Halfway through the season the Rockies are in last place with no hope

The Colorado Rockies reached the halfway point of their 2022 season on Tuesday, fittingly playing to a 5-2 loss in Los Angeles.

The Rockies are sitting firmly in fifth place, 16.5 games back of the Dodgers. At 35-46, the club finds itself 11 games under .500, their worst mark of the season. The Rockies were once five games above even but have played to a 19-35 record since.

There’s nothing particularly interesting about this year’s Rockies team. They aren’t even remarkably bad, still projected to finish 70-92. Even their run differential—almost -1 per game—is just fourth-worst in the NL. Again, not 100 losses bad.

Colorado’s best player to this point is C.J. Cron; the 32-year-old is, slashing .297/.347/.552 with 20 homers and 65 RBI. Brendan Rodgers, Chad Kuhl and Daniel Bard are having nice seasons, while Ryan McMahon, Connor Joe and Kyle Freeland are doing fine.

The problem in all that is the lack of a star player, which the purple pinstripes have almost always showcased. With Nolan Arenado and Trevor Story gone, Kris Bryant was supposed to be that guy but has suited up for just 24 games due to a back injury.

For being a bottom-feeder, Colorado also lacks youth. The Rockies are in the top half of the league in age for pitchers and hitters. Rodgers, 25, is the only batter in purple under 26 years old to have played a significant amount. Ryan Feltner, 25, is the only pitcher under 26-years-old that has played enough games to qualify.

While Rodgers is third on the team in homers and RBI, Feltner has a 6.15 ERA.

Even worse news about the Rockies lack of youth is their farm system ranking in the bottom third of most system’s charts. Although three of the Rockies four minor league teams are above .500 on the season, Colorado won’t even get bolstered that much by this month’s MLB Draft, with their top pick at No. 10. But they will pick again at 31 for losing Trevor Story, 38 for not making enough money and 50.

So there aren’t young, exciting players waiting to pop and carry the Rockies anytime soon. What you see at Coors Field is basically what you got.

Even focusing on the now, Colorado is worst in the league with 58 errors, have a pitching staff that has allowed the second-most hits and a lineup that’s roughly sixth-worst in baseball, about 9% worse than average.

So what are the Rockies? They’re bad, old and just not fun.

The Rockies are headed straight for last place and the best possible outcome is them selling their parts for minor league players. But they’ve shown over the last few years by letting Story and Jon Gray walk that they probably won’t sell. They’ll win just enough to connivence themself that they’re close. And we’ll see them run it back again next year.

They’ll finish their 30th season of baseball not close to the playoffs and without the division title that has eluded them for their entire history. But hey, they had a couple sell outs this weekend to watch fireworks.

***