Bullpen passes early test but can it have sustained success?
The Rockies’ rebuilt bullpen: So far, so good.
Mostly.
Over their first three games, Colorado relievers gave up just one run over 9M innings in winning two of three over the Texas Rangers. The Rockies open a two-game set at Oakland on Tuesday night.
Thus far, veteran closer Wade Davis is 2-for-2 in save attempts. Right-hander Daniel Bard, pitching for the first time in the majors in more than seven years, is throwing 99 mph fastballs and showing poise on the mound.
Right-hander Yency Almonte, who’s looked close to breaking through in limited big-league time over the last two seasons, tossed two scoreless innings Sunday and looked good doing it. He struck out three in the Rockies’ 5-2 victory.
“Today was a good day for Yency,” manager Bud Black said. “I thought last year, in spurts, we saw the potential for what he did (today). He’s got a lively fastball with movement and velocity and he has a really good breaking ball. I trust the breaking ball.”
Then Black talked about the need for consistency from Almonte, and all of the relievers.
“That’s the separator, day in and day out. Is there consistency?” he said. “Are you going to do it every night? No. But if you go out there and perform the majority of the time, you are going to have a good career and you are going to help your team win.”
There were some hiccups in the first series of the season, and the Rockies escaped some messes they likely would not have been able to if the games had been at Coors Field instead of Globe Life Park in Arlington, Texas.
In Colorado’s white-knuckle, 3-2 win Saturday night, late-game right-handers Carlos Estevez and Jairo Diaz had to dodge major traffic jams. Davis gave up a run in the ninth and needed 28 pitches (just 15 strikes) to lock down the save.
In other words, it’s way too early to say that Colorado’s bullpen, which posted a 5.14 ERA last year (sixth-highest in franchise history) has been fixed.
Early-season optimism also must be tempered by the fact that right-handed set-up man Scott Oberg — arguably Colorado’s best reliever — is on the injured list with a sore lower back and will likely miss Friday’s opener.
“So, basically, I became a cutter-primary (pitcher) with kind of a little cement-mixer slider that didn’t really do anything. I think that attributed a lot to the adverse results that I had. Stemming from that, we tried to do some different things to create that movement on the slider and create different stuff in the mechanical side which then kind of just messed with everything a little bit. It just kind of snowballed there.”
Vilade and infielder Colten Welker, are members of the “satellite squad” working out in Denver at Coors Field and Metropolitan State University of Denver, while using the Pepsi Center as a clubhouse.
Also, Rockies veteran non-roster left-handed relief pitcher Tim Collins has withdrawn from the satellite camp and won’t pitch this season.
Though it’s presumed that Collins will not play because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Rockies did not confirm that as the reason.
Collins, 30, who is 12-17 with a 3.60 ERA in 275 big-league games with the Royals, Nationals and Cubs, did not make the 30-man roster out of summer camp.