Colorado Rockies: Arenado with a good night on Monday

(Source: MLB.com Video; Nolan Arenado for the Colorado Rockies)

Nolan Arenado advanced him and his teammates eight bases before Monday's game.

On Monday, he more than doubled that total.

He advanced him and his teammates nine bases.

He had two singles and an RBI double.

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The Colorado Rockies lost 7-1 at the Tampa Bay Rays last night (Monday). Was it really that bad? On April Fools’ Day? Yes. Yes it was.

The Rockies offense only had three hits if you don’t count the three other hits from their superstar Nolan Arenado.

They had one hit by pitch (Charlie Blackmon), one walk (Chris Iannetta) and Nolan Arenado advanced David Dahl to second base on a meaningless ground ball out that no one will care about in a week.

Only one base advanced by the Rockies offensively on non-hits, walks or hit-by-pitches all night.

They finally had an offensive outfield out for the final out of the fourth inning.

In fact, they only had four offensive outfield outs if you don’t count three pop outs (“pop ups” I like to call it) they had.

I’m no genius about this, but ONLY four offensive outfield outs doesn’t sound like a good night at the plate.

And they had twelve strikeouts and seven groundouts (and one double play).

Yes, the Rockies are (2-3) through the first five games of the year. That’s 66 wins in 2019 if they win 2 out of every five and you give them two more victories in the final two games of the 162-game regular season.

The Rockies went 2-3 through the first five last year. They went 5-5 through the first ten last year.

Everybody just relax if you want your favorite team to do well.

There’s plenty of time to get better.

The Rays are (4-1). By that same measure, Tampa Bay would win a ridiculous 130 games.

The Rays won’t win 130 games this year (but we’ll talk if they have 108 wins before September starts), but they could win 98 games if they get probably ten to thirty games to go their way.

The Rays went 1-4 and 2-8 in the first five and ten games of last year.

They love it so far this season.

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Before Monday’s game, Tony Wolters and David Dahl were the top two players offensively who advanced themselves and their teammates on the bases the best, in terms of percentage, during the regular season.

David Dahl, Charlie Blackmon and Ryan McMahon are carrying this team offensively early on in the season.

Charlie Blackmon and Ryan McMahon are behind David Dahl in advancing themselves and their teammates the most in terms of an actual number of bases.

On the other hand, Daniel Murphy was 0 for 43 in advancing his teammates to start the season. He has one single and is 1 for 49 this season in advancing his teammates and himself.

Currently, he is on the injured list after hurting his left index finger on a ground ball hit to him on Friday night and won’t be back until April 9th or April 10th at the earliest.

Tony Wolters, Ian Desmond, Nolan Arenado (and a handful of other guys who don’t play every day) each hadn’t even advanced everybody at least ten bases before Monday’s game.

And Trevor Story hasn’t done much better. Before Monday’s game, he only advanced everybody ten bases. That number is twelve if you count the errors.

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The point is, for Rockies fans, it sucks they might not be a playoff team in 2019. This team I believed had the potential to get to the NLCS or maybe even win the World Series if a lot of their now former players had stayed on the Rockies.

But they lost a lot during the offseason and Spring Training, so I think the deck of cards is likely stacked against them.

To the Yankees, they lost Adam Ottavino and DJ LeMahieu in free agency and Mike Tauchman in a trade.

They lost Gerardo Parra to the Giants in free agency. But the Rockies declined an option on him for 2019 and bought him out for a reported $1.5 million.

On minor league deals, they lost Carlos Gonzalez and Brooks Pounders to the Indians and Daniel Castro to the Dodgers.

They lost Jerry Vasto to the Royals in a trade and then he was claimed off waivers shortly after the 2018 World Series by the Cubs.

Tom Murphy was acquired by the Giants through waivers, but was traded shortly thereafter to the Mariners.

Also, no MLB team currently has Matt Holliday on their roster. Will Holliday come back for another late season push to the postseason?

I still want to believe this team can get to at least the NLCS, but they didn’t gain a lot.

The only major free agent the Rockies acquired was Daniel Murphy.

They brought Mark Reynolds back on a minor league deal (again) after he was with the Nationals last season and made the Major League roster out of Spring Training.

Virtually everyone else was already in the Rockies organization last year (if not for longer).

But at least the extra baggage of former Rockies’ players is gone.

And for the Rockies that might be a good thing.

They can refocus their efforts on making the guys who have already been in the organization significantly better.

And young guys like Garrett Hampson can get more playing time at the big league level, if, you know, veterans like Matt Holliday don’t get signed and take their spot throughout the season.