The rocky 2025 Colorado Rockies.

[RedRamage]

Last year we witnessed a record breaking season in terms of losses for the modern era of MLB (1901+). The Chicago White Sox lost 121 games. This topped the 1962 Mets who lost 120 games (the previous MLB record) as well as our own 2003 Tigers who lost 119 games (the previous AL record). If we look at winning percentage though the 2024 Sox were only the 5th worst team in the modern era. They finished 41 and 121, giving them a .253 wpct... this was better than the 1904 Senators (.252), the 1962 Mets (.250), the 1935 Braves (.248), and the 1916 Athletics (.235).

This year we may be witnessing a season to destroy all those others: The 2025 Colorado Rockies. As of May 28 the Rockies still having broken double digit wins. They are 9 and 47. The '24 White Sox, thru 56 games, were 15-41. The '03 Tigers were 16-40. The Rockies winning percentage right now is .161! More than 70 points LOWER than the worst modern era winning percentage. The Rockies are on pace to win just 26 games. That would be 136 losses. 15 more losses than the White Sox had last year.

To avoid topping the record 121 losses the Rockies would need to go 32-74 for the rest of the season. That doesn't seem like it should be that hard but 32-74 is a .302 winning percentage. That's nearly double the pace of winning vs. what they've done so far.

Working in their favor, both the '03 Tigers and the '24 Sox had a pretty good last month of the year. Because other bad teams are likely playing younger guys to see what they have and better teams might be resting stars to prepare for playoffs September can be a month to make up some ground. The White Sox went 10-15 in Sept last year, a .400 wpct. The '03 Tigers went 9-18 in September, a .333 wpct. But even a September boost seems unlikely to keep the Rockies from setting a new record in terms of losses and worst wpct of the modern era.

A few last notes:

• The Pythagorean W-L for the Rockies so far is 12-44. This is still a dismal .244 wpct and projects to only 35 wins and 127 losses.
• The Rockies have already had three 8-game losing streaks. This seems bad but it's actually a bit better than the Tigers did in '03. That year we had two 8-game, two 9-game, a 10-game, and an 11-game losing streaks. The Tigers clumped their wins more than the Rockies have so far. Four times we won back to the back games and we had three 3-game and one 4-game winning streaks. The Rockies have only had back-to-back wins once so far.
• About two weeks ago the Rockies fired their manager Bud Black, who was 7-33 (.175) on the season. Since then interim manager Warren Schaeffer has gone 2-14 (.125).

[IdahoBert]

This is a good post. It took a lot of work to assemble. Thank you.

Although I feel no remorse in the Tigers sweeping the Rockies, I do feel bad for the players and the fan base that has to endure this.

Although I’m kind of a snob about my team being 125 years old and with an extensive tradition to both enjoy and lament, I know there are genuine fans with a heartfelt love for teams with less extensive traditions such as the Rockies. They too are field of dreams dreamers, and this has to be very hard on those fans.

It’s natural to want to blame someone when things go wrong. It’s not like the players themselves spontaneously formed a team. I’m sure blame lies with the front office that assembled the team. But they would’ve had to almost do a bad job on purpose to achieve results this dismal and I find it hard to believe they did.

[IdahoBert]

For what it’s worth this is what the robots think:

AI Overview

The Colorado Rockies are experiencing a historically bad season due to a combination of factors, including poor offensive performance, a struggling pitching staff, a lack of impact prospects, and a perceived lack of commitment to a full rebuild. The team's struggles are also compounded by injuries to key players and a perceived lack of progress in applying analytics compared to other MLB organizations. 

 

Here's a more detailed breakdown:

• Poor Offense:

  The Rockies are struggling to score runs, particularly when playing away from Coors Field, which is known to be hitter-friendly. They are last in MLB in on-base plus slugging and have struck out an MLB-high number of times. 

   
• Weak Pitching:

  The pitching staff has struggled to contain opposing batters, with a high ERA and poor walk-plus-hit-per-inning statistics. 

   
• Lack of Impact Prospects:

  While some young players are emerging, the Rockies lack a significant pipeline of top prospects to fill roster needs, hindering their ability to compete. 

   
• Perceived Lack of Rebuild Commitment:

  Some observers suggest the Rockies are not fully committed to a rebuild, even with their poor performance, potentially limiting their ability to attract quality talent or make necessary trades. 

   
• Injuries:

  Injuries to key players like Ezequiel Tovar and Kris Bryant have also impacted the team's performance. 

   
• Organizational Issues:

  Some believe the Rockies are behind other teams in terms of analytics and player development, leading to perceived mistakes in trades and free agency signings. 

[IdahoBert]

As a personal insight into the Colorado Rockies top brass, a few years ago when I attended a Boise Hawks NWL short season league game the entire front office was in attendance and I sat right next to them.

They were, honestly, a very impressive, almost infectiously interesting group of young men bristling with energy and optimism along with a couple other elder statesman who were owners and they reminded me of that kind of élan I witnessed in other corporate settings where there’s this obligatory “can do“ attitude that everyone adopts, which is often little more than attitude and confidence.

I can see how these guys with lots of money and lots of attitude could make the mistakes that led to the Colorado Rockies being so awful this year. Drive, attitude, and confidence may build a real estate empire, but a baseball team is a different animal. 

[Motown Bombers]

The current owners of the Rockies have owned the team for 20 years now and have only five winning seasons in that span. 

[lordstanley]

Most Rockies fans presumably are also fans of the Nuggets, Avalanche and Broncos, each of which have won a title within the past decade. Plus if there's no good baseball for them to watch this summer they can use the time to go climb a few 14ers. I don't feel sorry for them.

[Tenacious D]

4 minutes ago, Motown Bombers said:

The current owners of the Rockies have owned the team for 20 years now and have only five winning seasons in that span. 

Poor management or is Denver a bad location for baseball, or a combination of both?

Always remember Smokey retiring mid season when he managed there, basically surrendering.

[IdahoBert]

I think the Rockies got one because it didn’t significantly encroach on anybody else’s territory and let’s face it, it’s a kind of unlikely place to have a team. 

[1776]

But hey, the Rockies have won twice as many home games this year (6) as they have road games (3). 😁

[RedRamage]

Its crazy to me how much time has past and just how old I'm getting! 🙂

The Rockies are a "young" team and yet have been around for over 3 decades now. They haven't won it all yet, but they did make it to one World Series. Also lost in the NLDS three times, so they've had some measure of success. Only 9 winning season in their 32 (completed) season, but even in the bad years they were still often competitive. Only seven times prior to 2018 did they have a wpct lower than .450. They only ever finished below .400 once in that time... they first season.

In 2017 they made the playoffs but lost in the Wild Card. In 2018 they made it to the Divisional round but lost. After that peak they starting falling off... rapidly. In 2019 they won only 71 games... 20 fewer than the previous year. 2020 was covid... which is hard to put any statistical importance on... but they finished .388... their worst wpct ever up to that point.

2021 saw only a very slight improvement over 2019, winning 74 games. But then they dropped again in 2022 with 68 wins. 2023 was only 59 wins, 2024 was only 61. And now 61 wins seems like it would be an amazing accomplishment.

[RandyMarsh]

There have probably been teams with worse overall records than the Rockies over the course of the past 10-15 years but I don't think any team has felt less relevant than them. 

Like other teams that have sucked atleast may have had a star player or hot shot prospect(s) to excite them but that hasn't been the case with Colorado.

I don't think anybody has cared about them since Matt Holiday was roaming the field and he has a kid playing in the league now just to show how long ago it was. 

Edited May 29 by RandyMarsh

[IdahoBert]

The Coors Field effect is seemingly so extreme I’ve never been able to take either the Rockies or the players that excelled in that environment seriously. And granted I’ve never compared how well Larry Walker and Todd Helton did on the road, but those stats are so extreme they bore me.

59 doubles in a season and unbelievably high batting averages sound like beer league stuff. In a sport that reveres statistics so much, these statistics just don’t seem to count, and neither does the team that records them.

If the apostasy of an expansion team in Salt Lake City happens at nearly the same altitude and this occurs again it’ll give me one more reason to feel like an old man shouting at a cloud.

Although a lot of things that I looked up sort of dismiss how extreme it is quote from a ball player seemed more authentic:

'S---, the whole time there was a horror story, man," said Marvin Freeman, who started 41 games for the Rockies over the first two years of the ballpark. "We called it arena baseball. It was like a pinball machine up in there sometimes. Balls were flying out of there. And you just had to make sure when you did leave Colorado you maintained some sanity because it could be hard on your mentality."

[Hongbit]

The crazy part is this lineup has some talent in it.

Beck, Doyle, McMahon, Toglia,  Goodman, and Tovar are all legit major league players.  It’s not like they are trotting out an everyday lineup with guys that shouldn’t even be up on the show.

 I’ve got to think they will start to get the bats going and will heat up enough to move out of record territory.

[gehringer_2]

6 minutes ago, IdahoBert said:

The Coors Field effect is seemingly so extreme I’ve never been able to take either the Rockies or the players that excelled in that environment seriously. And granted I’ve never compared how well Larry Walker and Todd Helton did on the road, but those stats are so extreme they bore me.

59 doubles in a season and unbelievably high batting averages sound like beer league stuff. In a sport that reveres statistics so much, these statistics just don’t seem to count, and neither does the team that records them.

If the apostasy of an expansion team in Salt Lake City happens at nearly the same altitude and this occurs again it’ll give me one more reason to feel like an old man shouting at a cloud. 

I thought when they started to use the humidor on the baseballs there things supposedly began to play closer to normal - at least those were the reports when they started doing it. I never cared enough to follow it any closer.

[IdahoBert]

11 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I thought when they started to use the humidor on the baseballs there things supposedly began to play closer to normal - at least those were the reports when they started doing it. I never cared enough to follow it any closer.

I hadn’t heard about that. Apparently it’s common knowledge, but anything to do with the Rockies kind of disinterests me. I guess pitchers still don’t get the full effect of breaking balls there no matter what.

When I hear about doing things to baseballs, I remember how the White Sox used to freeze baseballs for the Tigers when they came to the ballpark in the 60s. 

[4hzglory]

31 minutes ago, gehringer_2 said:

I thought when they started to use the humidor on the baseballs there things supposedly began to play closer to normal - at least those were the reports when they started doing it. I never cared enough to follow it any closer.

It clearly didn't fix the reduced movement on pitches.  In Jobe's start, they were showing the extreme lack of movement he was having compared to a normal start.  It forces pitchers to pitch differently.  They had a former Rockie pitcher on MLB and he was saying if he was building a staff there, he'd focus on pitchers with command and control and almost ignore spin/stuff as it is so reduced at that altitude.

[RedRamage]

On one hand I get that altered stats for players who spend many games in Coors isn't ideal... but on the other hand I don't think we've seen any super "sacred" numbers (ie, HR/season, career hits, etc.) getting approached. Add in that both teams need to play in the same conditions and to me it's just one more home field advantage thing. You build your team with an eye to whether it will play well in your park because you play half your games there. You alter park conditions (long/short grass, harder packed or "softer" dirt) to the preferences of your players. I see Coors as no different.

[Sports_Freak]

Any pitchers in Colorado the Tigers can poach? 😆

[gehringer_2]

1 hour ago, 4hzglory said:

It clearly didn't fix the reduced movement on pitches.  In Jobe's start, they were showing the extreme lack of movement he was having compared to a normal start.  It forces pitchers to pitch differently.  They had a former Rockie pitcher on MLB and he was saying if he was building a staff there, he'd focus on pitchers with command and control and almost ignore spin/stuff as it is so reduced at that altitude.

I remember when they put that up, but if you go back and look at the overal statcast numbers for that game, Jobe's slider and FB were a couple of inchs off what he threw last night - that is absolutley significant when it come to missing a bat.The effect is real - but that graphic they put up during the game was some kind of collection of outliers. The effect is not as big as that in game sample implied.

Edited May 29 by gehringer_2

[1984Echoes]

2 hours ago, Sports_Freak said:

Any pitchers in Colorado the Tigers can poach? 😆

No.

[chasfh]

21 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

The current owners of the Rockies have owned the team for 20 years now and have only five winning seasons in that span. 

The current owners of the Tigers have owned the team for 32 seasons now and have only ten winning seasons during that span.

Asterisk on that, though, because this current iteration of the current owner saw the light three years ago and basically became a different owner.

[Motown Bombers]

52 minutes ago, chasfh said:

The current owners of the Tigers have owned the team for 32 seasons now and have only ten winning seasons during that span.

Asterisk on that, though, because this current iteration of the current owner saw the light three years ago and basically became a different owner.

That's not really true. Chris has owned the Tigers since 2017. As the Lions have proven, children are not the same as their parents. 

[Edman85]

12 drafts into the MLB Draft slot system, most teams are willing to pay the tax on the 5% overage. The Rockies have never once gone above their bonus pool.

[oblong]

like driving on the interstate and not filling up at the nearest gas station because they only take CC and you don't want to pay the surcharge... "I'll get the next exit".  Careful.  I tried that in Ohio once and got down to 4 miles remaining.

 

[gehringer_2]

4 hours ago, Motown Bombers said:

That's not really true. Chris has owned the Tigers since 2017. As the Lions have proven, children are not the same as their parents. 

Exactly right.