Colorado’s Playoff Rotation

Congratulations to the Colorado Rockies, who clinched the NL Wild Card with a victory yesterday. Now that they’re in the playoffs, they just have one small problem – figuring out what their rotation should look like.

The Rockies have a problem most teams would love to have. Their five starting pitchers – Ubaldo Jimenez, Aaron Cook, Jason Marquis, Jason Hammel, and Jorge de la Rosa – have combined for +19 WAR, which is the main reason they’re going to the playoffs in the first place. Cook is the low man on the totem pole with 2.1 WAR, but that’s a function of injury related struggles and a stint on the DL. Over the last few years, Cook has established himself as a reliable, high quality starting pitcher.

You just don’t need five starting pitchers in a playoff series, however. So, one member of Colorado’s rotation is going to head to the bullpen, and figuring out who that should be isn’t as easy as it is for most clubs.

Jimenez is the #1, clearly. He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball. After that, it gets muddier.

Cook should probably be the #2. He’s been very good in two starts since returning from the DL, and you probably don’t want to mess with a guy’s routine who is coming off an arm problem.

That leaves de la Rosa, Hammel, and Marquis to fight for two spots. All of them have experience out of the bullpen. All of them provide different qualities as a starter. Hammel is the guy who pounds the strike zone. de la Rosa is the guy who racks up strikeouts. Marquis is the groundball specialist. They’ve all had pretty similar years, with their FIPs ranging from 3.73 to 4.10. And they have all checkered history before this season.

I’d go with Hammel and de la Rosa, personally. Marquis would give the bullpen something it doesn’t have right now – a guy to come in and get a ground ball in order to induce a DP or a play at the plate. The Rockies have relievers who can do other things, but they don’t have a sinker specialist in relief. Marquis would provide an option for Jim Tracy if he finds himself in a situation where he needs a groundball in a high leverage situation.

However, I’m not sure there’s a wrong answer here. You could make an argument for all three guys. No matter what is decided, someone isn’t going to be happy, but that’s the life of having too many quality starters in October. There are worse problems to have.