Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Rockie Road

The Colorado Rockies are one of the more frustrating organizations for fantasy managers to try to figure out. They play musical chairs with young players which often leads to them failing to realize their potential. The Rockies have also been known to let impending free agents walk rather than trade them. And of course, there was their recent extension of 37-year-old closer Daniel Bard, who was also thought to be on the trade market. I will not pretend to tell you that I know how the Rockies plan to utilize their players over the remainder of the season. What I do know is that their schedule is not expected to favor their hitters moving forward. That is why most of them have taken a small step back in this week’s edition of my rest-of-season fantasy baseball rankings.

From the days of the Blake Street Bombers to the 2007 Rocktober to the present-day version of the Rockies, one constant remains the same. Coors Field is a huge advantage for hitters. As is often the case, Coors Field leads the way in several metrics this season. Among them are home runs (park effect of 137 per Baseball Savant), runs (128), hits (116), on-base percentage (109), and hard-hit rate (108). This causes a great discrepancy in home and road splits. This season, six Rockies have had at least 200 plate appearances at Coors Field. Five of the six have a wRC+ over 100, with Connor Joe bringing up the rear at 91. Of those six players, Joe is tied with C.J. Cron for the highest wRC+ on the road, with a mark of 90.

Foreshadowing

Why do I bring this up? Well, no team in baseball has played more home games than the Rockies so far this year. After this weekend, Colorado plays just 40 percent (18 of 45) of its games in the friendly confines of Coors Field. That could mean tougher sledding for some of their prominent hitters. Consider that Colorado has scored more than two-thirds of their runs at home this season. They average 5.79 runs per game at home but just 3.24 away from the thin air. I dropped most of Colorado’s hitters a bit in this week’s rankings. But there is a part of me that thinks I didn’t drop them far enough. Some of the pitching staffs they will have to face on the road include the Dodgers, Mets, Braves, Padres, and Cardinals. All those teams have team ERAs below 4.00.

The one player I did drop significantly this week was Joe. It seems Colorado is phasing him out a bit. He has just 13 plate appearances so far in August. Elehuris Montero has been the primary beneficiary to this point. The powerful 23-year-old (who will turn 24 this week) has acquitted himself nicely thus far. He has hit safely in nine of 10 August contests. I included Montero in this week’s rankings, but I do not consider him a must-add. That is mostly due to the schedule, but also because I have no idea how the Rockies will handle things down the stretch. It would make sense for Colorado to give players like Montero a longer look as their season winds down. But we have seen them do odd things in the past.

What About the Pitchers?

It would stand to reason that the Rockies playing a high number of road games down the stretch would benefit their pitchers. The problem and I mean this in the nicest way, is that none of their pitchers are very good. Eight of their pitchers (including relievers) have tossed at least 20 innings on the road this year. Only three of them – Kyle Freeland, German Marquez, and Jose Urena – have an ERA under 5.50. Austin Gomber’s 22.2 percent strikeout rate leads this group, and he is currently in middle relief. Ryan Feltner’s 16.1 percent K-BB rate is the best of the bunch. But his 1.65 HR/9 innings and 1.50 WHIP on the road do not exactly scream “must-start”. The best xFIP among the group belongs to Antonio Senzatela. Hope you don’t mind his 16.2 percent strikeout rate or .338 opponents’ batting average. And yes, those are his road numbers.

I still have six Rockies hitters ranked inside my overall top 200, so I would not suggest completely abandoning ship. However, if you are in a daily league or even a league that allows multiple lineup changes per week, I would strongly advise having reinforcements on hand. Aside from the schedule disadvantages, four of the six (including the injured Kris Bryant) are on the wrong side of 30. The Rockies may rest some of their veterans a bit, especially in a case like Bryant’s where it is essentially a pain management issue. Bard and Marquez are the only Colorado pitchers I even have ranked. And to be honest, I don’t have them on any of my teams. So I would not feel overly confident about either. Although Bard is easier to justify for fantasy managers needing saves.

Rest of Season Fantasy Baseball Rankings