Rockies ‘work in progress’ earned a ‘B’ from ESPN through one month

DENVER — The Rockies’ recent five-game losing streak is cause for short-term frustration — especially their Monday loss to the reeling New York Mets, as that game represented a chance to rediscover their footing after losing five of six to Atlanta and Cincinnati, two teams that would be in postseason spots if the playoffs started today.

And at 14-22, they are not on a 100-loss pace — but barely, sitting on a 63-99 pace through 36 games. Still, that finish would represent a 20-game improvement from last year; by any reasonable standard, that’s progress. And the embarrassing defeats the Rockies absorbed last year on a regular basis are rare now.

It’s the type of growth that merited a “B” from ESPN when grading teams as May gets underway. Ten teams were higher, but that puts the Rockies in MLB’s upper half. All things considered, that mark seems fair.

So, while president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta acknowledged recently that “it’s hard to draw significant conclusions” from a sample size so small, he does see signs of progress.

“I think by and large our guys feel like offensively they can compete every single night,” he said. “And we’ve faced some really, really tough pitching.

“I think when we have the platoon advantage, we’ve been very successful. I think that’s something that we’re very pleased about because it was a conscious effort during the course of the offseason to balance out the team a little bit more so that on any given day when we’re facing a righty or we’re facing a lefty, we can have a competitive lineup.”

ROCKIES HAVE USED A DIFFERENT BATTING ORDER EACH DAY

Working the lefty/righty platoon has kept the lineup in flux, but has also given all of the position players a decent tally of opportunities, although DePodesta acknowledged that outfielder Jordan Beck hasn’t seen as many chances due to a dearth of opposing left-handed pitchers against the Rockies.

Beck has started four of the last six games — including Monday’s 4-2 loss — going 3-for-16 in that stretch, but is 3-for-10 since going 0-for-6 last Wednesday.

Twelve different Rockies have at least 70 plate appearances this season. By comparison, their last three opponents each have just nine such players. And Monday’s lineup was the 36th different batting order in 36 games, with TJ Rumfield and Ezequiel Tovar leading the Rockies with 33 games started apiece.

They’re tinkering, mixing and matching to extract the most from their lineup. But what it also does is it gives them the chance to evaluate everyone.

“So, it’s been a mix, but, but it’s still very much a work in progress for us to be sort of consistent, with our approach night in and night out,” DePodesta said.

Across the board, the team’s production is up in every metric from last year, with Mickey Moniak leading the way; he increased his hitting streak to 17 games Monday.

“I think as a team, we feel like we have enough — there are enough threats in the lineup and we think we’ve got some more coming in the system. So, overall we feel pretty good about that, especially when you balance it out against having good at bats and being able to put the ball in play,” DePodesta said. “Because we knew after last couple years, that was a real priority for us.”

But those “more coming in the system” aren’t going to be hurried, even though the Rockies fielded a lineup Monday that featured three players — Beck, Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar — with sub-.600 OPS figures. Tovar isn’t going anywhere, but for Doyle and Beck, being in the outfield means having competition breathing down their necks — on the major-league roster and in Albuquerque.

But just as DePodesta won’t overreact to the start on the positive side, the same holds true for the early slumps.

“We don’t want to be reactionary. We also don’t want our players thinking that boy, if they go 0-for-4 tonight, they’re not in the lineup tomorrow, or worse, they’re going to AAA tomorrow, or if they give up a run or something like that,” he said. “We believe in these guys. We also believe in a lot of the guys we have in AAA right now. But we want to give them ample opportunity to play.”

And given there’s a good chance Game 37 will yield a different batting order, they’ll keep getting it.

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