Prompted by the previous post on team strengths, I took a look at the Rockies’ team ERA+ and OPS+ since they were invented in 1993. Here’s a chart:
Year OPS+ ERA+ 1993 89 91* 1994 95 96* 1995 99 108* 1996 100* 97 1997 105* 99 1998 102 102 1999 90 95* 2000 90 112* 2001 102* 98 2002 86 94* 2003 100* 91 2004 96* 91 2005 91 92* 2006 99 103* 2007 102 105* AVG 96.4 98.3
I’m shocked. The Rockies offense has never posted an OPS+ over 105 and has only been better than league average four of their 15 seasons. That’s definitely not the image you get by watching them play in Coors. On average, the Rockies have had better pitching than hitting, and have had better pitching nine times versus only five for hitting. To all the Baseball Prospectus writers who said that the Rockies needed better hitting during the glory days of Todd Helton and Vinny Castilla, you were more right than I realized.
Here’s a list of career years for famous Rockies’ hitters along with the season’s rank among the best that qualified for the batting title from 1993 to 2007.
Rank Player OPS+ Year Age +----+-----------------+----+----+---+ 22 Larry Walker 177 1997 30 35 Todd Helton 168 2003 29 84 Andres Galarraga 146 1993 32 130 Ellis Burks 144 1996 31 162 Matt Holliday 139 2006 26 168 Garrett Atkins 138 2006 26 247 Dante Bichette 130 1995 31 263 Vinny Castilla 128 1998 30 327 Brad Hawpe 122 2006 27 391 Jeromy Burnitz 115 2004 35 *363 Preston Wilson 115 2003 28 417 Charlie Hayes 115 1993 28 456 Jay Payton 112 2003 30
Let’s stop there. If your best season wasn’t better than Jay Payton’s or Charlie Hayes’, you’re just not that talented. Larry Walker and Todd Helton were true beasts. But Dante Bichette and Vinny Castilla were merely Brad Hawpe. (*Preston Wilson’s best season was with Florida in 1999 even though his raw OPS was .035 points lower than his 2003 season in Colorado.)
And here are the best seasons by Rockies starters by ERA+, with their raw ERA included as well.
Player ERA+ IP Year ERA Joe Kennedy 138 162.1 2004 3.66 Kevin Ritz 127 173.1 1995 4.21 Jason Jennings 127 212 2006 3.78 Brian Bohanon 127 177 2000 4.68 Armando Reynoso 123 189 1993 4 Roger Bailey 121 191 1997 4.29 Jeff Francis 116 199 2006 4.16 Pedro Astacio 114 232 1999 5.04 Aaron Cook 114 212.2 2006 4.23 Aaron Cook 113 166 2007 4.12 Pedro Astacio 113 196.1 2000 5.27 John Thomson 110 166.1 1997 4.71 Armando Reynoso 110 168.2 1996 4.96 Jason Jennings 108 185.1 2002 4.52 Kevin Ritz 103 213 1996 5.28 Mark Thompson 103 169.2 1996 5.3 Masato Yoshii 101 167.1 2000 5.86 Darryl Kile 98 230.1 1998 5.2 Denny Neagle 97 170.2 2001 5.38 Mike Hampton 96 203 2001 5.41
League-average pitching from Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton with a 5.40 ERA? Wow. Brian Bohanon’s 4.68 ERA from 2000 converts to a 127 ERA+ Hot damn!
And finally, because I made a graph plotting the above data, here it is:
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Sky is a baseball fan and racket sport afficianado living in upstate NY. His favorite color is orange and is just about ready to give up on his life-long dream to become the next Magnus ver Magnuson (World's Strongest Man). His favorite baseball teams are the Yankees and Red Sox, proving that there's hope in the Middle East.