The Colorado Rockies had a weird past few years with regards to roster moves. The Rockies ownership seemed like they couldn’t decide if they wanted to tank or compete. But this past offseason the Rockies signed star utility outfielder Kris Bryant. Unfortunately, the Rockies only won 68 games and lost 94 games. This seems like a low win total for a team with a star like Bryant who helped the 2016 Cubs win a world series. As we’ll see the reason or part of the reason for the Rockies struggle was that Bryant spent 120 games on the IL. First, I’ll look at what Byrant did despite injury. Then I’ll look at CJ Cron who stepped up the offensive production for the Rockies.
Kris Bryant is a utilty outfielder and third baseman. He throws and bats right. Bryant was originally drafted out of highschool by the Toronto Blue Jays and then again in the 1st round out of the University of San Deigo. Bryant is 30 years old with 8 years of MLB experience. He signed with the Rockies this past offseason for 7 years 182 million dollars. Before we take a look at his stats, it should be noted Bryant only played less games in the 2020 COVID shortened season at 34. When Bryant did play, he actually played well:
A quick look at his stats just ignoring the small sample of 42 games, his slash line is respectable. HIs OPS is above average and his OPS+ also backs this up. It’s impressive that his batting average is actually a career high at .306. The next highest was in 2017 where he played 151 games as a Cub and hit .295. I would imagine Bryant could have a much bigger impact if he could have stayed healthy.
While there were other players who stepped up for the Rockies offensively, the best one was CJ Cron. Cron is a first baseman who throws and bats right. Cron is 32 years old with 9 years of MLB experience. Cron has a really awesome nickname “Big Fella”. Cron didn’t have his best season but did play a career high 150 games. Cron also has shown his consistent power hitting by reaching near 30 homeruns. Here are the full stats:
One alarming thing which is probably due his power stroke is the strikeout totals being the highest of his career. Cron had a better season last year but still reached career highs in RBI and triples. I think Cron would have done even better if his strikeout percentage didn’t rise 5 percent and his homer percentage dropped by nearly 2 percent. He also stopped walking as much, nearly 5 percent less all compared to last season.
If Kris Bryant and CJ Cron can return to form in the same season, I think the Rockies have a potent 1-2 punch in the middle of that lineup for at least a few years to come.
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Thanks to Baseball Reference and Baseball Savant for the statistics.
Technically Analytics 