No Hope for the Future of Baseball in Colorado
Trevor Phipps
With wildfires raging away and drought conditions continuing in Colorado at a record pace, I’m not the only one to experience the summer blues.
In fact, it has been one of the worst summers when you combine the wildfires with the loss of local baseball.
Normally, my woes of heavy traffic and brutally hot weather during the summer season go away when I’m munching on a hot dog with a cold beverage in my hand ,while watching a live baseball game. However, this year is the first season since 2020, when there hasn’t been any local baseball action to watch.
Now that the Rocky Mountain Vibes have officially left Colorado Springs, there has been a definite void. With no baseball available to watch live without heading to the Denver metro area, I have had to change what I do in my spare time.
I did enjoy watching some soccer like I never have before, but that really hasn’t cured my baseball fever. To make up for it, I started to watch the Colorado Rockies on TV about any time it was on. Luckily, or maybe it was a turn of bad fate, I found a free channel on my cable televising every game.
However, most of the time I tune in, I am disappointed. Don’t get me wrong ,the team has been hit or miss. And I have seen them win against decent teams.
But forcing myself to watch Rockies games has been sad. For example, the other day I was at a local watering hole, and I asked the bartender to turn on the game.
The game against the Washington Nationals had just started and the score was 0 to 0. But then the first pitch made by the Rockies resulted in a three-run homerun to put the Nationals up 3-0 in the top of the first inning. Not surprisingly, the Rockies went on to lose the game.
Now many fans I talk to get tired of hearing me complain, as most gave up on the Rockies a long time ago. But while the Rockies’ poor play isn’t new, my disappointment this season has reached a peak.
During the off-season local sportscasters painted a fairly optimistic picture of how the Rockies 2026 season could turn out. The entire city seemed to gain excitement when the Rockies announced they were hiring a new top dog to run the team.
The off-season hire was the first time that the team ever ventured outside of the organization to fill one of its top positions. The team gained new coaches and several new players that fans hoped would bring a new energy to the team.
In addition, fans got even more excited when the Walton/Penner group, who own the Denver Broncos (and Walmart) purchased a 40 percent stake in the team. But there just hasn’t been any positive results, although the team will likely end with a better record than the disastrous 2025 season.
Rockies Threatening to Become Major League Baseball’s Worst Team
At the All-Star break, the Rockies were officially the worst team in Major League Baseball. At press time, the team showcased a dazzling 40-62 record. This tally ties them in last place with the Los Angeles Angels who were at 40-61.
The Rockies did send one player to the All-Star Game though. Rockies Catcher Hunter Goodman earned his second consecutive All-Star selection after launching 27 home runs in the first half of the season. And Hunter is vying to win the League’s Home Run title. Good luck Hunter.
But having a few good players just hasn’t been enough. The Rockies do have one of the best offenses in the league. The team sits in the top of the league when it comes to overall batting average and total hits.
But the team has continued to be plagued with poor pitching that seems to be the tune of the franchise every year since they started. Your batters can make good plays and get fans excited, but strong pitching is the key to winning baseball games. The challenges of pitching at Coors’ Field just elude every hurler who stands on the mound for the Rockies.
And even though the team competes well in the MLB when it comes to hitting, their poor pitching is what has made them stuck on the bottom of the barrel. Currently, the Rockies pitching staff is statistically the worst in professional baseball. The team lingers at the bottom of the league when it comes to ERA, strikeouts, and hits allowed.
With a pitching staff that bad, I think it’s safe to say that the Rockies won’t be improving any time soon. In fact, BaseballReference.com gives them less than a 0.1 percent chance to make the playoffs.
So, what is the answer?
Do you sacrifice having the league’s best offense to try to invest heavily in the pitching staff? Some say that the better answer is to keep investing in offense, but it hasn’t seemed to have panned out.
I think the only way that the Rockies could improve going forward is with new ownership. Rockies fans everywhere should be crossing their fingers that the Broncos’ owners purchase a controlling stake in the team.
After seeing what the Penners have done with the Broncos, fans have hope that they might be able to do the same with the state’s pro baseball franchise. But would they really want to control a team that looks so bad on paper?
