The Rockies pitching staff collapsed in 2019, and it led to a myriad of attempted fixes, per The Athletic’s Nick Groke. So far, however, the Rockies remain at a loss. There is concern about the state of the baseball and how it reacts in Colorado’s altitude, but scouts around baseball also point to a habit of “careless deliveries” among Colorado hurlers as a cause for concern. Bud Black and his team are hard at work trying to diagnose the issue(s), and without payroll flexibility over the winter, identifying internal solutions might be their best chance at improvement in 2020. Still, it’s a dispiriting read for Colorado’s fans, as the Groke writes that the Rockies went so far as to “shut down their top starter, 24-year-old German Márquez, in late August, in part to save him from the bombardment.” They’ll have a clean slate in 2020, but a long road ahead as the Dodgers remain a juggernaut, while the Diamondbacks and Padres are rising contenders. Let’s check in elsewhere around the NL…
- The Marlins feel much differently about the future of their pitching staff. This season definitely opened some eyes to the burgeoning talent in Miami’s rotation, but the best may be yet to come. Miami management believes they have a dozen or more identifiable arms in their system with big-league rotation potential, per Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald. Jose Urena has been the big name of the rotation in year’s past, but his future is uncertain with Caleb Smith, Sandy Alcantara, Jordan Yamamoto, Pablo Lopez, and Elieser Hernandez all competing for regular roles next year.
- Managing the Mets is not the easiest job in baseball, but in tabbing Carlos Beltran for the role, New York found someone who knows what to expect and is ready to handle the unique challenge of managing in Queens, per The Athletic’s Tim Britton. Beltran is a long-respected clubhouse leader, and though he’ll be new to the managing role, he is no stranger to the New York spotlight. Ownership rarely takes a backseat for the Mets, but Beltran’s existing relationships will help him in that department as well. The biggest obstacle to a successful tenure for Beltran remains in Atlanta, DC, and Philadelphia.
What would it take for the cards to trade for urena? Sosa, oneill, munoz?
Urena is garbage they definitely wouldn’t give up O’Neil.
I agree.
One mid level prospect (a guy like Griffin Roberts or Edmundo Sosa) or maybe two lesser regarded ones.
No the cardinals should call and ask for alcantara back
The Rockie’s pitchers may not have to do anything next year but pitch.
Rockie’s will suck in 2020 on the road just like in 2015,2016,2017 and 2019. They are getting older every year and never add younger players. If you don’t get younger ever year you look like Rookies and Giants old and slow with or without pitching.
In other news, Sean Doolittle will not go to the white house on Monday to visit donald doonothing.
Who cares
I do and so does anyone who cares about the future.
Good for Doolittle and I hope there are more, like him.
That’s a little sad. You should visit the republican world some day. In our world, we believe in diversity of opinion and free speech. In the dystopian Far Left world, any expression of opinion that is not identical to whomever the Dear Leader of the day is, has to be shut down.
You will eventually win, but you won’t be any happier. You will find out that, should you develop your own opinions, you won’t be tolerated by the people you thought were your friends.
Sure you do. Just like y’all are so happy when someone takes a knee or doesnt go to the wh. Shut your trap.
Couldn’t agree more JoeBrady. Well said.
Insightful point ♂️
I Care Lots !!
Stop the internet some loser named Dogbone cares.
I am a Republican. There are none in DC anymore. Just the fake ones, alt right tea party sold out sad sack pathetic rats.
Agree JoeBrady
You do not believe in free speech. It’s all the Republicans who get so worked up and pissed off when players kneel during the national anthem. That’s part of freedom of speech.
Amen JoeBrady. It is an honor to visit the White House no matter who is leading.
LOL!
Sad but true.
Well put Joe. I 2nd that!
Think you got that backwards
Yup Socialism/Communism,the dark party at it’s best and the Alphabet Networks one way news
“In the dystopian Far Left world, any expression of opinion that is not identical to whomever the Dear Leader of the day is, has to be shut down.”
…And the award for total lack of self-awareness goes to JoeBrady.
Holy cow, dude. Trump is the thin-skinned one who tries to shut down any criticism of him. He literally calls journalistic media ‘the enemy of the people’ because they write critical articles about him. Trump is the one who expresses admiration towards dictators and jokes about being president for life. Join us in reality, brother.
@rct
Brilliant summary…
Going to the White House is the traditional way “our” “United” States shows their respect to the newly Crowned World Champions. Whether you and I hate the current President or not, should be of no consequence. He is currently representing and speaking for the “United” States in honoring, acknowledging greatness, to the Nationals for becoming World Series Championshipions. Doolittle thinks he’s giving this president a slap in the face. However, Doolittle has hurt his own name more with the U. S. Citizens by not going, than he thinks he’ll hurt this individual President.
sure you do….
as long as the person is christian..
otherwise, you guys whine and complain the world is out to get you.
and at least liberal women don’t need to ask “mother” to be alone in the same room as someone who isn’t the same gender (since you guys just can’t seem to keep it in your pants)
Got to be a millennial, bet you are for socialism.
Regardless of political affiliation and opinion, this is a baseball site. I go here not to listen or read about politics. Let’s keep it that way.
Absolutely!!!!!!!! There’s enough of that crap everywhere you look. Keep it away from sports.
Apparently you do enough to comment
Who in the world cares about that?
Doolittle is avoiding the WH much the same way Martinez avoided using him in any important innings during the WS. Lol. Doolittle is a zero.
Bingo
Doolittle made $6M the past year and is a world series champ. If he’s a zero, you must be a negative.
You see your Trump hatred in everything.
and we can see the orange firmly on your lips.
tell me, when you blow trump, you do make sure to lick the taint, right?
and can you taste ivanka when you do it?
mfm420 you are one sick pervert
Right On !!
Winston Churchill once said= If you are young and not a Liberal, you have no heart, if you are older and not a Conservative, you have no brains.
Joe, I’m really not sure what fake news utopia you’re describing here. It’s either way over there on the far left or almost out of sight on the the far right. Regardless as a person who protects the right of someone to do as they please (JS Mill’s utilitarianism, see also Thomas Paine who helped write your constitution) I’d like to defend Sean Doolittle’s right not to have his magnificent beard obscured by his presidents questionable hair transplant.
It is a hair transplant isn’t it? Or has a marsupial landed there?
@ty cobb016
Alas no. It wasn’t Winston Churchill but French PM George Clemenceau (1841-1929) who stated “If you don’t vote socialist before you are 20 you have no heart, if you do vote socialist after you are 2o you have no head.”
Churchill might have misquoted this similarly as badly but like every quote that lands at the door of Mark Twain, it is not an original….
Actually, Churchill never said that. But he did say something close.
Same as it being attributed to Margaret Thatcher that she said – “Socialism works fine until you run out of other peoples money”. That wasn’t the quote, but was close enough.
funny, that describes the republican party perfectly (who knew they were really socialists?)
What to some people is funny, to knowledgeable people is stupid. Lot’s of that going around today.
Not getting a real education and/or reading on ones own is the primary cause.
Churchill did say it. He may have lifted it from the French guy and used slightly different words but the meaning was there and he said it.. My post might not have been word for word.. You get the idea.
You accidentally wrote the Padres are rising contenders.
Probably gonna need to not finish in last place in the division before we start that talk
Padres need to try and make it to 500 for once, they have finished below 500 like 7 years.
That feels a little harsh. They were 44-45 at one point. The issue with teams on the rise, is that they are always, always thin. Once Tatis went down, and Renfroe got kicked up, they had no way to replace those players. I think the average age of their positional players will be about 23 next year. And their rotation maybe 24-25?
They are going to become a 90-win team soon enough.
Nope! Not unless the Padres bust the salary cap this winter for 2020 and beyond.
The 1997 Padres finished dead last. The 1998 Padres went to the WS. Virtually the same squad except they added an ace in Kevin Brown to anchor the rotation.
Pitching wins championships and if the Padres add two veterans (Strasburg and say Cole Hammels) they are a playoff team next year.
Well said. I agree, a rotation of:
Strasburg
Paddack
Richards
Hamels
Lamet/Lucchesi
Can compete in the NL West. Especially if the offense is re-structured a bit via trade this offseason. Addressing CF, 2B and C are huge.
It’s gonna take a better rotation than that. Especially if LA gets Lindor.
I was wondering about that…..
Beltran has experience dealing with the media in NYC, which should be an advantage. Beltran has zero experience managing an entire pitching staff over an entire season on any level, much less MLB. Hard to think that’s an advantage.
Plenty of rookie coaches in every sport have had success out of the gate, so you can’t really say it’s a disadvantage, either.
i was wondering if “the state or baseball” in general in respect to Colorado would be brought up at some point, specifically after this year. the way the ball travels there is just so anomalous.
Who allowed the Rockies to build a stadium without a dome. Snow day in June and September is dumb on so many fronts. Takes teams 4 or 5 days to recover physically from being in Denver. Denver has a lot of players getting hurt in Denver’s both home teams and away teams. How will minimum 3 batters to be faced per pitchers?
It makes ZERO sense to have an mlb team in Denver. That’s why there is one. Pointless to even wonder about it, it is utter stupidity.
The 3 million fans who bought a ticket to Coors (6th highest in baseball, again — that’s actually on the low side for them) would like a word.
Money and popularity makes everything be right.
whyhayzee;
Since the AAA Denver Bears existed people knew that one couldn’t pitch consistently in Denver’s thin air.
MLB Expansion to Denver and Miami in 1993 occurred when money people hired high-powered lobbyist firms to bribe House and Senate DC politicians representing Florida, Colorado, and Arizona to unite along with Congressional friends from other states to threaten MLB’s Commissioners Office to overthrow MLB’s monopoly exemption if those states were not awarded expansion teams.
In addition to Denver’s thin air, people knew that Florida would never support MLB baseball. It has an outdoor lifestyle year-round. Teh summer is when people stay in due to the excessive heat and humidity. The last thing residents want to do in the summer is to sit and watch a long baseball game – in air-conditioned comfort or worse……outside.
In short – there has not, and will not be, a solution to pitching in Denver’s high altitude; nor will Floridians ever pack a baseball park year-round – more then 20% of those that show up when their team makes the post-season come in from out of state….including many that support the opposing team.
It was the US Supreme Court that in a 1922 ruling gave MLB what is referred to as an ‘Anti-Trust Exemption’.
Congress of course can override that decision by passing a well-worded law.
But MLB – like the NFL and NBA – greases the right politicians to assure that never happens. Steady graft money goes into DC’s political class……better in their pockets then paying their full share of taxes and having that money going to the US Treasury Department. As long at the public argues left vs. right – that, along with thousands of other things, will never change. After all, there is a reason the 5 highest personal income counties in the US surround Washington, DC.
The Marlins have identifiable arms? That one looks like Bob’s. It’s got a wart just below the elbow. Oh brother, better not say anything political because the stuff here is so freaking important.
Sanchez, Cabrera, Neidert, Garrett, and Rogers are all looking good. Plus an okay core of Alcantara, Lopez, and Yamamoto. You’re 0-2 today, bud.
It’s not “a myriad of attempted fixes.” It’s “myriad attempted fixes.” If you’re being paid to write, you need to know these things.
Nope.
I’m looking forward to how teams adjust to the changes put in place for next yea.r. 26 man rosters, pitchers having to face 3 batters, 15 day injury list for pitchers and 28 man September rosters. How do clubs plan roster construction around these?
No mention of Robert Dugger?
I’d be surprised if he’s anything more than a reliever
Pretty early yet. Probably shouldn’t have tasted the MLB yet, but I think he has back-of-the-rotation potential
Ok Nancy Pelosi
When Beltran was with the Giants he didn’t do a dam thing. Totally no value in the trade for Zack Wheeler !!
Maybe don’t trade a top 5 pick for a rental 2 years later