Are The Colorado Rockies Moving In The Right Direction?

Today on Lockdown Rockies, we saw firsthand why you don't over react to spring success

as the Rockies have a week long skid, but it's not a reason to panic as things still look

like they might be moving in the right direction.

You are locked on Rockies.

You're daily Colorado Rockies podcast part of the Lockdown podcast network.

Your team every day.

Rock on Rockies fans.

Welcome into the Lockdown Rockies podcast for today.

The sixth day of March in the year 2026.

I am your host of the Lockdown Rockies podcast Paul Holden bringing you your daily

Colorado Rockies talk right here on the Lockdown podcast network where you can find your

team every day.

And if your team is the Colorado Rockies, you're in the right spot because that's what we do

around here, free and streaming on your favorite streaming services and on the Lockdown

Rockies YouTube channel where you can be part of the show.

You can fire off your Rockies hot takes.

You can let me know what's on your mind when it comes to the Colorado Rockies.

Today on the show, we're going to talk about the Rockies on a bit of a spring training

losing streak, but it's also spring training.

So let's put it into perspective a little bit as well.

Plus we have a report from Purple Row looking into the Rockies success at hitting the

fastball so far, which would be a big win for the Colorado Rockies.

Plus the Rockies are not ranked the worst in baseball.

Good news.

Good sign.

Let's dive into it here with the Colorado Rockies and just one moment.

But before we do that, I am, of course, Paul Holden, your Rockies fan.

He's short and they're bringing you your daily Colorado Rockies talk as I have been

for over six seasons now.

That means hundreds of episodes with you, the Rockies fan going through the ups, the

downs and everything in between of the Rockies season here.

Today's episode is brought to you by MLB, the show 26 visit MLB, the show.com

slash locked on and use code locked on to unlock a pack for use in diamond dynasty pre order

now, available March 17th on PlayStation five Xbox and Nintendo switch rated E for everyone.

All right.

So the Rockies lose to the Brewers 10 to eight.

The Rockies were went into this week above 500, but they have not one since last week.

It's been a week since they have won a ballgame.

And unfortunately, the thing I think if you're looking at the big, whoa,

let's, you know, the, the ways to overreact the ways to look at the results of these,

of these practice games, essentially, and say something's amiss.

It's the fact that the Rockies gave up a ton of runs and it gives,

it's easy for it to give you a flashbacks to last season here quickly in my head.

I'm, I'm just doing the numbers here.

That's 25 so that is a, the Rockies gave up 31 runs in four games.

And that doesn't count the 14 runs that they gave up against Team USA as well.

So, you know, that's what the 45 runs, if you count that game as well.

It's something that you can sit there and, and, and be concerned with,

especially you look at the box score against the Brewers here.

And, uh, uh, Michael Lorenzing over two and two thirds.

Six sits four and runs two walks and Ryan Feltner, two and two thirds,

three hits three and runs, uh, two walks five strikeouts though for, for Feltner,

which is great to see.

But when those guys are giving up those numbers and, and, and, and getting hit

around like that, as we've seen that happened to them a couple of times here in

spring, you, you might sit there and start worrying, but Michael Lorenzing has been

pretty open and pretty talking about how this is a, it's a process of tweaking

things and, and I believe I saw, uh, an interview or at least a clip from

Gorilla Sports there talking about how if this was in the season, they would have

gone, he would have gone in a different direction, but today it was, he was

working on the change up and how it wasn't feeling right.

So we wanted to make sure he was working on that pitch still and, and, and going

with it. So I'm, I'm not, I would of course like to see a little bit more,

I would like to see more success from the, the Rockies pitching staff here to

start the season and to start the, uh, to start the spring.

And as we go through the spring, but I, I think the Rockies really are more,

I think they're approaching it more of how can I, I'm gonna, I'm going to go

in and I'm going to keep throwing this pitch and I'm going to work, keep

working on it. I'm going to keep doing this because I want to tweak and work

on this. I'm going to dive into and, and tinker with this pitch in this, uh, in

these situations because now's the time to do it. Now's the time to work on

things before things start, uh, uh, go in and get real. So I, I don't, I don't

get too worried about the, uh, the, uh, I'm not too worried about this being

a bad omen. It certainly could be a bad sign, especially with what you're

talking about and what your expectations are for Lorenz and infeltener,

especially. And we're not, not, not Sai Young's, but guys were hoping to eat

innings and, and keep the game close. Uh, both of them now, uh, given up a

decent amount of, uh, runs here in their last couple of starts and, and, uh,

throughout their work so far in spring. But I, I, I, at least like to sit in,

and so it's, it's a good reminder here too. We're last week and last time

we're doing this episode, it's, hey, we'll look at this. Rockies on a roll.

Everything's all fun and dandy. And now it's like, okay, it's still a lot of,

this, this week serves as the reminder of a lot of work left to do, a lot of

work to do a long road ahead. And, uh, and that, uh, hey, if we can't get too

excited about the, uh, the good week of spring training, I'm not going to get

too disappointed and too upset about the down week during spring training.

All useful reps, all important, uh, things in terms of development and

getting ready for the season. And, uh, Rocky's still scoring runs as well.

12 hits in this ballgame. Uh, the Rockies, despite the losing streak this week,

our, uh, our scoring runs here, you know, couple of low ones here with at the

beginning of the week and, uh, over the weekend, uh, last weekend with the

three runs against the raw, uh, guardians and the royals, but putting up a

five spot against the Dodgers and eight spot against the brewers here.

And I know it's just four runs, but some good swings in that game against

Team USA as well. So some good signs there, a couple of positives from the

Rockies on, uh, on offense here. Mickey Moniac doesn't leave the yard, but a

couple of walks. Again, I think that's going to be a really big strength to

him. Not only are, uh, for the, for the power and, and the hopes that we have

there, but if he can control the zone, that's going to make him a, a, a very

dangerous, uh, part of the lineup as well. Tyler Freeman gets his first action

here, uh, of the spring after fighting some lower back issues. And he, uh,

gets an RBI double as part of that. Always good to see you. You know, I'm, I'm a

big fan of the extra bass hit and, uh, Charlie Condon gets a, uh, believe it was,

it was, I don't know if it was a sack fly or a, a sacrifice something because, uh,

the bat, the, uh, Appat didn't count. And he, uh, got a run for it there. Um,

couple of other things here. Big day for Ryan Ritter. He continues to, to be, uh,

a, a, a spark plug. He's been awesome. Uh, we highlighted some of his stats.

He's had an awesome spring so far. TJ Rumpfield picking up a hit, uh, in this

ballgame as well. So yeah, 12 hits, eight runs scored for the Rockies.

Always good to see here. Um, and, and, and good to see the, uh, the offense

roll in a little bit and, uh, a variety of guys, a variety of, uh, a guy scoring

in this one here. So, um, it's a, it's a spring training loss. Sure, it's, uh,

a tough week of, uh, of, of losing in spring training. But again, I, I,

I ain't going to get in the pits about it. I'm not, I'm not overreacting.

I'm still liking the, I'm still liking the, uh, the fact that where the Rockies

were hitting, uh, hitting the ball. Well, I've been hitting the ball for power.

And, uh, I, I liked the open honesty that we're getting from the, the pitching

staff about where they're at and, uh, where they, uh, where they want to be and,

and their expectations going forward. So let me know. Are you, how do, how do you

react to this week? Are you overly worried? Are you, are you, are you, are you

nervous about, uh, the, the, the Rockies? Is it making you feel a little, a

little, uh, less confident about the squad ahead as we get closer and closer to

opening day? Let me know in the lockdown Rockies YouTube comment section down

below. Uh, but we're going to take a quick break. And then are the Rockies

actually moving in the right direction? That might be the case, at least

according to MLB.com. Let's talk about that coming up next.

Before we do that, though, got to tell you about the folks that help make this

show possible. And that includes indeed workplace chaos deadline stacking up

inbox overflowing. And the one position you have to fill is still sitting

open. When the pressure is on and you need the right hire, this is a job for

sponsored jobs. Indeed, sponsored jobs helps you reach the people who

actually fit what you're looking for skills, experience, location. So you're

not just hoping the right candidate stumbles across your post. And here's a

stat that says it all in the minute I've been talking to you, companies like

years made 27 hires on indeed, according to indeed data worldwide. So if

you're hiring spend less time searching and more time interviewing candidates

who check all your boxes with indeed sponsored jobs, spend less time searching

and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes, less

stress, less time, more results. When you need the right person to cut through

the chaos, this is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. And listeners of this

show will get a $75 sponsored job credits to help get your job. The premium

status it deserves at indeed.com slash podcast. Just go to indeed.com slash

podcasts right now and support our show by saying you heard about indeed on

this podcast. Indeed.com slash podcast terms and conditions apply need to

hire. This is a job for indeed sponsored jobs. We're also brought to you by

FanDuel and March. What does March mean? It means college basketball, the big

tournament, the conference tournaments, big games every night. College basketball

is nonstop big games tight spreads momentum swings every single night from

early tip off to late night, West Coast shootouts. There's always action on the

board. And now, FanDuel is giving you a way to turn that energy into even

bigger potential wins with a college basketball parlay profit boost. You

can build any college shoes parlay you want. Maybe you're believing in the

ramps. Maybe you're believing in the buffs. Maybe you're believing in your

alma mater. You never know what the rivalry games, the ranked matchups,

whatever fits your, uh, your fancy. You can make spreads, totals and player

props to match how you see the slate playing out. Then you can apply the

profit boost and instantly bump up the potential payout. Go save, go bold,

ride with the team you've been following all season. It's your parlay,

your style now with more upside behind it. head to fan dual dot com to get

started. That's fan dual dot com fan dual play your game.

Back at it here from to segment number two of today's episode of Lockdown

Iraqis. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. We are,

of course, on your favorite streaming services in the Lockdown Rockies YouTube

channel and be part of the show and be part of the every day or club $5 a

month are going to get you access to the every day or club discord server,

which has got group chats surrounding all the sports plus a special Lockdown

Rockies channel where we could talk Rockies every day on the Lockdown every day

or club discord server. You also get ad free audio $5 a month $50 a year,

Lockdown Rockies dot supercast dot com. Check it out there for more details.

All right. So here's some good news as Mike Petriello writes here on MLB dot com ranking

all 30 teams by tiers one to nine. So it's a tradition. Mike says here and breaks down into

nine somewhat subjectively defined tier groups. That is what it's being broken down. So

the Dodgers ranked at the top, eyeing history here and then they say the world series

are bust teams, which are the blue jays, cubs, mariners, fillies, red socks, tigers, Yankees.

How did that group? Who are you the most excited to watch? I know if you've been watching

the show long enough, you know, I'm biased. I am very much on the mariners bandwagon

for my geographical location. Plus, I really like the story, really like the team as well.

I think it's going to be an interesting one, but all of those teams are going to be good,

and all of those teams are going to be interesting. The tier three non-playoff teams,

most likely to get there in 2026. These are teams with playoff odds north to 50% at fan graphs,

which are the Braves, Metts and the Orioles. Orioles I would like to see them make a run as well.

I think that would be fun. The AL, the AL East could be a real interesting division as it

often is next year. Though we always underrate you and always look bad duo, brewers and guardians

are in there. We'll see what those two teams do. Always interesting teams. Here's teams that are

in the 500 zones, the Astros, D-backs, Giants, Padres, Rangers, Rays, Reds. Let's say that seems

about right. It's kind of crazy to see the Astros trending down. I'm so used to the Astros

being so good and just being at the top of the headlines and being the evil empire, especially

with the scandal involving them. Now the Dodgers have just really made them. It just feels like

their era of dominance and mixed with the scandal, of course, moved on from that a little bit.

We'll see if they're able to bounce back. Still an interesting club there. But as we heard,

Lockdown Diamondbacks is very bullish about the team. I'm curious about these. I think sleeping on

the NL West here. I mean, maybe that's you're sitting there saying the 500 zone just because the NL West

might beat up on each other or quieter off seasons for these teams. But the NL West has been one of

the best divisions in baseball. Rockies excluded for a while now. So be curious to see how those

paying out and always written for the Reds too. I got to, you know, you got family ties to Ohio.

So, you know, always written for the Reds there. The tier six, though, what if you have a top five

pitcher and hitter zone, which is the Royals and pirates? They're going to be I think those two

teams certainly will be interesting. Tier seven on the right track and should be a lot of fun to

watch. That's where the athletics in Marlins go. That's where I want the Rockies to next year.

That's really where I want the Rockies to fall. You know, of course, we want to see not only

step in the right direction, but that's really what I hope the Rockies are this year. I hope they

are the surprise team that's much more enjoyable to watch. I just hope the quality of baseball that

the Rockies play this year is just a big step up from last year. I expected to be, you never know,

but if it's just bad baseball, if it's just unfun to watch, if it's just difficult and challenging

to watch, then that's really just going to be a big bummer here. And here's the tier eight. Here's

where the Rockos are. Lots of losses ahead, but finally headed in the right direction. Cardinals,

Rockies, Nationals, White Sox. And I just want to read a little bit here from what Mike says.

Here we have the three teams that lost more than 95 games last year. And one, the Rockies that

posted a wild 43 and 119 mark and was outscored by more runs than any team in modern history.

And yet we're moving them up a tier from last year's tier nine. It's still going to be a long season

full of a lot more losses and victories, but for some of these clubs for the first time in a very

long time, you can see the future plans starting to move along. Within these groups, there are probably

two sub tiers in both the Nationals and Rockies have we finally turned over baseball operations

to external hires after decades of being run more or less the same way, falling behind the rest

of the sport. Even that didn't play out exactly the same. Washington has gone for the youngest

front ash office staff in the game, while Colorado went for a more from a blast from the past,

Paul de Podesta to return to baseball after years in football. But the point is the same,

which is that both teams will have some badly needed new ideas from new faces. That's likely to

still be a pair that's still likely to be a pair of last place finishes, but at least it'll be

last place in service of something. And I mean, that's that's really the that is it's no surprise

there, right? That that is hopefully going to be the takeaway at the end of the season.

Hey, they lost a lot. They were still they still finishing last place in their division. They still

lost 90 plus games. But you take the moon, you take the changes in the off season, you hope for

that you take the developments in the breakouts and end of possible upsides of what might happen

with the roster during the year. You factor in the trade deadline. And then hopefully there's a

world that the Rockies can move up into the bad, but fun tier. And I know that's it's a baby step.

But if the baseball starts getting fun, then that means that that's how we know that the plan,

not only is it is it working, but the confidence is building with the team and the team's going to

be put is going to be in a better spot. And we feel like they're the teams actually moving in a

direction. I hope that next year we can actually start seeing and understanding the direction of the

team, the philosophy of the team. We've been told draft and develop. We've been told, you know,

we basically just stick to it the same thing. It's all going to pan out. The Rockies have never had

a direction and truly stuck with that direction until maybe now. It's still too early.

There's still a question marks about the depot S the track record, especially in the success of

this last job. But the point the point is I'm glad it's it's it's it's another moment of of

refreshment for the Rockies fan that the national perspective, the national perspective of the Rockies

and the changes that they've made and the new direction that they've started going in is one that

has people from the outside looking at it in a positive way. Especially when there's still two more

teams that are ranked below the Rockies here in the tier nine of what's the path forward with the

angels and the twins. So, but they they clarify they don't expect the teams to have the most losses

in baseball, but what is the direction? What is the plan? And the Rockies easily fit into that and

have fit into that and could easily slide back into that if we don't actually see things changing

as time goes on. It's just unfortunate that for the Rockies fan, you just have to give it more time.

There's no real other solution other than that. So, hey, but not not last, not technically the worst,

even though paper and projections wise, the Rockies still projected to be the worst team in baseball

this year by by some metrics there, but here's hoping that it's not going to be the Rockies.

Let's hope that they are the ones that are the surprise team and they hit their rock bottom and

they can look like the white socks and the athletics, at least a little bit more competitive here

and a little bit more aggressive on some acquisitions and trades and stuff. All right,

want to finish out the show with a little bit of some work from Purple Row talking about the

Rockies hitting the fastball. An important thing as we continue to monitor the development of the

roster throughout spring. Before we do that, though, I got to tell you about the folks that help

make this show possible and that includes MLB the show 2026. This week's MLB top 100 highlight is

brought to you by MLB the show 26 the latest from the beloved video game franchise. Each week,

we're highlighting the stars of MLB's top 100 players list. The elite names you'll be controlling

building around and going head to head with in MLB the show. Today, we're spotting. I think the

player is at the top of my list of player to watch this year and he comes in at number 15 on our

list Julio Rodriguez, the center fielder for the Seattle Mariners. I think Julio Rodriguez, if you

were building a dynasty team, if you were building a team from scratch, like you can in MLB the show

26 Julio Rodriguez would be at the top of the list of guys you want to build around. He can

he can do everything that you want from a baseball player. He's got the big bat. He's an elite

defender. He can steal bases and he's a massive personality, a perfect leader and guy to have

on your team and in your clubhouse. Hey, maybe you want to build a fantasy a fantasy draft

dynasty mode franchise mode with the Colorado Rockies and you want to pick up Julio Rodriguez

and you know, if the Mariners fans out there, this is the guy you build your franchise around and in

the show, you can do exactly that. Hey, not only can you see everything going on here and on the

MLB side of the show, you can check out the world baseball classic in the game as well. Take on

actual world baseball classic teams from all over the world with your diamond dynasty team and you

can do the road to the show. The best part of MLB the show put yourself in the shoes, become the

player of your dreams and take the Rockies to the world series as you go through college,

the minors and make your big league debut in road to the show. Will you make it to Cooper's town?

That's this week's MLB top 100 highlight presented by MLB the show where you can play,

manage and build with your favorite players and teams. If you love talking baseball,

you'll love playing it even more. Visit MLBtheShow.com slash Lockdown and use code Lockdown to unlock

a pack for use in diamond dynasty, internet connection required preorder now available March 17th

on PlayStation 5 Xbox Series S and X and Nintendo Switch rated E for everyone.

Lockdown Rockies here, back with you all for segment number three of today's episode of the show.

And thank you again for making us your first listen of the day. Hey, I wanted to finish up here

with a piece from Skylar Timmins. This is from Wednesday. And this is a little thing. When

you're looking for small details or things to be intrigued about during spring training,

this is the type of stuff that sticks out to me here. Let I want to read from this.

One of the biggest problems with the 2025 Colorado Rockies was hitting the fastball.

That was let's see and this was highlighting an issue. He talks about a piece that he wrote.

I believe we talked about it when they were covering it in May, but here's here's a little bit more.

Most things remain the same, but they did improve to the medium in terms of batting average in total

hits by the end of the season. The extreme still existed as they finished with the third highest

strikeout rate 20.5% fourth highest with rate 21.6% third fewest home runs 82 and fourth fewest balls

in play on the fastball. So they had the they struck out on fastballs 20.5% of the time,

whipped on them 21.6% of the time only hit fastballs for home runs 82 times and they had the

fourth fewest balls in play after the fastball. So here's what Skylar adds. In short, the team struggled

mightily against fastballs and couldn't generate much meaningful offense against them fully aware

of their problems. The Rockies new front office and coaching staff, including new hitting coach

Brett Pill had the task of helping the team cut down on the swings and misses and become a more

productive lineup across the board. It stands to reason that the team is working to catch up on the

fastball to mitigate some of the issues they were having and the early spring training returns

are promising. Entering Tuesday, so now this was this was posted on Wednesday, so just a little

bit of context here. Entering Tuesday, the Rockies offense has shown improvement in ranks among the

more productive teams in spring training with promising gains in strikeout and walk numbers.

So how are they doing with the fastball of this point camp? Thankfully, baseball

savon is provided insight via stat cast for our search today. A simple indicator of success will

always be batting average and the Rockies aren't doing too shabbily a few weeks in a camp.

Sporting a 290 average, the club ranks 9th and all of baseball right in line with the Seattle

Mariners and the Boston Red Sox. They are still well behind the San Francisco Giants who sit at a

dazzling 3.64 average on fastballs. What's interesting is that the Rockies have seen far fewer fastballs

than the majority of the top 10 teams in batting average. At this point in spring training, the league

average of fastball hitters have seen the league average of fastballs hitters have seen a 57.4%.

The Rockies have seen 55%, which ranks near the bottom of baseball despite seeing the ninth

most total pitches. An influx of breaking balls early in campus to be expected as pitchers try to

dial things in and experiment with new pitches, but the work the team has been able to do against

fastballs is promising. Making contact is priority number one to cut down on whiff rate, and the

Rockies are already making steady progress. At 18.4%, the Rockies have the fourth lowest whiff rate

against fastballs and baseball with a 16.7% strikeout rate, which is just below league average.

You have to hit the fastball. You can't struggle against a pitch that is just so versatile, so

useful, and usually the number one tool in the toolkit for a pitcher, at least it seems like

obviously a lot of pitchers now throwing the stuff basically fastballs with movements in terms

of sliders, cutters, sweepers, whatever you want to go with. But struggling when you're being

just challenged with some cheese, high velocity, high in tight fastball, or something like that,

that was what part of what we were talking about being a more entertaining team to watch.

When the Rockies would just get blown away, three pitches, and so many pitchers would be able to

just go right at the Rockies hitters, just attack them right away and not even blink.

That's why you have to not only do you have to be able to hit the fastballs for actual hits,

but spoiling the pitches, fighting them off, building out those counts,

and making sure that the pitches are executing and hitting their spots with the fastball,

and being able to work the counts enough where you can get them to miss with their fastballs

or draw a walk, or they throw the mistake pitch and throw it into the middle of the zone.

In order to be a great offense and a successful offense, this is one of those,

you know, when you're talking about little things, your little details,

this is an area you have to be successful because obviously it's very difficult and guys can come

up in pump 99 and 90s with movement. I'm not sitting there saying that I'm going to be up there

being able to hit any fastballs at a major league level. But when we're talking about more

competitive at bats, not being dominated and not being blown away by the fastball is going to be

crucial for the Colorado Rockies here. Back to Skylar here. In the brief sample size,

it's clear the Rockies are putting into practice what they are preaching about improving control

of the zone and taking advantage of the fastball. While coaching certainly plays a major part in

the growth personnel also have their role. The Rockies made it a point this off season to bring

in players with improved plate discipline and contact abilities. Willie Castro and Jake McCarthy

have proven capable in their careers at making contact, particularly against the fastball.

At his best in 2023, Edward Julian was a menace against fastballs and rookie hopeful TJ Rumpfield

made a career in the minors with elite plate discipline and contact skills. It's promising to

see prospects like Cole Kerrig and Charlie Condon topping the list of batting average here against

the fastball, which they were batting at 600 respectively. Ryan Ritter at 462,

Brett Sullivan, 500, Jake McCarthy, 429, Adi Alamador, 333, Zach Vintu 96, Jordan Beckett,

250, all on that charts there. So there's a lot more into this and goes in depth into the

different types of fastballs and more of the numbers. But I just wanted to highlight that because

that is one of those areas you are looking for for upside. You are looking for growth,

especially here in spring training, plate discipline and controlling that zone as they have talked

about will be the difference maker. It will be a big reason why the Rockies are either

really, really bad or better than people expect. Folks, that is going to do it for us here on

Lockdown Rockies. Thank you so much for making us your first listen of the day. For your second

listen of the day, go check out locked on MLB and the back to the bullpen podcast on the locked on

MLB feeds. Plus we got you covered with locked on Broncos, Ad Lynch, Nuggets and Buffs, all free

and streaming on your favorite streaming services. Folks, until next time, this is Paul Holden saying

so long from the Lockdown Rockies podcast.