The Colorado Rockies are as bad as they’ve ever been

There are many ways to slice it, but they all end in the same solution, the Colorado Rockies are really bad this season.

The fightin’ rockos dropped to a season-worst 10 games below .500 on Thursday, on the back of their seventh straight home loss. It’s the fourth time in franchise history that they have lost at least seven in a row at Coors Field, and they’re two off their longest losing streak in Denver of nine games that took place at Mile High Stadium in 1993.

Within this stretch of poor play, the Rockies have extended their franchise-long streak of committing at least one error at home to 13 games. That’s the longest run of errors by any Major League team since the Oakland Athletics committed a mistake in 15-straight home games in 2000. With two errors on Thursday, the Rockies have now committed the most errors in Major League Baseball. Now at 54 on the season, Colorado is just 14 away from their franchise’s best season of only 68 errors—in 2007. What is a bit befuddling about the 54 errors in 64 games is that the Rockies only had 73 in 162 last season, which was the second-best year in club history.

While the mistakes have been costly, Colorado’s defense isn’t historically bad. What has stood out is just how poor Colorado’s offensive output has been.

Now down to .709, the Rockies OPS (0n-base percentage plus slugging percentage) is the worst year in club history. The current mark for a full season is last year’s .731. In this era of extreme power-hitting, the Rockies are struggling to put some punch into the ball. Despite Coors Field, Colorado is only tied for 25th in baseball with 54 home runs.

A side note, Colorado has the same number of errors as home runs. The only season in franchise history where the Rockies were even close to having more errors than home runs was their inaugural season of 1993—Colorado hit 142 home runs and committed 167 errors. Since their 15-10 start, Colorado has hit 26 home runs and has committed 37 errors.

While the .709 OPS  is firmly in the middle of baseball, the stats that account for Colorado’s offensive advantage at Coors Field say the Rockies output is about fourth-worst in MLB. Weighted Runs Created Plus marks Colorado’s offense as 13% below league average, which is about eighth-worst in club history.

The Rockies offense could soon be boosted by big free-agent signing Kris Bryant, who has missed most of the season with a back injury.

None of this mentions the Rockies poor pitching, with one of the worst staff ERAs in baseball.

Colorado is 13.5 games back and on pace for 68 wins. Projections place the win total around 69. Colorado’s worst full season resulted in 64 wins, as the franchise has never lost 100 games.

And if you’re hoping things change soon, they might now. Colorado has one of the oldest team’s in baseball, with an average age of 29.5 and the Rockies farm system is in the bottom third of many experts ranks.

***