The Rare Occasions in Which Colorado Rockies Pitchers Ranked on the NL Top-10 Leaderboard in ERA+

Since the Colorado Rockies joined the NL in 1993, the Denver-based franchise’s hitters have garnered an unparalleled number of batting titles.  In fact, during the 31-year existence of the franchise, nine different Rockies hitters have captured 11 NL batting crowns while, over the same stretch, no other MLB club can claim more than five batting titles.  Critics of the franchise frequently argue that Colorado’s hitters benefit from playing in the thin air and high elevation of Denver which causes the ball to travel further.  While playing at high altitude helps Rockies hitters produce standout offensive totals at home, this same advantage works against the team’s pitchers who routinely post poor home numbers.  In addition to having to endure the disadvantages of pitching in thin air and high elevation, Colorado’s hurlers also deal with the challenges of adjusting to distinct elevation changes and the potentially greater risk for injury that comes along with it.  As a result, Rockies pitchers have enjoyed little in the way of success.  In fact, over its 31 years of play, the team has finished at the bottom of the NL in ERA a staggering 18 times while ranking next-to-last on another five occasions.  In stark contrast to the team’s hitters who have collected 11 batting crowns, no Rockies hurler has come anywhere close to winning the ERA title, as just three of the club’s pitchers have even managed to finish the season ranked on the NL top-10 leaderboard in ERA.

Indeed, the disadvantages that Colorado’s hurlers face are underscored by the eye-popping park factor values the team’s home ballpark generates each year which are typically the highest in the NL.  Thus, instead of using traditional ERA to evaluate Rockies pitchers, ERA+ is a more accurate metric because it attempts to the level the playing field by taking into account the impact the pitcher’s home ballpark had on their performance.  Yet, even with the adjustments of ERA+, there have only been 11 occasions in which a Rockies pitcher produced an ERA+ figure that cracked the NL top-10 leaderboard in the metric.  Further underscoring the disadvantage faced by Colorado’s hurlers, these 11 finishes on the ERA+ leaderboard represents the same number of batting titles won by the team’s hitters.  With this in mind, I decided to take a deeper look at these rare occasions when a Rockies hurler overcame the disadvantages of pitching in Denver to slot among the senior circuit’s top moundsmen.  Some of these hurlers actually pitched more effectively at home than on the road, even though in each of these cases Colorado’s home ballpark generated a NL-worst park factor for pitchers.

A free agent acquisition for 1994, right-hander Marvin Freeman brought parts of seven seasons of experience to the Rockies.  Considered a long shot to make Colorado’s rotation, Freeman got the opportunity to open the year as the team’s number-five starter when fellow righty Kent Bottenfield suffered a broken hand while taking batting practice.  Freeman initially began his major league career as a starter for the Philadelphia Phillies during the latter half of the 1980s but failed to cement a permanent spot in the rotation.  Freeman was then moved to the bullpen just prior to a July 1990 trade that sent him to the Atlanta Braves.  He pitched effectively in relief for the Braves over the remainder of 1990 and during each of the next two seasons as the club captured the NL pennant in both 1991 and 1992.  However, Freeman was released by Atlanta at the conclusion of 1993 after struggling through an injury-riddled year in which his ERA soared to 6.08.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

Signing on with Colorado for 1994, Freeman made the most of the opportunity created by Bottenfield’s injury and excelled in his second chance at starting, putting together a brilliant campaign for the second-year Rockies.  After compiling a 67-95 record during the franchise’s inaugural season, Colorado improved to 53-64 in 1994 and became an unlikely contender in a weak NL West, spending the majority of the campaign within a handful of games of the division lead before the strike brought a premature end to the season.  One of the main factors in the club’s surprising run was the superb pitching of Freeman who went 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA that translated to an even more impressive 179 ERA+.  The righty finished on the NL leaderboard in both metrics as his traditional ERA ranked third while his ERA+ slotted runner-up to former Braves teammate Greg Maddux.  Freeman’s 2.80 ERA stood out on a beleaguered Rockies pitching staff that sported a NL-worst 5.15 mark with David Nied’s 4.80 figure representing the next lowest ERA among the team’s regular starters.  Freeman went undefeated at Colorado’s Mile High Stadium while producing similar home and road ERA numbers.  In fact, because each of Freeman’s unearned runs came on foreign terrain, his home RA9 of 2.90 was actually lower than his 3.29 road mark.  Moreover, the 31-year-old hurler was showing no signs of slowing down as he went 3-0 with a 1.63 ERA in his final four starts before the strike halted play on August 12.  In addition to ranking among the senior circuit leaders in both ERA and ERA+, Freeman also paced the loop with a .833 win-loss percentage while his 4.5 WAR classified fourth-best among NL hurlers.  Freeman drew support from NL Cy Young Award voters and tied for fourth in the election.

After having dealt with injuries in 1989, 1991, and 1993, Freeman proved he could put together a standout season as a starter.  Unfortunately, his injury issues resurfaced at the beginning of 1995 as elbow problems plagued him throughout the year.  The righty remained in Colorado’s starting rotation but saw his ERA balloon to 5.89 and ERA+ slump to 91.  Freeman fared no better in 1996, pitching to a 6.04 ERA for the Rockies before being selected off waivers by the Chicago White Sox at the end of August.  Freeman made a single ineffective start for Chicago in what turned out to be his final major league appearance.

When the strike ended and play resumed for the 1995 season, the Rockies moved into their new home ballpark, Coors Field.  While Mile High Stadium generated respective park factors of 123 and 114 in 1993 and 1994, Coors Field proved to be even less pitcher-friendly than its predecessor as Colorado’s newly-minted home registered an eye-popping 128 park factor for 1995.  Rockies hurlers were battered to the tune of 6.17 ERA at home, compared to 3.71 on the road.

Right-hander Kevin Ritz took his lumps at Coors Field but pitched well enough on the road to slot among NL ERA+ leaders for 1995.  Ritz came to Colorado as the 46th pick of the 1992 expansion draft after being left unprotected by the Detroit Tigers.  In parts of four seasons with Detroit, Ritz had compiled an uneven 6-18 record and 5.85 ERA with the majority of his outings coming as a starter.  Attempting to return from an elbow injury that brought an early end to his 1992 campaign, Ritz appeared to be damaged goods as his elbow issues crept up again and caused him to miss all of the 1993 season.  Ritz began 1994 in the minors but earned the call-up to Colorado in late May and made 15 starts for the club, going 5-6 with a 5.62 ERA that worked out to an ERA+ of 89.

With the prior year’s ace Marvin Freeman hampered by his own elbow injury, Ritz picked up the mantle in 1995, posting an 11-11 record and 4.21 ERA across 173 1/3 innings—in the process tossing nearly 70 more frames than any other Rockies hurler.  The 30-year-old righty pitched much more effectively on the road than at home as three-quarters of the 16 long balls he allowed came at Coors Field.  Ritz’s 4.21 ERA translated to a solid 128 ERA+ which ranked eighth-best in the NL.  Additionally, Ritz’s 4.5 WAR slotted him in the same number-eight spot on the senior circuit pitching leaderboard.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

Fueled by a potent offense that relished hitting at Coors Field, the Rockies racked up a 77-67 record and secured the NL wild card, thus reaching the postseason in only the franchise’s third year of play despite the pitching staff compiling a league-worst 4.97 ERA.  Ritz toed the slab for Colorado in the opening contest of the NLDS at home against the NL East champion Braves.  Ritz started the game opposite the senior loop’s eventual Cy Young Award winner for the campaign, Greg Maddux.  With each club boasting formidable lineups, Ritz and Maddux did their best to limit the damage at the unforgiving confines of Coors Field.  Ritz lasted five and one-third innings, being tagged for three runs, one of which was unearned.  Maddux tossed seven frames, also yielding a trio of runs.  Neither starter factored in the decision as Atlanta won the opener by a score of 5-4.  With the Rockies facing elimination, Ritz returned to the mound in Game Four, this time in relief of starter Bret Saberhagen whom the Braves had routed for six runs over four frames.  Ritz entered the contest with Colorado trailing 6-3 and pitched poorly, allowing Atlanta to extend the lead by giving up four runs in one and two-thirds of an inning.  The Braves won the game 10-4 to take the NLDS and complete the first step of what would be a successful drive to the World Series championship.

Now the de facto ace of Colorado’s beleaguered pitching staff, Ritz shouldered an even heavier load in 1996, making 35 starts and hurling 213 innings, once again leading the team by a healthy margin.  Ritz and the Rockies both took a step backwards from 1995, as the righty maintained a 5.28 ERA that translated to a mediocre ERA+ of 98 while the club fell out of playoff contention, going 83-79 to finish in third.  Be that as it may, Ritz crafted an impressive 17-11 record and set the single-season franchise mark for wins that stood until 2010.  Ritz further declined during a difficult 1997 which saw his ERA rise to 5.87 and his record drop to 6-8, before a torn labrum brought a premature end to his season in late July.  The same injury sidelined Ritz for much of 1998 as he made just a pair of starts for Colorado in what would be his final big league campaign.

After Marvin Freeman and Kevin Ritz placed among the NL ERA+ leaders in back-to-back years, the Rockies pitching staff began an eight-season stretch in which no hurler managed to crack the top 10.  During this period, a few of Colorado’s pitchers came reasonably close as Roger Bailey, Pedro Astacio, and Brian Bohanon each finished in the top 15 with Astacio matching Ritz’s franchise-record 17 wins in 1999.  This eight-year span also saw the club sign marquee free agent pitchers Darryl Kile, Mike Hampton, and Denny Neagle.  Although each of these three hurlers had achieved success prior to signing with Colorado, they struggled mightily while pitching for the Rockies.  After witnessing the substantial drop in performance this trio suffered, henceforth very few high-profile free agent hurlers signed deals to join the franchise.  In an effort to cut down on scoring at Coors Field, MLB approved the use of a climate-controlled humidor during the 2002 campaign.  The humidor, which was designed to keep baseballs from drying out in the thin air of Denver, helped curtail scoring to a degree as Coors Field’s park factors, which had generally hovered in the mid-to-high 120s, mostly stayed in the 110s from that point forward.

The Rockies pitching staff’s eight-year run of futility finally came to an end in 2004 when the unlikely name of Joe Kennedy nudged his way onto the NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard.  Picked up from the Tampa Bay Devil Rays as part of an offseason trade, the left-handed throwing Kennedy brought three years of major league experience to Colorado, over which he had posted a lackluster 4.98 ERA.  Fresh off a disastrous 2003 where he went 3-12 with a 6.13 ERA while missing a month due to shoulder inflammation, Kennedy quickly made a positive impression with his new team, winning each of his first four decisions to begin 2004.  He then labored through a series of middling starts before the return of his shoulder inflammation sent him to the sidelines in early July.  The 25-year-old hurler came back strong from his month-long stay on the disabled list and ended the season on a high note with a 3.19 ERA over his final 10 starts.  With his solid finish to the campaign, Kennedy rounded out 2004 with a 9-7 record and 3.66 ERA.  One of the few bright spots on a 68-win Rockies club whose pitching staff assembled a NL-worst 5.54 ERA, Kennedy ranked ninth in the loop with a 135 ERA+.  The southpaw maintained comparable home and road ERA figures while compiling a much better win-loss record at Coors Field.  Kennedy’s shoulder injury nearly cost him a spot in the top 10 as he was only able to accumulate 162 1/3 innings, barely meeting the required number of frames to be eligible for the ERA+ leaderboard.  Despite his relatively low inning total, Kennedy accrued 5.6 WAR, the sixth-highest figure among NL pitchers.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

However, Kennedy was unable to carry the momentum of his impressive 2004 into 2005 as opposing hitters freely pounded him both at Coors Field and on the road.  Finally, after posting an unsightly 7.04 ERA across 16 starts, Kennedy was shipped to the Oakland Athletics as part of a four-player trade on July 13.  The lefty recaptured some of his form with the A’s, logging a 4.45 ERA over the balance of the campaign while pitching better in relief.  Kennedy remained in the bullpen for 2006 where he excelled as Oakland’s set-up man, registering a sparkling 2.31 ERA despite once again missing time due to shoulder inflammation.  Following his brilliant 2006, the A’s gave him another shot at breaking into their starting rotation for 2007 but he produced pedestrian results and was subsequently selected off waivers by the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 4.  The southpaw only made three relief appearances for Arizona before they released him on August 22.  He then finished out the campaign as a reliever for the Toronto Blue Jays.  Tragically, during the offseason, Kennedy passed away from hypertensive heart disease which caused his heart to stop beating.  Kennedy was just 28 years old at the time of his death.

The initial three Rockies pitchers to crack the NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard had respectively come to the team via free agency, the expansion draft, and trade.  But the 2006 campaign saw the first instance in which a home-grown hurler, right-hander Jason Jennings, achieved the feat for the franchise.  The 16th overall pick in the first round of the 1999 draft, Jennings received the call-up to Colorado in late August 2001.  Jennings debuted in grand style, earning himself the unique distinction as the first—and to date only—Modern Era player to throw a complete-game shutout and hit a home run in their major league debut.  The following season, he went 16-8 with a 4.52 ERA for an uncompetitive 73-win Rockies team and was voted NL Rookie of the Year, becoming the first Rockies player to secure top freshman honors.  The subsequent three campaigns were less impressive though, with the young hurler racking up a combined record of 29-34 with a 5.25 ERA.

However, Jennings rediscovered his form in 2006, battling back from a broken middle finger that cost him the final two months of the previous season, to post a career-best 3.78 ERA.  Although he notched an ERA nearly three-quarters of a run lower than his rookie campaign, his solid pitching was not reflected in his win-loss record as he only managed a 9-13 mark.  Nevertheless, the 27-year-old etched his name on the NL leaderboard, ranking sixth with a 130 ERA+ and slotting eighth among hurlers with 5.0 WAR.  He also tossed a pair of shutouts, matching the franchise’s single-season record set by Roger Bailey in 1997.  Jennings produced a slightly lower ERA and a much better win-loss mark at home than on enemy terrain.  This was not a surprising outcome for the righty who had gained a reputation earlier in his career for his ability to win games at Coors Field after going a respective 9-4 at the ballpark in 2002 and 8-1 in 2003.  In addition to Jennings, Colorado’s starting rotation also featured fine pitching from Jeff Francis and Aaron Cook who each classified just off the NL top-10 leaderboard in ERA+.  Francis went 13-11 with a 4.16 ERA which translated to a 118 ERA+ that ranked 12th.  Cook, like Jennings, posted a hard-luck record that was not reflective of his efforts, going an uneven 9-15 while maintaining a 4.23 ERA which worked out to a 116 ERA+ that slotted 14th.  Yet, despite being in the unusual position of having three effective starters heading the team’s rotation, Colorado finished well out of playoff contention, only mustering an uninspiring 76-86 record.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

With the completion of the 2006 campaign, Jennings had one year remaining on his contract before he would be eligible for free agency.  When Jennings and the Rockies front office could not come to terms on a contract extension, the club decided to part ways with the righty, shipping him to the Houston Astros as part of a five-player trade on December 12.  Hampered by elbow problems that sent him to the disabled list early in the 2007 season, Jennings pitched abysmally for Houston, concluding the year with a 2-9 record and 6.45 ERA.  Signing on with the Texas Rangers for 2008, he experienced more elbow issues, missed a significant chunk of the campaign, and performed poorly in the few starts he did make.  The 2009 season saw Jennings remain with Texas and move into the bullpen.  However, he only showed modest improvement in his new role and was released by the Rangers on August 27, bringing an end to his major league career.

Even though trading Jennings weakened Colorado’s starting rotation, their pitching staff put together a fine collective effort during the 2007 campaign, logging a 4.32 ERA that slotted eighth-lowest among NL teams—easily the best ERA figure and ranking the club had achieved up to this point.  The unusually strong showing by the pitching corps was an important factor in helping the Rockies secure the NL wild card and advance to the postseason for the first time in a dozen years.  Colorado then went on an impressive playoff run, sweeping both the Philadelphia Phillies in the NLDS and the Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLCS before themselves being a victim of a sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  Despite a solid overall performance from the Rockies pitching staff, the starting rotation did not feature a standout effort as Aaron Cook’s team-leading 117 ERA+ merely ranked 16th-best in the NL.

The 2007 campaign also witnessed the emergence of the club’s next top pitcher as right-hander Ubaldo Jiménez joined the starting rotation during the second half of July and finished out the season with a 112 ERA+.  Originally signed by the Rockies in 2001 as a 17-year-old amateur free agent out of the Dominican Republic, Jiménez continued to pay dividends as he rode the momentum into 2008, posting a 118 ERA+ that ranked 16th in the senior circuit and barely a fraction behind Cook’s team-pacing 118 figure which classified 14th.  Jiménez followed that up by notching a 15-12 record and 3.47 ERA in 2009 while slotting ninth among NL hurlers with 5.5 WAR and just off the leaderboard in 13th place with an ERA+ of 136.  Although his traditional ERA only ranked 16th-best in the senior loop, up to this point his 3.47 mark represented the lowest figure achieved by a Rockies pitcher over a full-length 162-game campaign.  The righty’s sharp moundwork undoubtedly played a key role in Colorado’s 2009 return to the postseason as the club set a franchise record with 92 wins while the pitching staff established a new low by registering a 4.22 ERA that matched its eighth-place rank among NL teams from two years earlier.  The Rockies subsequently fell to the Phillies in the NLDS, with Jiménez taking the loss in the series opener and pitching to a no-decision in the club’s Game Four defeat.

Already having cemented his reputations as one of the top young pitchers in baseball, Jiménez kicked off 2010 in grand style, opening the campaign with back-to-back victories before taking the mound in Atlanta and holding the Braves hitless to become the first, and thus far, only Rockies pitcher to throw a no-hitter.  Named NL Pitcher of the Month for both April and May, Jiménez check into midseason with a fantastic 15-1 record and 2.20 ERA, deservedly earning the nod as the senior circuit’s starting pitcher for the All-Star Game.  The 26-year-old sensation tossed a pair of scoreless frames to help the NL win the Midsummer Classic.  However, Jiménez cooled off over the latter half of the campaign, going 4-7 while maintaining a respectable 3.80 ERA to finish 2010 with a 19-8 record and 2.88 ERA.  Part of Jiménez’s success stemmed from his ability to pitch effectively at Coors Field.  In fact, during each of the initial three seasons of his career, he actually pitched better at home than on the road.  For 2010, Jiménez set new personal bests at Coors Field in both win-loss record and ERA while greatly improving on enemy terrain where, for the first time, he produced the lower ERA figure.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

A disappointing aspect of Jiménez’s campaign was that he failed to earn a victory over his final three starts and, as a result, narrowly missed out on the chance to become the first Rockies pitcher to reach the 20-win plateau.  Nevertheless, he paced the senior loop with a .704 win-loss percentage.  Additionally, the righty’s 7.5 WAR slotted runner-up among NL pitchers as he also ranked third in both victories and strikeouts.  On top of that, his 2.88 ERA classified eighth in the circuit while his more-illustrious 161 ERA+ was good for third-best.  Thus, he joined Marvin Freeman as the only Rockies hurlers to finish on the NL top-10 leaderboard in both traditional ERA and ERA+.  Jiménez also established multiple single-season records for the franchise as his 19 victories broke Kevin Ritz’s mark of 17 from 1996 that had since been matched by Pedro Astacio in 1999 and Jeff Francis in 2007.  With his two shutouts, Jiménez equaled the franchise-high total shared by Roger Bailey and Jason Jennings.  And, with 214 strikeouts, Jiménez surpassed the franchise-leading number of 210 set by Astacio in 1999.  What’s more, not taking into account Freeman’s 2.80 ERA and 179 ERA+ from the strike-shortened 1994 season, Jiménez’s respective 2.88 and 161 marks established new franchise-bests for figures achieved over a full-length campaign.  Despite phenomenal pitching by Jiménez, the Rockies slipped to an 83-79 record to finish third in the NL West.  With Jiménez fronting the rotation, Colorado’s pitching staff was able to shave a few points off the previous year’s 4.22 ERA and produce a 4.14 mark, though on this occasion the figure was only good enough to rank 12th-best among senior circuit clubs.  At the conclusion of the season, NL award voters recognized Jiménez’s stellar campaign as he slotted third in the Cy Young election and received a smattering of down-ballot support for MVP, classifying 23rd.

After putting together one of the finest pitching campaigns in Rockies history, Jiménez took a significant step backwards in 2011, seldom resembling the dominant hurler from the prior year.  Through his first 21 starts of 2011, Jiménez posted a 6-9 record and 4.46 ERA, at which point Colorado decided to trade the right-hander, sending him to the Cleveland Indians in exchange for four prospects on July 30.  Jiménez’s struggles intensified in Cleveland as he rounded out the campaign by maintaining a 5.10 ERA in 11 starts for his new club.  The hurler drew the ire of his former team in April of the following year when he beaned Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki during a spring training contest and as a result was suspended five games by MLB to open the 2012 season.  The campaign proved to be a disastrous one for Jiménez as he went 9-17 with a 5.40 ERA while dubiously leading the AL in losses.  He rediscovered some of his tempo in 2013, notching a 13-9 record and 3.30 ERA after which he became a free agent and signed a four-year pact with the Baltimore Orioles.  Jiménez floundered in Baltimore, going a combined 32-42 with a 5.22 ERA for the club and wrapping up his major league career with a particularly rough 2017 in which he logged an ugly 6.81 ERA.  However, two years later, he returned to the mound to pitch in the Dominican Winter League, and subsequently joined the Rockies as a non-roster invitee for spring training in hopes of making the team for the 2020 campaign.  Jiménez failed to make the club and officially decided to call it a career later in the year.

In addition to setting several single-season records for the Rockies franchise during his banner 2010, Jiménez established multiple career benchmarks for the team as well.  Most notably, he currently stands atop Colorado’s leaderboard in both ERA and ERA+, registering respective 3.66 and 128 figures in those metrics, while also pacing his pitching peers with 18.9 WAR.  Additionally, the righty shares a modest record that highlights the difficulty of pitching for the Rockies as Jiménez and Jason Jennings are the only pitchers to have thrown three shutouts for the club.

While Jiménez was dominating opposing hitters during the 2010 campaign, fledgling right-hander Jhoulys Chacín was putting together a fine effort to break into Colorado’s starting rotation.  Initially signed by the Rockies in 2004 as a 16-year-old amateur free agent out of Venezuela, Chacín made his big league debut for the team during the middle of 2009.  Sparingly used, the youngster made just nine appearances, all except one of which came in relief.  Opening 2010 in the minors, he quickly earned the recall back to Colorado and turned in a sound performance, primarily working as a starter and finishing the season with a 9-11 record and 3.28 ERA over 137 1/3 innings.  Chacín’s 3.28 mark translated to a nifty 142 ERA+ that would have easily been good enough to crack the NL top-10 leaderboard had he accumulated the required number of frames.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

Now a solidified member of the Rockies starting rotation, Chacín’s strong pitching continued into 2011 as he went 11-14 with a 3.62 ERA across 194 innings.  Sporting a steady 126 ERA+, the righty slotted eighth among senior circuit hurlers while additionally ranking sixth with 4.2 WAR.  An effective pitcher despite battling control problems, Chacín issued an average of four free passes per nine frames and dubiously paced the loop with 87 walks.  Nevertheless, he offset his wildness by being one of the toughest pitchers to generate contact on as evidenced by the fact that he allowed only 7.8 hits per nine innings—the eighth-stingiest total in the NL.  Chacín made 18 of his 31 starts at Coors Field, pitching slightly better at the unforgiving ballpark than on the road.  With Ubaldo Jiménez’s struggles and subsequent trade, Chacín distinguished himself as Colorado’s most effective starter on a pitching staff that compiled a 4.43 ERA which ranked next-to-last in the NL as the club further tumbled out of contention, skidding to a 73-89 record.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

After authoring a pair of impressive campaigns, Chacín plodded through a difficult 2012 which saw him sidelined from early May to late August with shoulder inflammation.  Limited to just 14 starts and 69 innings, the righty went 3-5 with a 4.43 ERA and 105 ERA+.  With Chacín unable to lead the rotation, the Rockies sank to the bottom of the NL West with a mere 64 wins while the team’s pitching staff registered a senior circuit-worst 5.22 ERA.  Healthy in 2013, Chacín battled back to his pre-injury form, going 14-10 with a 3.47 ERA.  The 25-year-old hurler also earned the unique distinction of becoming the first Rockies pitcher to make multiple appearances on the NL top-10 leaderboard for ERA+ as his solid 129 figure slotted sixth-best.  Classifying one position behind Chacín with a 128 ERA+ was his southpaw rotation-mate Jorge De La Rosa, marking the first time multiple Rockies hurlers cracked the top-10 leaderboard in the metric.  Yet, despite boasting the formidable righty-lefty combo of Chacín and De La Rosa, the team only made modest improvements from 2012, remaining in the NL West basement with a 74-88 record as the pitching staff once again ranked last among senior circuit clubs in ERA, though on this occasion with a less-woeful 4.44 figure.  In addition to breaking back into the top 10 for ERA+, Chacín also returned to the leaderboard in WAR, slotting fifth among NL moundsmen with a 5.8 mark.  Pitching more to contact and relying less on striking out hitters, Chacín exhibited better control than he had in 2011, bringing his walk total down while cutting the amount of home runs he allowed by almost half.  In a repeat of 2011, Chacín made 18 of his 31 starts at Coors Field.  However, this time around, he pitched much more effectively on the road but compiled a better win-loss record at home.

Unfortunately, Chacín’s shoulder issues crept back up in 2014, first sending him to the sidelines for the start of the season before ending his campaign all together in late June.  In between stays on the DL, he made 11 starts, producing a miserable 1-7 record and 5.40 ERA.  He returned in time for the following year’s spring training but struggled with his mechanics while showing reduced velocity on his fastball.  As a result, Colorado decided to cut ties with the young righty and released him prior to the start of the season.  Chacín spent the next several years drifting around MLB, pitching for six different teams between 2015 and 2020, including two separate stints for the Atlanta Braves.  Aside from a pair of solid efforts in 2017 and 2018, he rarely was able to exhibit anything close to the form he showcased while cracking the ERA+ top-10 leaderboard for Colorado during the 2011 and 2013 campaigns.  Finally, in 2021, the nomadic hurler’s travels brought him back to his original club, as he rejoined the Rockies, this time in the less familiar role of relief pitcher.  After spending nearly all of his career as a starter, at age 33, Chacín posted a serviceable 4.34 ERA as a middle reliever.  The righty remained in Colorado’s bullpen for 2022 but after being battered to the tune of a 7.61 ERA was released on September 15.  Chacín kept his skills sharp, returning to his home country to pitch in the Venezuela Winter League and representing the nation in both the Caribbean Series and the World Baseball Classic.  However, he has likely thrown his final big league pitch as he failed to draw any interest from MLB clubs for 2023.  Nevertheless, during his time in Colorado, Chacín distinguished himself as one of the franchise’s top hurlers, etching his name on the Rockies career leaderboard in several categories, most notably ranking second only to Ubaldo Jiménez with a 4.05 ERA and slotting third with a 113 ERA+.

The aforementioned southpaw half of the Colorado’s righty-lefty tandem that cracked the 2013 NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard, Jorge De La Rosa initially entered pro ball with the Arizona Diamondbacks after signing an amateur free agent contract out of his native Mexico in 1998.  Purchased by the Boston Red Sox prior to the 2001 campaign, De La Rosa spent three seasons in the franchise’s minor league chain before being sent back to Arizona as one of four players to acquire marquee pitcher Curt Schilling on November 28, 2003.  However, De La Rosa’s reunion with the Diamondbacks was brief as just three days later, he was shipped to the Milwaukee Brewers as part of massive nine-player trade.  The young lefty earned his big league call-up to Milwaukee in August 2004 and was given a handful of starts but pitched poorly, going 0-3 with a 6.35 ERA.  He was moved into the bullpen for 2005 where he only made small gains before being dealt to the Kansas City Royals in July 2006.  Primarily used as starter by the Royals, he fared no better with his new team and was sent to the Rockies as a player to be named later after opening the 2008 campaign in the minors.

Remaining in the starting role, De La Rosa pitched decently for Colorado, ending 2008 with a 10-8 record, 4.92 ERA, and 95 ERA+.  The following year began poorly for the southpaw as he dropped each of his first six decisions before recovering to go 16-3 over the balance of the season and finish 2009 with a 16-9 mark, 4.38 ERA, and 108 ERA+.  Interestingly, even though his ERA was nearly two runs higher at home than on the road, he picked up 10 of his 16 wins at Coors Field to match the franchise’s single-season record for wins at home which had been oddly set by a full-time reliever, Gabe White, in 2000.  De La Rosa’s strong pitching down the stretch helped the Rockies secure the NL wild card.  Unfortunately, he suffered a groin strain in his final start of the regular season and was unable to take the mound during Colorado’s NLDS-loss to the Philadelphia Phillies.  Injuries continued to plague De La Rosa, limiting him to a mere 33 starts over the next three years, the most severe of which was a torn UCL that required Tommy John surgery and shelved him for the majority of the 2011 and 2012 campaigns.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

However, De La Rosa rebounded from his injuries to turn in his finest effort, concluding 2013 with a 16-6 record and 3.49 ERA.  De La Rosa’s superb .727 win-loss percentage ranked second-highest in the senior loop while his victory total slotted third.  Additionally, he classified seventh with a 128 ERA+, placing one spot behind his rotation-mate Jhoulys Chacín.  The southpaw also joined his righty colleague on the WAR leaderboard, accruing a 4.4 mark that ranked eighth-best among NL hurlers.  De La Rosa pitched phenomenally at Coors Field, going 10-1 with a 2.76 ERA compared to a mediocre 6-5 record and 4.19 ERA on the road.  One of the toughest pitchers to take deep in 2013, the 32-year-old was particularly stingy at home where he surrendered just three long balls across 81 2/3 innings.

De La Rosa continued to pitch masterfully at Coors Field during 2014, notching a 10-2 record and 3.08 ERA.  However, his struggles on foreign soil became much more pronounced as he went 4-9 with a 5.09 ERA to give him an overall 14-11 mark, 4.10 ERA, and 104 ERA+ for the season.  The lefty produced a similar 4.17 figure in 2015 before seeing his ERA soar to 5.51 for 2016, his final year with Colorado.  De La Rosa then signed a free agent deal to re-join the Diamondbacks.  Converted into a relief pitcher by Arizona, the veteran put together a respectable effort and ended the 2017 campaign by getting the opportunity to pitch in the postseason for the first time in his career.  De La Rosa re-signed with the Diamondbacks for 2018 but suffered a drop in performance and was released in early August.  Picked up by the Chicago Cubs a few days later, he rediscovered his tempo and finished the year on a strong note, in the process getting his second taste of postseason play.  De La Rosa attempted to return to Colorado in 2019, signing a minor league deal with the club.  However, he developed an oblique strain and was released in June, a move that brought an end to his baseball career.

Although he was denied the chance to return to the Rockies, De La Rosa stands atop the franchise’s career leaderboard in both victories and strikeouts while also pacing the team in the dubious categories of walks and wild pitches.  Be that as it may, the .585 win-loss percentage he compiled over his nine seasons with Colorado represents the winningest mark among the franchise’s starting pitchers.  What’s more, with 53 of his 86 victories for the Rockies coming at Coors Field, De La Rosa is by far the winningest pitcher in the history of the ballpark.

Five years after Chacín and De La Rosa became the first pair of Rockies hurlers to simultaneously crack the NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard, the 2018 campaign witnessed Colorado’s lefty-righty combo of Kyle Freeland and Germán Márquez turn the trick.  A Denver native, Freeland was selected by his hometown team with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 2014 draft.  The franchise quickly reaped the benefits of signing the local product as Freeland made Colorado’s roster to open the 2017 season and put together a solid rookie effort, going 11-11 with a 4.10 ERA across 156 innings that translated to a more impressive 123 ERA+.  Had Freeland tossed six additional frames, his 123 mark would have been good enough to crack the senior circuit top-10 leaderboard.  The young hurler’s steady pitching helped the Rockies capture the second NL wild card and return to the postseason for the first time in eight years.  However, Freeland was denied the opportunity to take the mound in the playoffs as Colorado fell to the Diamondbacks in the NL Wild Card Game.

Both Freeland and the Rockies looked to carry the momentum into 2018.  The sophomore lefty tripped out of the gate, however, dropping his first three decisions while registering a 5.85 ERA through his initial 20 innings.  Freeland’s struggles did not last long as he quickly righted the ship, bringing his ERA under 4.00 and his record back to .500 while the club attempted to establish itself as a contender in the NL West division and wild card races.  During the second half of June, the 25-year-old hurler embarked on a brilliant run, going 11-1 over the remainder of the campaign to finish 2018 with a 17-7 record and 2.85 ERA across 202 1/3 innings.  In his final start of the regular season, Freeland earned the Rockies a postseason berth with a victory over the Washington Nationals.  Narrowly edged out by the Los Angeles Dodgers for the NL West crown, Colorado once again secured the second wild card.  This time around, Freeland was given the ball to start the NL Wild Card Game and the young phenom did not disappoint, tossing six and two-third scoreless frames versus the Chicago Cubs.  When Rockies manager Bud Black lifted Freeland from the game, his team held a slim 1-0 lead.  However, Freeland did not factor into the decision as Colorado’s bullpen was unable to hold the lead, allowing Chicago to even the score in the eighth before the Rockies prevailed to win the game in the 13th inning.  Colorado advanced to the NLDS where they were defeated by the Milwaukee Brewers in a three-game sweep.  Because Freeland had taken the hill against the Cubs on short rest, he was not scheduled to pitch until Game Four of the NLDS.  Thus, his Wild Card Game start proved to be his only appearance of the playoffs.  Nevertheless, Freeland’s clutch pitching had been instrumental in the Rockies reaching the postseason in consecutive years for the first time in franchise history.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

With his superb sophomore effort, Freeland followed in the footsteps of Marvin Freeman and Ubaldo Jiménez, becoming just the third Rockies hurler to crack the NL top 10 in both ERA+ and traditional ERA as his respective 166 and 2.85 marks ranked fourth and fifth on the leaderboard.  Each of these figures also represented new franchise-bests achieved over a full-length 162-game campaign.  Additionally, Freeland’s 17 wins and 7.7 WAR slotted fourth among senior circuit moundsmen while his .708 win-loss percentage classified sixth.  Freeland pitched magnificently at Coors Field, going 10-2 with a 2.40 ERA, thus matching Gabe White’s and Jorge De La Rosa’s single-season franchise record for wins at home while producing the lowest home ERA for any Rockies starting pitcher with 50 or more innings.  Award voters recognized Freeland’s phenomenal pitching as he finished fourth on the NL Cy Young ballot, joining Freeman and Jiménez as the only Rockies hurlers to classify among the top five in the election.

After putting together a solid rookie campaign and an excellent sophomore season, Freeland had successfully established himself as one of the top young pitchers in baseball.  However, the southpaw slumped heavily in 2019, at one point even being demoted to the minors as he posted an uneven 3-11 record and ghastly 6.73 ERA.  Freeland’s abysmal year mirrored the team’s struggles as Colorado sank to fourth place with a 71-91 mark.  Freeland rallied back to recapture some of his form during the pandemic-shortened 2020, notching a 4.33 ERA and 120 ERA+ while the Rockies narrowly avoided finishing in the NL West cellar.  A series of fair to middling performances followed though, as the hurler registered respective ERA+ figures of 111, 102, and 100 over the next three seasons while maintaining sub-.500 records during each of those campaigns.  After a third-straight fourth-place result in 2021, Colorado’s troubles compounded with the team sinking to last in both 2022 and 2023.  Nevertheless, early in the 2022 season, the Rockies front office showed its faith in Freeland by signing him to an extension that runs through the 2026.  Thus, barring a substantial drop in performance, catastrophic injury, or departing the club via trade, Freeland will soon become the franchise leader in pitcher WAR as his 18.1 mark is within sight of the 18.9 total Jiménez compiled during his time with the Rockies.

The aforementioned right-handed half of Colorado’s lefty-righty combo that cracked the 2018 NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard, Germán Márquez began his professional baseball career in the Tampa Bay Rays organization after being signed out of his native Venezuela at age 16 in July 2011.  Márquez languished in the Rays minor league system, only having progressed through high A-ball when he was swapped to the Rockies as part of a four-player deal prior to the 2016 campaign.  The youngster immediately clicked with his new club and quickly climbed up Colorado’s organizational ladder during 2016, going from Double A to Triple A before making his big league debut for the Rockies in early September.  Márquez then put together a steady rookie effort, finishing 2017 with an 11-7 record and 4.39 ERA that translated to a 115 ERA+ which ranked 14th-best in the senior circuit.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

Márquez carried the momentum into 2018, going 14-11 with a 3.77 ERA while grabbing the final spot on the NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard with a 125 mark.  In stark contrast to his southpaw counterpart Freeland, Márquez pitched much more effectively away from Coors Field.  Like Freeland though, the 23-year-old righty was at his best over the closing months of the campaign, posting a 2.14 ERA in both August and September.  During his final start of September, Márquez tied the major league record shared by Jim Deshaies and Jacob deGrom by striking out the first eight batters he faced.  In the process of mowing down those eight batters, Márquez surpassed the Rockies single-season franchise benchmark of 214 strikeouts set by Ubaldo Jiménez in 2010.  For his excellent September, Márquez was named NL Pitcher of the Month.  However, he ended the regular season on a sour note, surrendering four runs over four and two-third innings and taking the loss against the Dodgers in an October 1 tiebreaker game to decide the NL West title.  As a result, Colorado had to settle for the second NL wild card.  Nevertheless, Márquez’s superb late-season pitching had been instrumental in the team reaching the playoffs.  He toed the slab six days later for Game Three of the NLDS with the Rockies facing elimination versus the Brewers.  Márquez pitched decently, allowing a pair of runs across five frames but was tagged as the losing pitcher after Milwaukee shutdown Colorado’s offense to win the game 6-0.  The righty finished the campaign with 230 strikeouts, the NL’s fourth-highest total.  Additionally, with 14 victories and 4.1 WAR, he slotted on the senior circuit moundsmen leaderboard, ranking ninth in both categories.  A strong hitter for a pitcher, Márquez often helped his own cause, batting .300 for the year.  At season’s end, he joined Mike Hampton as the second Rockies hurler to earn the NL Silver Slugger Award.

Although Colorado took a significant step backwards and fell out of playoff contention following the 2018 campaign, Márquez continued to pitch at a productive level over the next three seasons, going a combined 28-22 with a 4.42 ERA and 113 ERA+.  The young hurler put in a workhorse effort, tossing the 12th-highest number of frames in MLB during that stretch while pacing the NL in both games started and innings pitched in 2020 and complete games in 2021.  On June 29, 2021, Márquez nearly became the first Rockies pitcher to throw a no-hitter at Coors Field as he held the Pittsburgh Pirates hitless for eight frames before finally yielding a single to Ka’ai Tom to open the ninth inning.  Márquez erased Tom by inducing the next batter, Michael Perez to ground into a double play and completed the one-hit shutout by retiring Adam Frazier to end the game.  In addition to nearly spinning a no-hitter, the 2021 campaign also saw the righty earn his first All-Star selection.

However, Márquez slumped to a 9-13 record and 4.95 ERA in 2022.  He had posted an identical ERA through his initial four starts of 2023 when he was sidelined with an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery and cost him the remainder of the season.  Despite the injury, the Rockies front office showed optimism in Márquez’s recovery, signing the hurler to a two-year contract extension that runs through 2025.  Márquez currently sits just a pair of strikeouts behind Jorge De La Rosa’s franchise-leading total of 985.  Additionally, Márquez ranks third all-time among Rockies hurlers in wins, fourth in WAR, and fifth in games started.  Márquez will be 29 years old entering the 2024 campaign and provided he returns from injury and pitches effectively, he could very well stand atop the franchise leaderboard in one or more of those categories by the end of 2025.

After making the playoffs in 2018, the Rockies quickly went into a tailspin as each of the next five seasons saw the club finish well under .500 with back-to-back last-place results in 2022 and 2023.  One of the few strong pitching performances over that span came from right-hander Antonio Senzatela who delivered a steady 2020 effort to become the most recent Rockies hurler to classify on NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard.  Like Márquez, Senzatela hailed from Venezuela and was signed out of his native country at age 16 in July 2011.  In Senzatela’s case, he was signed by the Rockies and slowly climbed up the franchise’s minor league chain before making the team’s big league roster to begin the 2017 campaign.  The youngster raced out to a 7-1 record with a 3.19 ERA over his first 10 starts but soon found himself relocated to the bullpen following a series of tough outings.  Senzatela concluded his rookie season with a 10-5 record, 4.68 ERA, and 108 ERA+.  He remained in the bullpen to open 2018, ultimately making his return to the starting rotation in July and for the second consecutive year, ended the campaign with a 108 ERA+.  Senzatela maintained his spot in the rotation during 2019 despite laboring through an ugly season in which he registered a 6.71 ERA that translated to an ERA+ of 77.

Senzatela shook off his difficult 2019 and reestablished himself with an impressive 2020, going 5-3 with a 3.44 ERA during the 60-game, pandemic-shortened season.  The 25-year-old righty put in a workhorse effort, ranking fourth in the NL with 12 starts while slotting fifth with 73 1/3 innings.  Senzatela’s 151 ERA+ earned him the final spot on the senior circuit top-10 leaderboard as he additionally classified seventh among NL hurlers with 2.5 WAR.  Senzatela pitched brilliantly at Coors Field where he crafted a 3-0 record and 2.10 ERA compared to a 2-3 mark and 4.62 ERA on enemy turf.  He surrendered nine long balls during the campaign with only one of those coming at home.

CLICK TABLE TO ENLARGE

Senzatela followed up his strong 2020 by posting a respectable 4.42 ERA and 109 ERA+ in 2021, while being victimized by poor run support which resulted in an uneven 4-10 record.  Nevertheless, he continued to showcase his best pitching at home.  Likely with Senzatela’s ability to succeed at Coors Field in mind, during the offseason, the Rockies front office made a point of securing his services, signing him to a five-year contract extension worth $50.5 million that runs through 2026 and includes a team option for 2027.  Senzatela floundered in 2022, however, going 3-7 with a 5.07 ERA and 91 ERA+ before a torn ACL brought a premature end to his season in mid-August.  He returned to the mound during the following May, only to be quickly sidelined once again, this time by an elbow injury that required Tommy John surgery and closed the curtain on his campaign after just two starts.  With Márquez and Senzatela both on the shelf due to season-ending injuries, the Rockies struggled to a franchise-worst 59-103 record for 2023.  Senzatela is expected to remain sidelined for the majority of 2024.  When the right-hander returns from his latest injury, he will look to maintain his excellence at Coors Field where, to date, he has compiled a nifty 27-14 record and 4.57 ERA.  At the same time, he will aim to improve his fortunes on the road where thus far he has registered a wretched 12-29 mark and 5.22 ERA.

Through 31 seasons of Colorado Rockies baseball, only 10 of the club’s pitchers have managed to produce 11 finishes among the NL ERA+ top-10 leaderboard.  Although three of those 10 hurlers—Kyle Freeland, Germán Márquez, and Antonio Senzatela—are currently part of the Rockies 40-man roster, their recent battles with injuries and ineffectiveness underscore the difficulty Colorado’s pitchers face by plying their trade in the thin air and high elevation of Coors Field.

by John Tuberty

Follow me on Twitter/X @BloggerTubbs

Stat links to main players mentioned: Marvin Freeman, Kevin Ritz, Joe Kennedy, Jason Jennings, Ubaldo Jiménez, Jhoulys Chacín, Jorge De La Rosa, Kyle Freeland, Germán Márquez, Antonio Senzatela, Greg Maddux, Bret Saberhagen, Mike Hampton, Jacob deGrom, Troy Tulowitzki, Darryl Kile, Pedro Astacio, Aaron Cook, Jeff Francis

Sources:

All statistics are drawn Baseball Reference and Stathead 

Baseball Prospectus Marvin Freeman Player Card/Injury History

Baseball Prospectus Joe Kennedy Player Card/Injury History

Baseball Prospectus Jhoulys Chacín Player Card/Injury History

MLB.com editorial staff, “Adjusted Earned Run Average (ERA+),” MLB.com

John Ingold, “Are the Rockies bad because they’re too high? Let’s examine how elevation affects baseball.” The Colorado Sun

Thomas Harding, “Why baseballs are stored differently at Coors,” MLB.com

I.J. Rosenberg, “Whatever happened to: Marvin Freeman,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

“Denver’s Freeman Has Sore Elbow,” SFGate

Kyle Newman, “Amid the nightmare of no baseball, recalling the dream season put up by Rockies’ right-hander Marvin Freeman in 1994,” The Denver Post

Chad Moody, “Kevin Ritz,” SABR Biography Project 

Associated Press, “Medical examiner rules Kennedy died of heart disease,” ESPN

Michael T. Roberts, “Jason Jennings,” SABR Biography Project

Associated Press, “Ubaldo Jimenez suspended 5 games,” ESPN

Kyle Newman, “Ubaldo Jimenez makes 2020 spring training debut for Rockies, yielding one run across two innings,” The Denver Post

Associated Press, “Jhoulys Chacin bound for DL,” ESPN

Associated Press, “Jhoulys Chacin heads to DL” ESPN

Nick Groke, “Jhoulys Chacin released by Colorado Rockies in surprise move,” The Denver Post

“2023 World Baseball Classic Player Pitching Stats Team Venezuela,” MLB.com

Kate Fagan, “De La Rosa won’t pitch against Phils,” The Philadelphia Inquirer 

Associated Press, “Jorge De La Rosa undergoes surgery,” ESPN

RotoWire Staff, “Jorge De La Rosa: Cut loose by Colorado,” CBS Sports

Jesse Yomtov, “Colorado Rockies clinch consecutive playoff berths for first time in team history,” USA Today

Thomas Harding, “Hometown kid Freeland doesn’t pitch in NLDS,” MLB.com

Patrick Saunders, “Struggling Rockies’ left-hander Kyle Freeland optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque,” The Denver Post

Jeff Passan, “Sources: Pitcher Kyle Freeland, Colorado Rockies agree to five-year, $64.5 million contract extension,” ESPN

Thomas Harding, “Rockies sign Márquez to two-year extension,” MLB.com

Thomas Harding, “Rocktober once more: Rox secure playoff spot,” MLB.com

Thomas Harding, “Senzatela set for season-ending knee surgery,” MLB.com

Thomas Harding, “Senzatela set for season-ending Tommy John surgery,” MLB.com

Cards: Marvin Freeman 1994 Score Rookie & Traded, Ubaldo Jiménez 2010 eTopps, Kyle Freeland 2019 Bowman, Marvin Freeman 1995 Upper Deck Collectors Choice, Marvin Freeman 1994 Fleer Update, Kevin Ritz 1995 Fleer, Kevin Ritz 1996 Pacific Crown Collection, Joe Kennedy 2004 Donruss Studio, Joe Kennedy 2004 Topps, Jason Jennings 2004 Leaf Second Edition, Jason Jennings 2003 Fleer Double Header, Ubaldo Jiménez 2011 Topps, Ubaldo Jiménez 2011 Topps Checklist, Jhoulys Chacín 2014 Topps, Jhoulys Chacín 2013 Topps, Jorge De La Rosa 2016 Topps, Jorge De La Rosa 2016 Topps Stadium Club, Kyle Freeland 2017 Bowman-Prospects, Kyle Freeland 2022 Topps Heritage, Germán Márquez 2019 Topps Heritage, Germán Márquez 2022 Topps Heritage, Antonio Senzatela 2022 Topps Series 2, Antonio Senzatela 2018 Topps

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

The 11 Batting Championships Won by Colorado Rockies Hitters and the Opposing Players Who Were Denied Achieving the Honor by the Presence of the Mile-High Based Franchise

Rod Carew’s Seven Batting Titles and the Players He Denied the Honor by Annually Capturing the Crown

The 1989 and 1990 Texas Rangers Pitching Staffs That Featured Five Hurlers Who Would Each Retire with 200-Plus Victories

The 11 Batting Championships Won by Colorado Rockies Hitters and the Opposing Players Who Were Denied Achieving the Honor by the Presence of the Mile-High Based Franchise

Over the years, the AL and NL batting crowns have been dominated by skilled hitters such as Ty Cobb, Honus Wagner, and Tony Gwynn.  A total of 28 batting titles have been claimed by this trio of hitters with Cobb securing the honor a dozen times while Wagner and Gwynn earned eight apiece.  When a player shared the league with one of these perennial batting champions, achieving the honor proved to be an especially difficult task.  In the history of the sport, rarely have a collection of players from one particular team dominated winning the batting title the way individual players have.  However, with the 1993 addition of the Colorado Rockies to the NL, this Denver-based franchise has stood tall among other clubs when it came to having its players capture the batting crown.  In fact, in the 31-year history of the team, nine different Rockies players have claimed 11 NL batting titles.  Moreover, since the introduction of the Rockies franchise, no other senior circuit club has come anywhere near matching that total as only the San Diego Padres have secured four batting crowns—each of which were won by the aforementioned Gwynn—while the Miami Marlins are the sole NL team to have more than two players earn the distinction.  And, during that same 31-year period, no AL franchise has been able to run away from the pack like Colorado, as the Boston Red Sox and the Detroit Tigers share the lead with a handful of batting titles each with the Red Sox also producing the most individual batting champions over that timeframe with four.

Yet, despite boasting an abundance of batting crowns, the Rockies have only reached the postseason on five occasions while generally finishing well out of contention with sub-.500 records.  What’s more, critics are quick to point out that playing in the thin air of Denver—a city which sits 5,280 feet above sea level—inflates the offensive numbers of Colorado’s hitters, a belief that is underscored by the significant disparity between batters’ home and road totals.  Of course that doesn’t tell the whole story as others believe that because the Rockies play their home games at high elevation, in turn, the team’s hitters struggle to adapt when going on the road and playing at lower altitudes.  Additionally, some suspect that constantly adjusting to changes in altitude causes Colorado’s players to become more susceptible to injury.  Regardless of the advantages or disadvantages of playing at high elevation, a hitter’s ability to perform optimally at their home ballpark should be considered a strength, as the hitter easily accumulates more plate appearances at home than at any other ballpark.  With this in mind, I decided to take a deeper look at the seasons in which one of Colorado’s hitters won the NL batting crown and see which players finished in the bridesmaid position of the batting race and were thus denied the opportunity to achieve the honor by the presence of this mile-high-based franchise.  Each table below will also include the third and in some cases fourth-place finisher to show how close the batting race would have been without the Rockies players.  The tables will feature each player’s home and road splits as well as the park factor values for each player’s home ballpark.  While park factors are not a completely accurate reflection of advantages or disadvantages in batting average, they give some idea as to how much the ballpark played as hitter-friendly or pitcher-friendly during the season in question.

Going into the 1993 campaign, Rockies first baseman Andrés Galarraga seemed like an extreme long shot to win the NL batting crown.  As a young player with the Montréal Expos, Galarraga had posted respective averages of .305 and .302 in 1987 and 1988, slotting seventh in the senior loop batting race during the former season and ranking fourth in the latter campaign.  However, he slumped during his next three years with the Expos, batting a paltry .247 over that stretch.  Galarraga fared no better following a trade to the St. Louis Cardinals, managing to hit only .243 for 1992.  Yet, after joining the expansion Rockies as a free agent, Galarraga shocked the baseball world by getting off to a dynamic start in 1993 and carrying a .400-plus average into early July.  The slugger maintained a robust average for the reminder of the campaign and captured the batting title with a .370 mark.

Finishing directly behind Galarraga was Padres right fielder Tony Gwynn who already had four NL batting crowns to his name, having achieved the honor in 1984, 1987, 1988, and 1989.  Gwynn suffered a season-ending injury to his left knee on September 5, denying him the chance to challenge Galarraga during the final weeks of the campaign.  Nevertheless, Gwynn’s runner-up .358 figure represented the second-highest average of his career up until that point, bettered only by his own .370 mark from 1987.  Galarraga was at his best in the thin air of Colorado’s Mile High Stadium where he punished NL pitching to the tune of a scorching .402 average.  Despite playing his home games at the much less-favorable Jack Murphy Stadium, Gwynn still batted 50 points higher in San Diego than on the road.  St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Gregg Jefferies slotted third in the batting race with a .342 average.  After struggling to live up to the lofty expectations placed on him as a top prospect for the New York Mets, Jefferies came over to the Cardinals as part of a four-player trade following a mediocre year with the Kansas City Royals.  Jefferies had spent the previous few seasons bouncing between second and third base but upon his arrival in St. Louis, he was moved to first where he coincidentally replaced Galarraga.  Jefferies responded well to the position change and played brilliantly for his new team, finally producing the standout campaign that so many had forecast for him.  Like Gwynn, Jefferies called a tougher ballpark home yet he managed to register nearly identical home and away averages.  Though Galarraga took full advantage of the friendly confines of Mile High Stadium, his impressive .328 mark on foreign terrain was in-line with the road figures of Gwynn and Jefferies.

Following the 1993 campaign, Galarraga became a premier power hitter, smacking a combined 194 home runs during the next five years.  Though he logged a .319 average in 1994 and hit .296 over the remainder of his career, Galarraga never contended for another batting crown.  For his part, Jefferies proved 1993 was not a fluke by posting respective averages of .325 and .306 in 1994 and 1995.  However, his third-place result from 1993 would be his highest finish in a batting race.  Gwynn, on the other hand, began an incredible stretch, doubling his collection of batting titles by leading the NL during each of the next four seasons—most notably making a run at hitting .400 in 1994 before ultimately finishing at .394 when the strike brought a premature end to the campaign.  Although no one was able to unseat Gwynn over this four-year stretch, each batting race saw a Rockies player classify in the top three as the unlikely name of Mike Kingery finished third in 1994, followed by Dante Bichette repeating the ranking in 1995 before Ellis Burks and Larry Walker respectively occupied the bridesmaid role behind the Padres right fielder for 1996 and 1997.

After calling Mile High Stadium home for the initial two years of the franchise’s existence, the Rockies moved to Coors Field for the 1995 season.  The Rockies opened their new home in grand style by earning the club’s first playoff appearance after securing the NL wild card.  Although Colorado fell to the NL West champion-Los Angeles Dodgers in the NLDS, the freshly-minted franchise captivated the baseball world with its exciting, offense-heavy style of play.  The 1995 campaign also saw the arrival of the aforementioned Larry Walker who signed with the Rockies as a free agent following a series of impressive seasons as a right fielder for the Expos.  During his first two years in Colorado, Walker played at a similar level to what he had in Montréal.  However in 1997, Walker broke out in a big way, winning the NL MVP Award after clubbing a loop-high 49 home runs while ranking second to Gwynn with a .366 average.  Though Rockies hitters made a habit of taking advantage of Coors Field, no slugger swung the bat in a more dominant fashion at the ballpark than Walker.  Over the course of Walker’s career, he posted an astounding .381 average and 1.172 OPS at Coors Field.  Yet, he did not solely rely on Denver’s high elevation and thin air to produce superb offensive numbers as he maintained a .282 average outside of Coors Field with an .872 OPS that ranks higher than the career OPS figures of roughly two-thirds of the position players currently enshrined in Cooperstown.

Walker followed up his MVP-winning 1997 with a sensational 1998 effort, logging a .363 average en route to earning his first NL batting title.  He faced stout competition from a former batting champion but on this occasion the challenge did not come from Tony Gwynn as the perennial top dog slumped to a .321 average that—while below par for him—still ranked ninth-best in the senior circuit.  Walker’s opposition instead came in the form of New York Mets first baseman John Olerud who punished NL pitching to the tune of a .354 average.  Olerud’s .354 mark represented the second-highest average of his career as five years earlier he had captured the AL batting crown with a .363 figure for the World Series champion Toronto Blue Jays, ahead of a pair of future Hall of Fame teammates in Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar, to give the club a complete sweep of the top-three spots on the leaderboard.  However, this time around, Olerud was the one playing runner-up to a .363 average as he was denied the opportunity to join Ed Delahanty as the second player to win the batting title in both the AL and NL.  Nevertheless, Olerud’s outstanding .354 figure broke the Mets single-season record for batting average, matching an achievement from his banner 1993 when he set the same benchmark for the Blue Jays.  Olerud currently stands as the only player to hold the single-season batting average record for two different active franchises.

Slotting third in the batting race with a .331 average was Walker’s teammate Dante Bichette who patrolled the left side of Colorado’s outfield.  Bichette’s third-place result equaled his finish in the 1995 NL batting race and represented his final appearance on the top-10 rundown.  Both Walker and Bichette hit over 100 points higher at home than on the road with the right fielder notching an eye-popping .418 figure at Coors Field.  By contrast, Olerud hit nearly 40 points higher on the road than at New York’s Shea Stadium which generated a neutral park factor of 100 for the 1998 campaign but was traditionally known to favor pitchers.  Interestingly, aside from his respective first and second-place finishes in the 1993 AL and 1998 NL batting races, Olerud—a career .295 hitter—never cracked the top-10 leaderboard in any other season.  If not for the presence of Walker and Bichette, Olerud would have easily claimed the batting crown with his Mets teammate Mike Piazza a distant runner-up at .328.  The 1998 campaign was a nomadic one for Piazza who began the year with the Los Angeles Dodgers, was traded to the Florida Marlins on May 14, and was then swapped to New York eight days later.  Like Olerud, Piazza registered a much higher batting average on the road.  Despite playing the physically-taxing position of catcher, Piazza had established himself as a regular participant in the batting race, achieving a bridesmaid finish in 1995, followed by successive third-place efforts in 1996 and 1997.  However, the 1998 campaign essentially signaled the end of Piazza’s pursuit of the batting crown as a 10th on the 2000 NL rundown amounted to his best result over the remainder of his career.

Larry Walker’s domination of opposing pitching at Coors Field reached new heights in 1999 as the slugger posted an otherworldly .461 average at home on his way to becoming a back-to-back NL batting champion, finishing the year with an overall .379 mark.  In the history of the AL and NL, only four other players—Shoeless Joe Jackson, Rogers Hornsby, George Sisler, and Chuck Klein—have produced superior home batting averages during a season in which they qualified for their league’s respective batting title.  With his .379 figure, Walker set the Rockies single-season record for batting average that still stands today.  Interestingly, his home/road spilt was even more pronounced than it had been in prior years with Colorado as he maintained an adequate but unspectacular .286 average away from Coors Field.

Finishing well behind Walker in the number-two spot of the batting race was Arizona Diamondbacks right fielder Luis Gonzalez who hit .336.  Owning just a .268 career batting average going into 1999, Gonzalez was an unlikely bridesmaid in the rundown.  Coming to Arizona by way of a trade from the Detroit Tigers, Gonzalez helped the newly-minted Diamondbacks make an incredible 35-game improvement from the franchise’s inaugural season of play and win the NL West division title with a 100-62 record.  Although, the club’s Bank One Ballpark would become a hitter’s haven, during the initial two years of the Diamondbacks’ existence, the stadium generated a neutral park factor.  Gonzalez hit better on the road in 1999 as his .352 mark represented a 66-point advantage over Walker’s respective figure on foreign soil.  Had the Rockies slugger not been there to run away with the batting crown, a tight battle for top honors would have played out between Gonzalez and yet another right fielder, Bobby Abreu of the Philadelphia Phillies.  Gonzalez edged Abreu by a single point to slot runner-up to Walker.  Gonzalez proved his breakout 1999 effort was no fluke by putting together a series of impressive campaigns, the most notable of which came in 2001 when he hit .325 and capped the year with a walk-off single in Game Seven of the Fall Classic to secure the World Series championship for the Diamondbacks.  Yet, Gonzalez’s .325 average was only good enough for 10th in the NL and marked his final appearance on the leaderboard.  Abreu’s .335 average established a personal-best for the slugger.  Though he hit .300 or higher a half dozen times in his career, outside of 1999, he never managed to crack the top 10.

The 2000 season witnessed the third-consecutive year in which a Rockies player captured the senior circuit batting crown.  However, on this occasion, the slugger to earn top batting honors was not Larry Walker as the two-time defending champion suffered through a difficult year plagued by an elbow injury that first sidelined him for close to a month in early May before bringing a premature end to his campaign on August 19.  Despite playing in a weakened state, Walker still took the field for 87 games and hit .309 for Colorado.  With Walker unable to factor into the batting race, Rockies first baseman Todd Helton stepped up and turned in a sensational effort, pacing the NL with a blistering .372 average.  Originally signed by Colorado with the eighth overall pick in the first round of the 1995 amateur draft, Helton quickly bore fruit for the club, batting .315 as a rookie in 1998 and following it up with a .320 mark in 1999.  Helton clearly enjoyed the benefits of Coors Field in 2000, hitting .391 at home, though he did not suffer quite as dramatic of a drop off on the road as his predecessors Andrés Galarraga and Larry Walker had during their batting crown-winning campaigns.  In fact, Helton’s .353 average on enemy terrain was not only in-line with the road figures of the two sluggers who slotted directly behind him in the batting race but also stands as the highest road mark achieved by a Rockies batting champion.

While an elbow injury took Walker out of the running for top honors, the second-place finisher in the rundown, Houston Astros outfielder Moises Alou, was returning to the field after missing the entire 1999 campaign as a result of an ACL tear suffered when he fell off a treadmill during preseason training.  Alou rebounded from his injury with a phenomenal year at the plate, registering an electric .355 average—in the process setting a new personal-best, surpassing his .339 mark from 1994 when he classified fourth in the NL batting race as a member the Montréal Expos.  Like Helton, Alou benefited from playing his home games in a favorable environment as Houston’s Enron Field generated a 108 park factor which, among senior circuit teams, was only eclipsed by the staggering 129 park factor of Coors Field.  Despite the advantageous setting, Alou actually hit slightly better on the road than at home.  Slotting close behind the former Expos outfielder was Montréal’s current right fielder, Vladimir Guerrero, who rounded out the top three with an impressive .345 average.  A future Hall of Famer who ultimately retired with a superb .318 career batting average, Guerrero’s .345 figure proved to be the high-water mark for the slugger as did his third-place finish in the batting race.  However, he was able to match the ranking three more times—once in the NL and twice in the AL.

Larry Walker returned to the diamond for the 2001 season and snapped back into peak form, not only adding a third batting title to his collection but also giving the Rockies franchise its fourth-straight batting champion.  The 34-year-old Walker held off the challenge of Todd Helton to claim the honor, outclassing his younger teammate both at home and on the road to stand atop the leaderboard with an overall .350 average to the defending batting champion’s .336 mark.  Just as in 1998 and 1999, Walker made the most of his favorable surroundings, once again hitting over .400 at Coors Field—this time logging a .406 home batting average.  Moises Alou put together another standout performance for Houston, returning to the leaderboard with a .331 figure that was only topped by Walker and Helton.  Thus, for the second year in a row, excluding Rockies sluggers, Alou produced the NL’s highest batting average.  In contrast to the prior campaign though, Alou notched a better average at home than on the road.  Finishing an eyelash behind Alou in fourth place was his Astros teammate, center fielder Lance Berkman.  If not for Walker and Helton, the batting race would have been a memorable one as Alou and Berkman each hit .331 with the difference coming down to the former’s .3314 mark narrowly edging the latter’s .3310 figure.  And, hot on the heels of the Astros outfielders were an additional four sluggers—Chipper Jones, Albert Pujols, Barry Bonds, and Sammy Sosa—who posted averages within three points of Alou and Berkman.  Denied the chance to win the batting crown or possibly even become a rare back-to-back honoree, Alou managed to slot among the senior circuit batting average leaders just one more time with a fifth-place finish in 2005.  Berkman cracked the top-10 on three more occasions but like Alou classified no better than the fifth place he would achieve in the 2008 NL batting race.

The 2002 season witnessed Colorado’s stranglehold on the NL batting title finally come to an end as aforementioned San Francisco Giants left fielder Barry Bonds earned top honors for the first time after recording a sparkling .370 average.  Bonds’ .370 mark is all the more impressive considering he was age 37 and played his home games at cavernous Pacific Bell Park which generated a pitcher-friendly park factor of 93.  The 2002 campaign also saw MLB approve the use of a climate-controlled humidor at Coors Field as a way to cut down on scoring at the ballpark.  The humidor, which was designed to keep baseballs from drying out in the thin air of Denver, helped curtail scoring to a degree as Coors Field’s park factor, which had generally hovered in the mid-to-high 120s, dropped to 117 for 2002 and typically stayed in the 110s from that point forward.  However, even with the lower park factor, Coors Field still maintained its reputation as MLB’s most hitter-friendly ballpark.  While unable to offer a true challenge to Bonds in the batting race, a pair of familiar Rockies sluggers slotted high in the final rundown as Larry Walker grabbed the number-two spot with a .338 average and Todd Helton classified fourth with a .329 mark.  Though Walker still hit better at Coors Field, possibly due to the effects of the humidor, he found the park less to his liking than in previous years, batting .362 at home compared to .312 on the road.  Nevertheless, Rockies batters as a whole continued to produce massive home/road splits, including Helton who hit nearly 100 points higher at Coors Field than on foreign soil.  Walker’s second-place finish proved to be the last time the future Hall of Famer was able to contend for the batting crown as age and injures began to catch up with the veteran.  Almost seven years Walker’s junior, Helton took over as Colorado’s main threat in the batting race and made a fine showing of himself by posting respective .358 and .347 averages in 2003 and 2004.  However, Helton had to settle for the bridesmaid position during both those campaigns as St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols narrowly-edged the Rockies slugger with a .359 mark in 2003, while Bonds returned to the head of the leaderboard and claimed his second batting title with a .362 figure in 2004.  The 2005 season represented the first time since the franchise’s inception in which a Colorado player failed to classify in the top three of the NL batting race as Helton could only manage fourth even though his .320 average trailed the leader, Chicago Cubs first baseman Derrek Lee, by the same 15-point margin that he had when he finished runner-up behind Bonds during the prior year.

The 2006 campaign signaled something of a changing of the guard for the Rockies as, after ranking no lower than fourth in the NL batting race during each of previous six seasons, Helton slid all the way down to 15th in the final order despite maintaining a solid .302 average.  In Helton’s place, a pair of younger teammates took up the mantle as third baseman Garrett Atkins and left fielder Matt Holliday slotted fourth and fifth on the leaderboard.  Pittsburgh Pirates third baseman Freddy Sanchez captured the senior circuit batting crown with a .344 average while Atkins and Holliday respectively registered .329 and .326 figures, coincidentally marking the third-straight campaign in which the highest-ranking Rockies hitter ended the year 15 points behind the leader.

While Atkins’ fourth-place result proved to be his sole appearance on the NL rundown, Holliday carried the momentum of his strong 2006 effort into 2007 and established himself as a contender in a tight batting race.  Going into the final month of the regular season, Holliday sat fourth in a six-player cluster separated by a mere 12 points with Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley leading the way over Washington Nationals first baseman Dmitri Young, Atlanta Braves shortstop Edgar Rentería, Florida Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramírez, and Braves third baseman Chipper Jones.  Utley maintained the lead for the majority of the first half of September before Jones took over the top spot just past the midway point of the month.  Holliday traded the lead with both Utley and Jones during September as the Rockies battled multiple teams in the race for the NL West division title and wild card.  From September 16 to the end of the month, Colorado went on an incredible run, winning 13 of their final 14 regular season contests to force a tiebreaker game with the San Diego Padres.  Holliday hit .457 during this 14-game stretch to raise his average from .330 to .340, in the process passing Jones for the batting lead on September 29.  Holding a scant, three-point edge over Jones, Holliday went 2 for 6 in the tiebreaker game, thus maintaining his advantage and securing the NL batting crown.  In his final plate appearance, Holliday tied the score in the bottom of the 13th inning, ripping an RBI-triple off Padres closer Trevor Hoffman.  Holliday then scored on Jamey Carroll’s sacrifice fly to send the Rockies to their first postseason in a dozen years.  Colorado’s winning ways continued into the playoffs where the team swept the Phillies in the NLDS and the Diamondbacks in the NLCS before running out of gas and being the victim of a sweep at the hands of the Boston Red Sox in the World Series.  Holliday nearly became the second Rockies player to win the NL MVP as he finished runner-up to Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins in a close election.

Holliday’s batting title marked the first time a Rockies player had earned top honors since the introduction of the humidor.  Though Holliday hit 75 points higher at home than on the road, Coors Field generated a less-extreme park factor of 109 for the year.  By contrast, the batting crown runner-up Jones—who called Atlanta’s spacious Turner Field home—hit 33 points better on the road.  Like Holliday, third-place finisher Utley benefited from playing at a hitter’s park and produced almost identical home/road splits to the Rockies slugger.  Utley’s .332 average represented a personal-high for the keystoner as well as the only time he would crack the top-10 leaderboard in the category.  Though Jones had seemingly been denied his best chance to win a batting title, the 14-year veteran came back in 2008 and hit a career-high .364 en route to claiming top honors for the NL.  Holliday turned in his own strong follow-up performance, batting .321 and slotting two spots behind Jones in third.  Marlins shortstop Hanley Ramírez vaulted to the head of the leaderboard in 2009, earning the senior circuit batting crown with a .342 average while Todd Helton cracked the top five one final time, ranking fourth with a team-best .325 mark.  Helton’s steady campaign helped Colorado secure the NL wild card and return to the postseason where the club subsequently lost to the Phillies in the NLDS.  Helton retired in 2013 after spending the entirety of his 17-year career with the Rockies.  Over that span, he batted .316, notching a superb .345 average at Coors Field compared to a less-illustrious but more than respectable .287 figure on foreign soil.  Though he hit far better at home, like his former teammate Larry Walker, Helton produced road batting numbers that rivaled many Hall of Famers.  On January 23, 2024, Helton joined Walker as only the second Rockies player voted into Cooperstown.

With Matt Holliday set to become eligible for free agency at the conclusion of the 2009 season, prior to the start of the campaign, the Rockies decided to be proactive and traded the slugger to the Oakland Athletics in return for three players including 23-year-old outfielder Carlos González.  Fresh off a middling rookie effort with Oakland in which he hit just .242, González began 2009 with the Rockies Triple-A affiliate Colorado Springs Sky Sox.  After dominating Triple-A pitching, González earned the call-up to Denver in early June and hit .284 the rest of the way.  González then broke out in a monumental fashion during 2010, pacing the senior loop with a .336 average, thus becoming the fifth different Rockies player to win the NL batting title.  A noteworthy aspect of González’s campaign is that he was able to maintain his high average and earn a Gold Glove Award for his defensive work despite being shuttled back and forth between all three outfield positions.  Like many Rockies hitters before him, he made the most of his advantageous home ballpark, batting .380 at Coors Field while posting a road average that was almost 100 points lower.  González’s breakout batting crown-winning campaign represented his only appearance on the top-10 leaderboard.

Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto occupied the bridesmaid position, finishing the year with a .324 average.  In most seasons, Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park favored hitters, however, in 2010, the stadium generated a park factor of just 98.  Votto seemed more affected by this than most Reds hitters as he recorded a 52-point higher average on the road than at home.  Though he fell short in the batting race, Votto received substantial credit for helping Cincinnati reach the playoffs for the first time in 15 seasons and was voted NL MVP while González classified an impressive third in the election.  Notoriously selective at the plate, Votto registered a senior circuit-best .424 OBP, marking the first of seven times he would pace the loop in the category.  Slotting number three in the batting race was the unlikely name of Omar Infante.  Over the course of his eight-year big league career, Infante had battled injuries and struggled to maintain a starting role.  Finally healthy, Infante put together a fine season for the Braves, seeing regular action while serving the club as an invaluable utility player.  While Colorado’s González alternated between the three outfield positions, Infante fulfilled an even more nomadic role for Atlanta, taking the field in slightly over half his games at second base while splitting the rest of his starts between shortstop, third base, and the two corner outfield positions.  Infante hit a personal-best .321 for the year and cracked the leaderboard in average for the only time in his career.  Infante found Turner Field particularly to his liking, batting 50-plus points higher at home than on the road.

Through the first 18 years of the franchise’s existence, at least one Rockies hitter placed among the NL top five in batting average during each season.  However, the 2011 campaign saw that streak come to an end as shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s team-leading .302 average only ranked 10th-best in the loop while New York Mets shortstop José Reyes secured top honors with a .337 mark.  The pattern repeated itself in 2012 with no Rockies hitter managing to break into the top five, though rookie third baseman Jordan Pacheco came close, logging a .309 figure that classified sixth as San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey captured the batting title with a .336 average.

After two consecutive seasons in which Rockies hitters uncharacteristically failed to make a serious run at the batting crown, the franchise’s next player to pace the senior circuit in average came in the unexpected form of veteran right fielder Michael Cuddyer.  A free agent acquisition prior to the 2012 campaign, Cuddyer brought a .272 career batting average to Colorado from parts of 11 major league seasons spent with the Minnesota Twins.  Cuddyer showed no indications of challenging for a batting title, having never hit higher than .284 for Minnesota and posting a middling .260 figure in his first year with the Rockies.  However, he broke out in a big way during 2013, recording a NL-leading .331 average to reclaim the batting crown for Colorado.  Like all Rockies batting champions before him, Cuddyer benefitted from hitter-friendly Coors Field where he batted .356.  Yet, he also thrived outside of Colorado as he produced a personal-best .311 mark on the road.  Cuddyer hit at a comparable level in 2014, notching a .332 average, but was plagued by injuries and limited to just 49 games.  The veteran then signed with the Mets for 2015 and batted .259 in what would be the final year of his big league career.

Occupying the two spots behind Cuddyer in the 2013 batting race were a pair of Braves hitters in third baseman Chris Johnson and first baseman Freddie Freeman.  Johnson put together a career-best effort, slotting runner-up with a .321 average that was an eyelash ahead of Freeman’s .319 figure.  Generally known as a pitcher’s park, Atlanta’s Turner Field favored hitters in 2013.  While Johnson registered nearly identical home and away averages, Freeman took advantage of the favorable conditions, batting 48 points higher at Turner Field than on enemy turf, an even greater difference than Cuddyer’s 45-point home/away split.  The Braves represented the third franchise for Johnson who had struggled to distinguish himself in parts of four big league campaigns going into 2013.  Johnson was unable to build on the momentum of his solid 2013, slumping to a .252 average over his three remaining years in the majors.  By contrast, 2013 marked the first of several trips to the top-five batting leaderboard for Freeman.

Similar to 2013, the 2014 NL batting race saw another unlikely player vault to the head of the pack as Rockies first baseman Justin Morneau earned top honors for the senior circuit.  A standout player for several seasons with the Twins, Morneau’s list of accomplishments included capturing the 2006 AL MVP Award after a stellar campaign which saw him bat .321 with 34 home runs and 130 RBI while playing an invaluable role in helping the club secure the AL Central division title.  Morneau’s .321 average ranked seventh-highest in the junior loop as his MVP-winning effort represented the first of a series of strong seasons by the first basemen.  He appeared to be in the midst of putting together another MVP-caliber campaign through the first half of 2010 when disaster struck on July 7: While sliding into second base, Morneau suffered a season-ending concussion when his head made contact with the knee of Toronto Blue Jays infielder John McDonald.  At the time of Morneau’s injury, the slugger ranked among the AL leaders with a .345 average.  He returned to the field for the beginning of 2011 but took a significant step backwards, batting a respective .227, .267, and .259 over his next three campaigns.  With Morneau set to become eligible for free agency at the conclusion of the 2013 season and not considered an integral part of the Twins’ future plans, he was shipped to the Pittsburgh Pirates on August 31.  Morneau provided a veteran presence for the playoff-bound Pirates who subsequently fell to the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.  During the offseason, the former MVP signed a two-year deal with the Rockies.  The move to Colorado revitalized Morneau as the 33-year-old slugger regained his hitting stroke and followed in the footsteps of his former Twins teammate Michael Cuddyer by claiming the NL batting title with a .319 average.  Coors Field generated a 120 park factor for 2014 with Rockies hitters collectively posting a .322 average at home while logging a paltry .229 clip on the road.  However, Morneau produced a much less substantial split, batting .327 at Coors Field while maintaining a comparable .309 figure away from Denver.  In fact, Morneau’s 18-point advantage at home was by far the smallest difference for any of the Rockies batting champions.  Morneau’s bat stayed strong for 2015 with the slugger recording a .310 average in his second year with Colorado.  Unfortunately, like Cuddyer, Morneau was unable to defend his batting crown as injures limited him to just 49 games.  In Morneau’s case, a head injury once again sidelined him as he missed several months after suffering a concussion and whiplash while diving for a ball during a May 13 game versus the Los Angeles Angels.  Morneau signed with the Chicago White Sox for 2016 but only managed to hit .261 and decided to call it a career at season’s end.

Finishing directly behind Morneau on the 2014 NL rundown were a pair of players he had briefly shared the Pirates clubhouse with during the prior year, third baseman Josh Harrison and center fielder Andrew McCutchen.  Though primarily used at third base, Harrison fulfilled a utility role for the Pirates, also seeing action at each corner outfield position as well as second base and shortstop.  Harrison pulled up just a few points shy of Morneau, concluding 2014 with a .315 average.  The campaign represented Harrison’s first true chance as a full-time player in the big leagues after batting .250 in parts of three seasons.  Had Morneau not earned top honors, the batting race would have been a tight one between the two Pirates teammates as McCutchen checked in immediately behind Harrison with a .314 average.  The defending NL MVP, McCutchen’s phenomenal play had been the key component in the franchise’s reemergence as a contender after a string of 20 consecutive losing seasons from 1993 to 2012.  McCutchen’s .314 average had been proceeded two years earlier by a personal-best .327 mark which slotted him runner-up to Buster Posey in the 2012 NL batting race and followed by a .317 figure during his MVP-winning 2013 campaign that ranked seventh-highest in the senior circuit.  However, since 2014, neither Harrison nor McCutchen have hit .300 or come anywhere close to challenging for another batting crown.

After back-to-back seasons in which seemingly-past-their-prime-veteran Rockies sluggers snared batting championships, the 2015 campaign nearly saw the first instance where the club failed to have one of its hitters crack the top-10 leaderboard as second baseman DJ LeMahieu’s .301 average barely edged the .300 mark of Miami Marlins left fielder Christian Yelich for the final spot on the NL rundown.  On this occasion, Yelich’s teammate second baseman Dee Gordon-Strange won the batting title with a .333 average.  However, LeMahieu put on a hitting clinic in 2016, feasting on opposing pitching to the tune of a NL-best .348 average, thus adding a 10th batting crown to the Denver-based franchise’s collection.  Acquired from the Chicago Cubs as part of a four-player trade prior to the 2012 season, LeMahieu brought just 37 games of major league experience to the Rockies but paid huge dividends, becoming a core member of the team.

LeMahieu claimed the batting title after holding off the challenge of fellow keystoner Daniel Murphy of the Washington Nationals.  A .288 career-hitter going into 2016, Murphy signed a free agent deal with the Nationals, following seven seasons with the New York Mets.  Murphy broke out in a big way for Washington, getting off to an electric start and standing atop the batting average leaderboard for much of the campaign.  LeMahieu caught Murphy in late August and the pair traded the batting lead back and forth until a glute strain sidelined the Nationals slugger for much of the second half of September.  With Washington headed to the playoffs, the club rested Murphy, only having him make three pinch-hitting appearances over the final 14 games of the regular season.  LeMahieu passed Murphy for good on September 19 and with the Rockies out of playoff contention, the team’s manager Walt Weiss chose to sit LeMahieu for the final two regular season contests rather than risk having him lose the batting crown.  Thus, LeMahieu earned top NL honors, finishing a single point ahead of Murphy’s .347 average.  After an uncharacteristically poor start to the 2016 campaign, Reds first basemen Joey Votto righted the ship and recovered to a .326 mark that ranked him third in the final order—his best result since slotting runner-up to Carlos González in 2010.  LeMahieu took advantage of hitting at Coors Field and posted a 91-point higher batting average at home than on the road.  Normally a hitter’s haven, Nationals Park generated a neutral park factor of 100 during 2016.  Nevertheless, after seven seasons of calling the pitcher-friendly confines of New York’s Shea Stadium and Citi Field home, Murphy took a liking to his new abode, batting .361 at Nationals Park.  Similar to 2010, Votto hit better away from Cincinnati’s Great American Ball Park, though this time around his home/road split was not quite as pronounced.

Just behind Votto on the 2016 NL rundown was the Rockies’ next batting champion, center fielder Charlie Blackmon who slotted fourth with a .324 average.  Originally signed by Colorado as a second round draft pick in 2008, Blackmon had hit a combined .289 over parts of a handful of major league campaigns before his breakout 2016 effort.  The 30-year-old slugger carried the momentum into 2017, capturing the NL batting title with a .331 average—thus making him the fourth different Rockies player in five seasons to earn top honors for the senior circuit.  In addition to pacing the loop in batting average, Blackmon also finished atop the leaderboard in hits, runs scored, triples, and total bases.  For the first time since 2009, Colorado reached the postseason, albeit briefly as the club secured the second NL wild card but fell to the Arizona Diamondbacks in the Wild Card Game.  MVP voters recognized Blackmon’s contributions to the Rockies’ season as he picked up three first-place tallies and classified fifth in the election, one spot behind his teammate, third baseman Nolan Arenado.  En route to claiming the NL batting crown, Blackmon devoured opposing pitching at Coors Field where he batted .391 but looked much more human on the road where he hit a far-less illustrious .277.  Blackmon’s .277 mark actually represented the lowest road figure posted by a Rockies hitter during a season in which the player won the batting title.  Moreover, only Larry Walker—who dominated at Coors Field like no one else before or since—managed to win a batting crown for Colorado while registering a more severe home/road split than Blackmon’s.

Occupying the bridesmaid position in the NL batting race for the second year in a row was Nationals keystoner Daniel Murphy.  While the prior campaign had seen Murphy finish a single point behind DJ LeMahieu for the batting crown, on this occasion, he checked up nine points in arrears of Blackmon and narrowly-edged Los Angeles Dodgers third baseman Justin Turner for second place.  The battle for runner-up had been a razor-close one as both Murphy and Turner ended the season with a .322 average, the difference coming down to the former’s .3221 mark leading the latter’s .3217 figure.  Thus, had it not been for the presence of Colorado’s LeMahieu in 2016 and Blackmon in 2017, Murphy likely would have paced the loop during each of those years and become a back-to-back NL batting champion.  In a reverse of the previous season, Murphy hit much better on the road despite Nationals Park generating a park factor of 107.  Votto put together another strong campaign, slotting a close fourth with a .320 average.  LeMahieu followed up his batting crown-winning 2016 by notching a solid .310 mark that ranked eighth-best, one spot ahead of the .309 figure of his teammate Arenado.  As it currently stands, the 2017 senior circuit rundown witnessed the final time Murphy, Turner, or Votto challenged for top honors.

During 2017, the Denver-based franchise completed its 25th year of play.  Over that span, nine different Rockies hitters earned 11 NL batting titles for the organization.  Yet, after a period of such dominance in winning the batting crown, the subsequent six seasons have not seen a single Rockies hitter come close to claiming top honors for the franchise even though Coors Field still produced lofty park factors between 110 and 119 which have ranked first or second-highest among NL stadiums each year.  The 2018 campaign signaled a return to the postseason for Colorado with the team securing the second NL wild card and defeating the Chicago Cubs in the ensuing Wild Card Game before losing to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.  Despite the success on the field, the highest any Rockies hitters could muster in the batting race was Nolan Arenado finishing 10th with a .297 average while Brewers outfielder Christian Yelich paced the senior loop with a .326 mark.  In fact, for the first time, one of Colorado’s pitchers ranked higher on the ERA leaderboard than one of its hitters did in the batting race as left-hander Kyle Freeland’s 2.85 ERA slotted fifth-best among NL hurlers.  Prior to Freeland, the only Rockies pitchers to crack the top-10 leaderboard in ERA had been right-hander Marvin Freeman who crafted the senior circuit’s third-lowest figure with a 2.80 mark during the strike-shortened 1994 campaign and righty Ubaldo Jiménez who classified eighth with a 2.88 ERA in 2010.  At season’s end the club’s roster weakened with the departure of DJ LeMahieu who signed with the New York Yankees as a free agent.  Yelich became a back-to-back NL batting champion in 2019, cementing top honors with a .329 average for Milwaukee.  Colorado put a pair of sluggers on the leaderboard with Arenado’s .315 mark good for fifth place and Blackmon’s .314 figure just behind in sixth.  During the pandemic-shortened 2020 campaign, Washington Nationals left fielder Juan Soto paced the NL with a .351 average while Rockies left fielder Raimel Tapia’s .321 mark slotted him in eighth as the team’s sole representative on the rundown.  Over in the AL, LeMahieu posted a junior circuit-best .364 average for the Yankees and in the process joined Ed Delahanty as just the second player to win batting crowns in both the AL and NL.  Colorado’s roster further weakened during the offseason as the team shipped Arenado to the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for a handful of unproven prospects.  Finally, after 28 seasons of placing at least one hitter among the NL top 10 in batting average, the 2021 campaign witnessed the first instance in which no Rockies hitters cracked the leaderboard as first baseman C.J. Cron registered a team-leading .281 mark that only classified 15th best in the loop.  Although former batting champion Blackmon remained on the roster, he no longer ranked among the leaders as he hit .270 and subsequently produced respective .264 and .279 averages in 2022 and 2023.  Infielder Trea Turner earned the 2021 NL batting title, hitting a combined .328 during a season in which he began the year with the Nationals and finished it with the Dodgers following a late-July trade.  Colorado’s pattern of futility in the batting race repeated itself for 2022 as second baseman Brendan Rodgers paced the team’s qualified hitters with a .266 figure that ranked nowhere near the top-10 leaderboard while the club sank to the bottom of the NL West.  Rodgers’ pedestrian .266 average checked in 60 points behind the league-leading mark of New York Mets second baseman/outfielder Jeff McNeil.  The 2023 campaign saw more of the same with Colorado finishing in the NL West cellar for the second year in a row and the eighth time in the franchise’s existence.  Catcher Elias Díaz’s middling .267 figure represented the highest average among qualified Rockies hitters and slotted well off the top-10 leaderboard which was headed by Miami Marlins second baseman Luis Arraez who paced the circuit with a .354 mark and joined Delahanty and LeMahieu as the third player to claim batting titles in both the AL and NL and the first to accomplish the feat in successive campaigns.  However, Colorado’s rookie outfielder Nolan Jones provided a glimmer of hope for the future as he batted .297 across 424 plate appearances.

Even taking into account the recent downturn by Rockies hitters, with nine different players winning 11 NL batting crowns over the franchise’s 31-year existence, the team has been able to produce batting champions at an unmatched pace.  While it has been six seasons since one of Colorado’s hitters has captured the batting title, the team’s short history tells us it is only a matter of time before a budding young player such as Nolan Jones ascends to the top of the leaderboard like Todd Helton, Carlos González, and DJ LeMahieu have or a veteran surprisingly steps to the forefront the way Andrés Galarraga, Michael Cuddyer, and Justin Morneau did.  From Moises Alou to Daniel Murphy to Joey Votto, the presence of this mile-high based franchise has denied some excellent hitters the chance to add “batting champion” to their list of accomplishments.

----by John Tuberty 

Follow me on Twitter/X @BloggerTubbs

Stats links to main players mentioned: Larry Walker, Todd Helton, Joey Votto, Charlie Blackmon, Nolan Arenado, Tony Gwynn, Barry Bonds, Albert Pujols, DJ LeMahieu, Trea Turner, Freddie Freeman, Luis Arraez, Nolan Jones, Justin Turner, Juan Soto, Christian Yelich, Andrew McCutchen, Jeff McNeil, Andrés Galarraga, Gregg Jefferies, John Olerud, Mike Piazza, Luis Gonzalez, Bobby Abreu, Vladimir Guerrero, Moises Alou, Matt Holliday, Chipper Jones, Chase Utley, Carlos González, Omar Infante, Michael Cuddyer, Chris Johnson, Justin Morneau, Daniel Murphy, Josh Harrison

Sources:

All statistics are drawn from Baseball Reference and Stathead

Thomas Harding, “Why baseballs are stored differently at Coors,” MLB.com

SI Wire, “Rockies have no timetable for Justin Morneau’s return from concussion,” SI.com

ESPN.com news services, “Report: Rockies add Justin Morneau,” ESPN.com

Nick Groke and Patrick Saunders, “Justin Morneau returns to Rockies after concussion, starts against Giants,” The Denver Post

Chelsea Janes, “Daniel Murphy has strained left buttocks, Stephen Strasburg’s playoff status still uncertain,” The Washington Post

ESPN.com news services and The Associated Press, “DJ LeMahieu wins NL batting title after sitting weekend out,” ESPN.com

L.A. Times Archives and The Associated Press, “BASEBALL/DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE MAJORS : Gwynn to Have Surgery on Knee,” Los Angeles Times 

Cards: Andrés Galarraga 1994 Bowman, Tony Gwynn 1994 Score, Gregg Jefferies 1993 Bowman, Larry Walker 1998 Pinnacle Plus, John Olerud 1998 Donruss Signature Series, Dante Bichette 1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated, Mike Piazza 1999 Pacific Aurora-Pennant Fever, Larry Walker 1998 Score Rookie & Traded, Luis Gonzalez 2002 SP, Bobby Abreu 2000 Upper Deck MVP, Todd Helton 2001 Fleer Game Time, Moises Alou 2001 Upper Deck, Vladimir Guerrero 2001 Upper Deck Pros & Prospects, Larry Walker 2001 Topps, Todd Helton 2001 Topps Home Team Advantage, Moises Alou 2001 Donruss Signature Series, Lance Berkman 2002 Fleer Genuine, Matt Holliday 2009 Upper Deck, Chipper Jones 2008 Upper Deck First Edition, Chase Utley 2008 SP Authentic, Carlos González 2011 Topps, Joey Votto 2011 Topps, Omar Infante 2009 Upper Deck, Michael Cuddyer 2013 Topps Update Series, Chris Johnson 2013 Topps Update Series, Freddie Freeman 2013 Topps, Justin Morneau 2016 Topps Archives, Josh Harrison 2015 Topps, Andrew McCutchen 2016 Topps, DJ LeMahieu 2016 Topps Bunt, Daniel Murphy 2018 Topps, Joey Votto 2017 Topps Salute Spring Training, Charlie Blackmon 2018 Topps, Daniel Murphy 2016 Topps, Justin Turner 2017 Topps Bunt

Other Articles by Tubbs Baseball Blog:

Rod Carew’s Seven Batting Titles and the Players He Denied the Honor by Annually Capturing the Crown 

2023 MLB Season Quick Hits: Ronald Acuña Jr., Luis Arraez, Freddie Freeman, Trea Turner, and More

The 1989 and 1990 Texas Rangers Pitching Staffs That Featured Five Hurlers Who Would Each Retire with 200-Plus Victories