Colorado Rockies

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Colorado Rockies starter Jon Gray took "pitchers who rake" to a different level during Wednesday's game against the Cincinnati Reds at Coors Field. 

With two outs and a man on second, Gray crushed a 1-0 pitch delivered by Cincinnati's Scott Feldman deep into center field. 

There was little doubt the ball was gone immediately after it left Gray's bat, and Statcast later reported his first career homer traveled 467 feet. That is good for the longest MLB round-tripper hit by a pitcher since the 2015 season, and it's Colorado's longest home run of the season so far. 

Maybe Gray deserved an invite to this year's Home Run Derby.

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For the first time in his career, Nolan Arenado will start the All-Star Game.

The glass-half-full take is that the Colorado Rockies third baseman is getting his due. On the glass-half-empty side, we have to ask: what the heck took so long?

Arenado has been one of the game's best players, never mind third basemen, for a few years. At age 26, he's on a Hall of Fame track (more on that in a moment).

Yet, his newly minted All-Star start aside, he's maintained an undeserved low profile despite the stats and elite skill set.

Arenado broke out in 2015, clubbing 42 home runs and leading both leagues with 130 RBI and 354 total bases. Last season, for an encore, he hit 41 home runs and again paced baseball with 133 RBI.

There's a Coors Field bump to be reckoned with. Since 2014, Arenado owns a .977 OPS at home compared to an .804 mark on the road.

He's a top-shelf hitter, though, regardless of location. And he picks it wherever he plays.

During the same 2014-to-today window, Arenado has been the best defensive third baseman in the National League, according to FanGraphs.

He also passes the eyeball test with flying colors. Here's a retina-melting defensive gem from the past week, via MLB.com's Cut4:

Nolan invents ways to outdo himself. pic.twitter.com/BYdMhFO6ai

— Cut4 (@Cut4) June 28, 2017

So, Arenado is an unmitigated stud on both sides of the ball. All reasonable baseball minds agree on that. What about the Hall of Fame track referenced a few paragraphs ago?

SB Nation's Eric Garcia McKinley spelled it out in January, using Baseball Reference's WAR calculation:

"Arenado just completed his age-25 season. The magic number here is 18. That means that 50 percent of the position players who had accumulated at least 18 rWAR through age 25 have made it into the Hall of Fame—56 out of 112. Arenado is slightly past this mark. He has 20.1 rWAR through his first four seasons and through age 25."

A 50/50 shot isn't a guarantee, and WAR is an imperfect measure of a player's value. "On pace," is a sticky concept in sports; baseball history is littered with players who boasted a dominant stretch but didn't last long enough to build a HOF case.

Still, you get the idea. Arenado's combination of bat and glove work set him on a path that could plausibly end in Cooperstown. How come he doesn't get more love?

Why, for example, doesn't he crack MLB.com's list of the top 20 jerseys sold?

Why has he never finished higher than fifth in MVP voting despite head-turning offensive output and consistent highlight-reel work at the hot corner?

Why did it feel like a minor coup, rather than a foregone conclusion, that he overtook the Chicago Cubs' Kris Bryant for the All-Star starting nod?

The most obvious answer is the uniform Arenado wears.

Yes, the Rockies have been a nice story this season and enter play Wednesday with a 49-37 record, good for the second Senior Circuit wild-card slot.

They're also the third-place team in the NL West, have never won a division title let alone a World Series and rarely register on the national radar.

The Cubs, meanwhile, are fresh off a drought-busting championship. Bryant, not coincidentally, topped that list of jerseys sold.

"I feel like he doesn't get enough attention because of where we play," Colorado outfielder Carlos Gonzalez said of Arenado in July 2016, per USA Today's Ted Berg. "Not a lot of people watch the Rockies everyday, but this guy is special." 

Arenado echoed that sentiment after winning the third base vote.

Per Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post, he said: "I'm so glad [the fans] appreciate my game, because they don't get to see me play that much."

All-Star weekend in South Beach could be a coming-out party for Arenado. He's hitting .301 with 15 home runs and 63 RBI and leads the game with 27 doubles. He should be in the NL MVP conversation if he keeps it up.

He won't be a free agent until 2020, assuming the Rockies don't lock him up before then. A move to a bigger market such as New York or Los Angeles isn't coming soon.

Even at Mile High altitude, however, he deserves to rise to the top.

          

All statistics current as of Tuesday and courtesy of Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs.

The Colorado Rockies placed outfielder Ian Desmond on the 10-day disabled list with a calf strain and reinstated outfielder Carlos Gonzalez on Monday, per MLB Roster Moves.

For Desmond, this marks the second time in 2017 that he's been banged up. The first instance came in mid-March, when he needed to undergo surgery for a fractured bone in his left hand. 

That ailment delayed his season debut until April 30.  

Now 57 appearances into his first season with the Rockies, Desmond is slashing .283/.321/.388 with five home runs, 26 RBI and 10 stolen bases a year after he earned All-Star honors with the Texas Rangers. 

Should Colorado's $70 million man miss more time, the Rockies are likely to lean on Alexi Amarista to pick up the slack in left field, with Mark Reynolds in position to hold down the fort at first base. 

Are you real, Nolan?

Asking for all of us. pic.twitter.com/EAld2aN5WO

— MLB (@MLB) June 28, 2017

While some of you were either at the office or returning home from work, Colorado Rockies third baseman Nolan Arenado made what could be the defensive play of the day during Wednesday's game against the San Francisco Giants at AT&T Park.                  

With nobody on base and one out in the bottom of the third, San Francisco pitcher Ty Blach hit a sharp ground ball headed toward left field. 

Arenado had none of it, however, as he made the stop via his glove, grabbed the ball with his bare hand, rolled over to his backside and threw over to first in time to beat Blach for the force out. 

Granted, San Francisco's pitchers may not be known as the fastest baserunners in the league, but this is nevertheless a defensive highlight any day of the week.                

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Nolan Arenado completed his first career cycle in the most thrilling fashion possible Sunday, belting a three-run walk-off home run to give the Colorado Rockies a 7-5 win over the San Francisco Giants.

Arenado's homer was part of a four-run ninth inning against Giants reliever Mark Melancon, who entered the ninth looking to preserve a 5-2 lead. The Rockies third baseman went 4-for-5 on the day and drove in four runs.

The fourth cycle of the season belongs to Nolan Arenado.#Walkoff! https://t.co/YlBeOKOs9N pic.twitter.com/2lDTjQtPam

— MLB (@MLB) June 18, 2017

It's the fourth cycle of the 2017 season, as San Diego Padres first baseman Wil Myers, Washington Nationals shortstop Trea Turner and Texas Rangers outfielder Carlos Gomez previously pulled off the feat in April. Rockies pitchers gave up two of those three other cycles (Myers, Turner).

Arenado is the eighth Rockie to hit for the cycle and first since Michael Cuddyer in 2014. He began the game with a first-inning triple, singled in the fourth and then hit an RBI double off Giants starter Ty Blach in the sixth.

Raimel Tapia, Charlie Blackmon and DJ LeMahieu all singled in front of Arenado in the ninth, leaving him with runners on first and third. He then cracked a 374-foot home run to left field on Melancon's first pitch to send the Coors Field crowd into an uproar.

Sitting first place in the NL West at 46-26, the Rockies swept the Giants and will carry a five-game winning streak into their game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on Tuesday. 

The Colorado Rockies owned a 20-10 record entering Sunday's road matchup against the San Diego Padres, the best mark in team history through 30 games, per MLB Stat of the Day.

They didn't stop there, notching another victory in the contest to push their mark to 21-10 thus far. The Rockies jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the fourth inning of the game thanks to a string of hits in the middle and bottom part of the order.

Colorado also received a solid outing from rookie starter Jeff Hoffman, who was recalled from Triple-A Albuquerque on Saturday to make his third career major league start in place of the injured Tyler Anderson on Sunday. Anderson was placed on the 10-day disabled list with left knee inflammation, while Hoffman allowed just one run and notched nine strikeouts over seven innings.

After a five-game road trip concluded Sunday, the Rockies will return to Coors Field to host the Cleveland Indians for two games before heading to Wrigley Field to face the Chicago Cubs with an opportunity to improve their road record further.

The Rockies own the top spot in the NL West by 0.5 games over the Los Angeles Dodgers following Sunday's victory, with the Arizona Diamondbacks trailing by two games. Colorado still awaits the return of prized prospect outfielder David Dahl and catcher Tom Murphy, potentially making the club even more dangerous when it gains full health.

The Colorado Rockies are legitimate postseason players.

As we approach the 50-game mark of the 2017 season, the Mile High gang sits at 30-17, good for first place in the National League West and the best record in the Senior Circuit.

Raise your hand if you saw that coming.

Put your hand down.

They've done it with an offense that ranks second in baseball in runs scored and a pitching staff that paces the game in road ERA behind new manager and former pitcher/pitching coach Bud Black.

As if that wasn't enough good news for the Rockies faithful, here's more: The team's top prospect, Brendan Rodgers, is scalding hot in the minor leagues and could be a secret weapon at some point this season.

In 25 games at High-A Lancaster, Rodgers is hitting .352 with a .950 OPS. A promotion to Double-A seems inevitable, and an audition in Denver is a real possibility.

Yes, the 2015 No. 3 overall pick is only 20 years old and has fewer than 800 professional plate appearances to his name. He's raw and relatively untested.

At the same time, as Purple Row's Adam Peterson noted, Rodgers "is completely dominating a league wherein he is over two years younger than the average player."

Sometimes, a dude is ticketed for the fast track. In the early stages of his pro career, Rodgers looks like one of those dudes.

"At this point, you can't really get much better," Lancaster hitting coach Derrick May said of Rodgers, per Michael Leboff of MiLB.com. "It's great to see and to be a part of Brendan doing well. He's a great kid and he comes to play and competes every day, so it's a pleasure to watch him work. He just needs to maintain his strengths and work on the weaknesses he may have—but you don't see much of them right now."

The question, then, is where Rodgers will play if and when he arrives at Coors Field.

He's logged the bulk of his minor league innings at shortstop, a position occupied by Trevor Story.

After breaking out in 2016, Story has been a disappointment this season, hitting just .180 with a .685 OPS and recently missing 12 games with a left shoulder strain.

The Rockies aren't about to give up on the powerful middle infielder, however. He'll be afforded every opportunity to regain the form that saw him blast 27 home runs in 97 games in 2016 before a thumb injury put him on the shelf.

Rodgers has also served time at second base in the minors, but that spot belongs to reigning NL batting champion DJ LeMahieu, who is doing nothing to lose his gig with a .291 average.

The answer may be for Rodgers to slot in as a super-sub, grabbing starts at second and short to spell LeMahieu and Story and coming off the bench as a late-inning replacement and pinch hitter.

Then again, if Story's struggles continue and Rodgers keeps raking his way up the organizational ladder, the pressure to give the kid regular reps will increase.

There's also a chance, albeit a distant one, the Rockies could trade Rodgers for more pitching or whatever they felt they needed at the deadline.

As Patrick Saunders of the Denver Post noted in January, "When the Rockies talk trade with other teams, Rodgers' name comes up a lot."

That's no surprise given his pedigree, and it's surely truer now as he's put together a dominant run at High-A.

It's tough to imagine Colorado will mortgage such a big chunk of its future, though, unless the return is astronomical.

The Rockies have a talent-laden MLB roster, highlighted by third baseman and NL MVP candidate Nolan Arenado. They're vastly outperforming the preseason prognostications. Even after their strong start, FanGraphs projects them to finish 10 games out of first place.

So far, this squad is all about defying projections.

Will Rodgers contribute to the cause at some point in 2017? It's as up in the air as a towering Coors pop-up. But it's no less probable, or tantalizing, than the Rockies' being legitimate players in the first place.

     

All statistics current as of Tuesday and courtesy of MLB.com and Baseball Reference unless otherwise noted.

Colorado Rockies closer Greg Holland entered during the ninth inning of Sunday's game against the Cincinnati Reds holding a two-run lead and then proceeded to set down three of the four batters he faced to close out the 6-4 victory.

The win moved the Rockies' record on the season to 28-17—the best in franchise history through 45 games, per MLB Stat of the Day. It also kept the club two games ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League West.

Offense generally serves as the Rockies' calling card due to their home ballpark, Coors Field, heavily favoring the bats. This season has been no exception, with Colorado ranking sixth in the league in runs scored.

However, the pitching staff has held its own as well. While the club's home ERA (5.13) is worst in the majors, its 3.56 road ERA is the second-best behind just the Arizona Diamondbacks (3.43).

When the Rockies signed Holland this offseason, it was difficult to know what the team was getting out of a 31-year-old hurler who hadn't pitched since 2015 after undergoing Tommy John surgery. Holland has not only returned to an effective form, but he also currently leads the majors with 19 saves and owns a phenomenal 0.96 ERA with 26 strikeouts over 18.2 frames.

Colorado's hot start is even more surprising when considering that it was without some of its best players early in the campaign. First baseman/outfielder Ian Desmond missed extended time to begin the campaign due to a fractured left hand, and 23-year-old outfielder David Dahl remains on the disabled list with a rib fracture.

If the Rockies continue to receive adequate pitching and get a fully healthy lineup, they could compete for the NL West crown this season. For now, they can settle for owning the best record in the National League approximately a quarter of the way through the season.

With the Colorado Rockies looking to improve on last season's 75-win output, an injury to outfielder Carlos Gonzalez's hand will make their climb that much more difficult.

The All-Star was forced to leave Wednesday's game at Dodger Stadium after getting hit on the hand by a Clayton Kershaw pitch, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times.

After the game, Shaikin reported Gonzalez suffered a bruised right hand.

Gonzalez actually swung at the pitch and ended up striking out in his only at-bat.

The 31-year-old had a solid 2016 with a .298/.350/.505 slash line in 150 games. He's been overshadowed in Colorado by the continued ascension of Nolan Arenado, but his performance adds more depth to the middle of the team's lineup.

The Rockies rarely struggle to find offense because Coors Field is such a hitter's haven, but their lineup is already missing free-agent acquisition Ian Desmond after he suffered a broken hand during spring training.

Losing Gonzalez for even a brief period puts the Rockies up against a wall as they look to finish over .500 and challenge for a playoff spot. With breakout star David Dahl recovering from injury, manager Bud Black may be forced to platoon Gerardo Parra and Chris Denorfia in right field.

But no matter what move Black decides to make, Gonzalez's production can't be replaced by any potential replacement on Colorado's roster.

Colorado Rockies pitcher Jon Gray has been placed on the 10-day disabled list due to a foot injury. 

Nick Groke of the Denver Post reported Gray was placed on the DL. Manager Bud Black later added Gray has a stress fracture and will miss at least a month, per Groke.

Gray was injured during Thursday's game against the San Francisco Giants when he fielded a chopper off the bat of Eduardo Nunez in the third inning. He stayed in the game to start the fourth inning but was removed after facing one batter.  

Thomas Harding and Michael Wagaman of MLB.com noted Gray injured his toe during a spring training game on March 19.

Gray has a 4.38 ERA with nine strikeouts and seven walks in three starts this season. 

 

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