Colorado\u2019s sweep of the Marlins,<\/a> the bullpen allowed zero runs over 12 2\/3 innings.<\/p>\nStill skeptical? You say that the wind was blowing in at Wrigley Field? You say that Miami\u2019s loanDepot Park is a pitchers\u2019 paradise and the Marlins are awful? You say that when the weather heats up at Coors, the bullpen will melt down? I get it.<\/p>\n
Colorado\u2019s current eight-man relief crew has a combined ERA of 3.21, and that includes veteran right-hander Tyler Kinley\u2019s 6.04 ERA. But Kinley, he of the magical vertical slider, has posted a 2.45 ERA over his last 11 appearances. A month ago, his ERA was 8.79, and I thought he was washed up. But the exit velocity against him is 84.5 mph, well below the league average of 88.5 MPH. Kinley\u2019s hard-hit percentage of 29.3 is well below the league average of 34.3%. He\u2019s inducing a lot of weak contact.<\/p>\n
Middleman Jake Bird is one of the best relief pitchers in baseball. Through 26 appearances, the right-hander has a 1.53 ERA with 42 strikeouts in 35 1\/3 innings. Middle relievers don\u2019t make All-Star teams, but Bird has been sensational.<\/p>\n
Former manager Bud Black told me over the winter that rookie right-hander Zach Agnos had the right stuff and the right mentality to be a big-league closer. Agnos is now the Rockies\u2019 closer, and he\u2019s thriving.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a small sample size, but Agnos has a 1.50 ERA over 16 appearances (18 innings) with four saves in four chances. His WHIP is a minuscule .083, and teams are hitting just .200 against him. In the age of 100 mph fastballs, Agnos doesn\u2019t blow away hitters with heat, but his 95.8 mph fastball is hot enough and he knows how to command it. Plus, Agnos is a four-pitch pitcher who generates a lot of weak contact. Still, he\u2019ll be tested in the coming month as teams get a book on him.<\/p>\n
Right-hander Seth Halvorsen brings the firepower. His four-seam fastball averages 101.1 mph. Over his last two outings, he threw 17 of 32 pitches 100 MPH or faster. Still, Halvorsen\u2019s been inconsistent. He has three saves and two blown saves, a 4.38 ERA, a 1.459 WHIP, and an 11.4% walk rate. Those numbers will improve if the right-hander commands his fastball, split-finger change and slider better.<\/p>\n
Right-handers Jimmy Herget (3.03 ERA), Juan Mejia (3.07) and Victor Vodnik (2.92) have given Colorado some quality depth.<\/p>\n
Who knows how long I\u2019ll remain bullish on the bullpen?\u00a0 Like I said, the Rockies are flawed, and they\u2019re weird. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me to see the offense heat up in June, July and August, while the overworked relievers start getting scorched.<\/p>\n
But during this Rockies\u2019 season of discontent, the bullpen deserves credit for the job it\u2019s done.<\/p>\n
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Rockies are a weird and flawed team. They\u2019ve stumbled and bumbled their way to a 12-50 start…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85999,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2405],"tags":[5,1487,167,52,4316,1009,1119,853,4,1027,168,185,1106,5046,738,10338],"class_list":{"0":"post-85998","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-colorado-rockies","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-bud-black","10":"tag-colorado","11":"tag-colorado-rockies","12":"tag-coloradorockies","13":"tag-coors-field","14":"tag-jake-bird","15":"tag-latest-headlines","16":"tag-mlb","17":"tag-more-rockies-news","18":"tag-rockies","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-tyler-kinley","21":"tag-victor-vodnik","22":"tag-wrigley-field","23":"tag-zach-agnos"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85998","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=85998"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85998\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}