at home (.355/.401/.600).  To put that into perspective, the Jays have next highest home OPS at .831.
 

Paradigm

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Dec 5, 2003
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Arenado is just flashy. I don't care whether someone else could get to those balls without barehanding them, diving, whatever. Highlights every night. So fielding. Much defense.
 

WayBackVazquez

white knight against high school nookie
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Aug 23, 2006
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Sticking to the script, the Rockies have won three of four at home after going 2-5 on a three-city road trip. They have baseball's second best home record (behind Miami!) at 16-6, but are 10-14 on the road this year.
 
Tulo is still the best player in baseball thus far, and Morneau's resurgence keeps chugging along.
 

WayBackVazquez

white knight against high school nookie
SoSH Member
Aug 23, 2006
8,294
Los Angeles
The Rocks are in freefall, going 3-13 in their last 16 games. The offense has disappeared. Blackmon was hitting .337/.374/.566 on May 20. He's gone .203/.273/.305 since. Likewise, Morneau was at .327/.359/.585 on the 20th, and has gone .172/.238/.259 since. Even Tulo has "only" put up an .868 OPS during the stretch (he was sitting at 1.249 previously).
 

MakMan44

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Aug 22, 2009
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CarGo is also going to be out for a while. He's having exploratory surgery on his finger tomorrow. Cuddyer will be joining him on the DL for his shoulder while Eddie Butler heads there with rotator cuff inflammation.