Arizona Diamondbacks’ Rotation With Zack Greinke and Shelby Miller is the Best in the West

Mandatory Credit: Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

Colorado Rockies

The Rockies are going to be the poster child for home-grown talent in 2016. Last season, the Rockies proved to own one of the most abysmal rotations in baseball. It was even worse than the Diamondbacks’ rotation, if you can believe that. Yet, they did nothing in the off-season to improve the rotation.

What the Rockies are doing is crossing their fingers and praying that their recent early round pitching prospects can develop into successful Major League pitchers. Right now, they have Jorge De La Rosa, Jordan Lyles, Tyler Chatwood, and Chad Bettis as the meat and potatoes of the rotation.

That’s bad. That’s epic level bad.

They do have some guys nearing the show though, and each one is considered a high level prospect. Those guys include Jon Gray, Jeff Hoffman, Kyle Freeland, and Eddie Butler. Butler was the only one given any real time in 2015 and he did not pitch well (5.90 ERA, 1.82 WHIP in 79.1 innings). Hoffman is coming off injury and arrived in the Troy Tulowitzki trade with Toronto. Gray and Freeland are college draftees; both have a high ceiling.

The Rockies have decided to live and die by their young arms. Their rotation will most likely look something like this by mid-June, after the Super-2 date passes: De La Rosa, Lyles, Butler, Gray, Freeland, with Chatwood, Bettis and Hoffman working their way in and out all season.

All I picture in my mind writing this is Jason Bateman in Dodgeball: “It’s a bold strategy Cotton, let’s see if it pays off.”

Next: San Diego Padres