Welcome to Football Friday, a baseball column. Your number one source for Rockies action in a weekly format.
This past week the Rockies weren’t that bad????
After dropping 3 of 4 to the Phillies over the weekend, the Rockies took 2 of 3 from a pretty good Cleveland team and had some really nifty pitching performances in that run. Specifically, Ryan Feltner had back to back starts only allowing one unearned run. After opening the season with three awful performances, Feltner has dialed in back to back starts with good results. He’s dropped his FIP under 4 and bumped his K rate over 9 per 9, both pretty good! Ryan’s become a full on 5 pitch pitcher, equally throwing the sinker, fastball, and slider. Mixing in a change and curveball where needed. Guys are starting to barrel him up less which is always a good trend and he’s making guys whiff more. I don’t know if we can call this a trend yet or that Feltner has cracked a code in becoming more effective, but he’s strung together some things that make me want to follow this a little closer.
That being said it’s two starts in the entire season of starts and Feltner hasn’t exactly tracked well before this so hard to say. Shutting out Philly in Philly and only allowing one run to a Cleveland offense that is better than you’d think is a solid two start stretch though. If he can keep making guys chase his pitches (63rd percentile, growing after the last two starts), there might be an element of deception that Ryan hasn’t had before. Feltner’s stretch of starts has also been efficient. He’s gone 11 and 2/3 innings with only 166 pitches (with 12 Ks) so it hasn’t been complete luck that has led him to this. So, you know, not the worst situation. It’s not really that exciting I would say, but the team is really bad so if you’re looking for exciting guys you have decided to shop at the wrong store.
In additional pitching news, the Rockies gave up on Jose Urena after just a handful of starts. There are worse ways to spend 3.5 million dollars than on a guy that gives you a single month of crappy pitching performances, but those ways usually involve fire or monster trucks so pros and cons. Urena finishes his Rockies career with a 5-12 record and a 5.93 ERA, on top of of those legacy stats, he had pretty bad metrics too. He was a guy signed to eat innings and he did not do that even a little bit. Dare I say Kyle Kendrick was a better version of what the Rockies needed here? I do dare. But if you’re employing either one of these guys it’s probably not a good sign for the rotation’s overall ability.
Now, the Rockies soldier on with Noah Davis and Austin Gomber on the back end of their rotation. The spirits remain high!
The narrative must die
I think, and this is probably not a new phenomenon, but I think that discussions around “narrative” and “legacy” have ruined sports for some people. It’s become a common meme now that many NBA fans do not actually watch the games. They watch clips and listen to podcasts about the games but generally seem to be fighting over what these clips mean for “legacy”.
There recently was a pretty ridiculous fight online recently where two users were just sharing the worst box scores of Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid back and forth. A rather strange tactic that only gets worse the more you dive in.
Narratives and the debate around legacy have completely removed the joy of single instance moments in sports. If Nikola Jokic has a 40 point triple double that is INSANE and should be something you think “wow you don’t see that often, how privileged I am to be watching something like this!” But instead many people think “what does this mean for how we’ll remember Jokic in 20 years? Better argue with a bunch of people online about it.”
Who gives a shit? I don’t know. It feels like when it comes to banter ball sports discussion everyone wants to talk about everything except the actual game they’re watching. Ridiculous behavior that pulls the joy out of sports. So much of sports fandom now is finding arguments that prove other people are morons or something. You can be a hater and not ramble on about legacy or whether 2 MVPs or 3 MVPs is better for a players legacy. Stop trying to intellectualize disliking something. I hate the Chiefs because Patrick Mahomes kicks the Broncos ass every year, not because of some higher intellectual purpose that’s been called upon or because I want to protest the legacy of Mahomes.
I guess my point is, let’s return being a hater back to it’s primal stage. Sports fandom is inherently just a dumb way for us to find community, embrace that irrationality and stop whining.
This week in Rockies
Six games at home this week facing Arizona and Milwaukee. I don’t know what to expect! It will be interesting to see if the rotation can stay hot after returning home. They have one solid turn here that they can hopefully build off of and now with a lack of Jose Urena there isn’t a giant home run monster in the middle that can throw everyone off their vibe.
Noah Davis gets the ball tonight and he’s been very good at limiting hard contact so far. Only one barrel in 9 2/3 IP is impressive, especially with how much he’s limited walks. At this point (with an injured Marquez), the Rockies have a collection of guys in their rotation that you should be surprised whenever they string together successful starts so the fact that Davis and Feltner have that going for them is at least a little intriguing.
Farmer of The Week
No this is not a celebration of our beautiful agricultural system in this country, it is a call out of a Rockies minor leaguer having a good ass week. This week, the Football Friday Farmer of the Week (Trademark Connor) is Ryan Ritter.
The Rockies fourth round pick in last year’s draft, Ritter hasn’t made any notable prospect lists or anything. But after a strong Arizona Complex League season last year he has kept the juice squeezed in Fresno. The Grizzlies shortstop has a .942 OPS in the early going, whacking 5 dingers (tied for the league lead). Ritter won the NCAA Gold Glove at shortstop prior to being drafted so this kid has some tools that could be intriguing down the line.
Shortstop is one of the rare positions of strength in the Rockies system but I do think Ritter might be someone to keep an eye on long term. He’s a little older than the Rockies have played Fresno so far but if he keeps hitting, there’s a reason to believe in him.
See ya next week.