THIS IS A GUEST ROCKPILE BY ANTHONY DEPNER<\/p>\n
While the 2025 Colorado Rockies will mainly be remembered negatively, two players who stood out as bright spots were Victor Vodnik<\/a> and Jordan Beck<\/a>.<\/p>\n Both players took a step forward in 2025 and found success in their respective roles. However, each still has areas of growth that need to be improved upon if they are to continue to provide value at the big-league level.<\/p>\n Identifying their strengths and weaknesses will provide a better look into what they must address heading into 2026.<\/p>\n For a bullpen that cycled through injuries and instability, Victor Vodnik emerged as one of the Rockies\u2019 most reliable arms. Across 50 2\/3 innings in 2025, he posted a 3.02 ERA with 49 strikeouts. His fastball averaged 98.7 mph, possessed a 54.3% groundball rate, and owned a changeup that opponents slugged a paltry .130 against. He was primarily a setup man, though he did end up with 10 saves filling in for an injured Seth Halvorsen. Surprisingly, he was better at home, having a 1.33 ERA compared to 4.94 ERA on the road.<\/p>\n He struggled to find control, posting a 12.1% walk rate and ranked in the second percentile in chase rate (22.7%), leading to him pitching behind in counts. This in turn led to him needing to pitch in the zone while being behind, leading to a 48.6% hard-hit rate and a .308 weighted On-Base Average (wOBA). Left-handed batters also proved to be an issue, hitting .260 with a .789 OPS against him.<\/p>\n Looking ahead into 2026, Vodnik will need to reduce his walk rate and generate more soft contact. This could be done by improving his command, increasing swing-and-miss, or adding some additional movement to his fastball.<\/p>\n His four-seam fastball averaged -1.2 inches vertical drop and -2.9 inches horizontal break compared to the average fastball in 2025. Even marginal gains could help his fastball turn hard contact into fly ball outs or soft ground balls. With new pitching coaches in 2026 bringing innovative ideas, Vodnik\u2019s potential could be unlocked further and cement him as the Rockies\u2019 primary late-inning option.<\/p>\n Jordan Beck\u2019s athleticism and power\/speed dynamic is reminiscent of a young Trevor Story in the outfield, and he reached the big leagues just two years after being drafted out of the University of Tennessee. After an injury-riddled rookie season, Beck settled in as the everyday left fielder in 2025 and produced a solid sophomore campaign, slashing .258\/.317\/.416 with 16 home runs and 19 stolen bases across 588 plate appearances.<\/p>\n While strikeouts remained an issue (29.6 K%), he improved his walk rate, up from 6.5% to 7.3%. Beck also increased his launch angle sweet-spot rate to 36.9% (74th percentile), leading to a higher line drive rate (21.7% up to 26.2%). However, breaking balls exposed him, as he whiffed at a 40.2% rate \u2013 a trend that followed him from 2024. And like many Rockies hitters, he suffered from the \u201cCoors Field Hangover,\u201d posting a .635 OPS on the road compared to his .814 OPS at home, though he did have eight home runs in both environments.<\/p>\n On the basepaths, Beck stole more bases overall in 2025 (19), but his success rate on attempts was only 70.4% compared to 87.5% the year prior. Defensively, he paired an above-average arm \u2013 leading the National League in assists (12) \u2013 with below-average range, finishing with -2 Outs Above Average.<\/p>\n For Beck to take another step in 2026, refinement is key.<\/p>\n Improving his approach against breaking pitches, specifically by laying off sliders and curveballs below the zone, would help him better hunt fastballs, which he handles well. Increased selectivity running the bases could help provide more base-running value, as he finished with a 48.9% extra base taken rate.<\/p>\n Finally, finding greater consistency in his power output is crucial, as averaging 33.7 AB\/HR limits his overall impact. If Beck can address these areas, he can further emerge as a cornerstone of the Rockies\u2019 outfield.<\/p>\n While the 2026 Colorado Rockies may suffer many more losses than wins, this season is more about wins in player development and increased productivity from the roster. Both Victor Vodnik and Jordan Beck taking another step toward would help lay the foundation for a more competitive future and give Rockies fans reason to believe in this new front office to usher in a new, hopefully more successful, era of Major League Baseball in Denver.<\/p>\n Texas Baseball: Former Longhorns reunite for alumni game, farm system for Colorado Rockies | Austin American Statesman<\/a><\/p>\n Danny Davis talks about the Texas Longhorns alumni game that was played last weekend, where the Rockies had roots running through it. Max Belyeu, Skyler Messinger, and Jack O\u2019Dowd played in the game while OF Jared Thomas was watching the game from the dugout as he recovers from hand surgery. Danny goes more in depth on each player\u2019s comments on last season and their relationships with each other as they have all gotten to pro ball.<\/p>\n Rockies camp opens soon! Here\u2019s what to know | MLB.com<\/a><\/p>\n This piece by Rockies beat reporter Thomas Harding goes over everything Rockies fans need to know heading into spring training. He goes over the schedule for spring training for the Rockies for both TV and radio stations, as well as the new faces on the team that fans will be seeing. He also mentions the top minor league prospects that will be invited but does make note that the non-roster invitees have not been officially announced.<\/p>\n Rockies New Pitching Coach Hire Offers Big Implications for Young Arms in 2026 | Sports Illustrated<\/a><\/p>\n The Colorado Rockies were busy this offseason, bringing in an entirely new pitching coach staff to help what was the worst rotation in baseball last season. Laura Lambert outlines the fresh set of eyes that Alon Leichman, Gabe Ribas, and Matt Buschmann can bring for this Rockies pitching staff that needs to increase strikeouts and lower earned runs allowed. She includes notes of the new pitchers that the Rockies have acquired this offseason and how their inclusion will be important as well.<\/p>\n Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines<\/a> when you\u2019re commenting. Thanks!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THIS IS A GUEST ROCKPILE BY ANTHONY DEPNER While the 2025 Colorado Rockies will mainly be remembered negatively,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":558024,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,167,52,4316,4,168,38579],"class_list":{"0":"post-558023","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-colorado","10":"tag-colorado-rockies","11":"tag-coloradorockies","12":"tag-mlb","13":"tag-rockies","14":"tag-rockpile"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/116024460355164075","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558023","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=558023"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/558023\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/558024"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=558023"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=558023"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=558023"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}