June Review and Player Rankings

June Record: 9-18

The Rockies followed up a 10-18 May with a 9-18 June. It's almost impossible to believe they finished April at a very respectable 11-11, isn't it?

Overall Record: 30-47

June Swing Games: 4-3

Wins (Games They Could Have Lost)

• June 3rd vs Los Angeles Dodgers (Read the Recap)
• June 15th @ Detroit (Read the Recap) 
• June 25th vs Washington (Read the Recap)
• June 28th vs Washington (Read the  Recap)

Losses (Game They Should Have Won)

• June 10th vs Los Angeles Angels (Read the Recrap)
• June 13th vs Oakland (Read the Recrap)
• June 20th @ Philadelphia (Read the Recrap) 

Again, the Rockies record in 50/50 swing games looks a lot better than their overall mark because a high percentage of their losses are games they're completely out of early due to the starting pitching.

Simply stated, this isn't your typical win 60, lose 60, how do they split up the other 42 games team. It's a win 50, lose 90, pray the offense keeps them from losing 100 team.

Highlights of the Month: How about the entire 8-run 10th inning in Detroit? Sound good?

Start of the Month: For the second month in a row, Christian Friedrich gets the nod thanks to his seven shutout innings against the Arizona Diamondbacks back on June 4.

Hard to believe it was only four short weeks ago when things were relatively normal and the Rockies were treating their major league pitchers like they were major league pitchers. Oh how I wish for those times to return. (Read the Recap)

Things I Would Change: Simple. I would call up Drew Pomeranz immediately (which is sounds like they plan on doing). I would eliminate this silly paired pitching/four-man rotation/whatever the hell you want to call it gimmick. My starting five would be Pomeranz, Friedrich, Jeff Francis, maybe Tyler Chatwood, and... oh my God, there really are no other options.

OK, but still, we need these young guys learning how to pitch like normal big leaguers. If they want to do a silly gimmick to fill the last two slots, fine. But I prefer Pomeranz and Friedrich going every 5th day because we need to be acclimating, developing and evaluating them like a big league organization.

Player Rankings (All players that appeared in more than one game during June)

1. Carlos Gonzalez 
2. Matt Belisle
3. Rex Brothers
4. Tyler Colvin
5. Josh Roenicke
6. Chris Nelson
7. Matt Reynolds
8. Marco Scutaro
9. Dexter Fowler
10. Jordan Pacheco
11. Adam Ottavino
12. Todd Helton
13. Jeff Francis
14. Wil Nieves
15. Wilin Rosario
16. Christian Friedrich
17. Michael Cuddyer 
18. Rafael Betancourt
19. Jonathan Herrera
20. Eric Young Jr.
21. Jason Giambi
22. D.J. LeMahieu
23. Alex White
24. Guillermo Moscoso
25. Jeremy Guthrie
26. Esmil Rogers
27. Josh Outman

Did not qualify: Troy Tulowitzki, Juan Nicasio, Zach Putnam, Edwar Cabrera, Carlos Torres

Congratulations to Josh Outman for doing the impossible by finishing behind Guillermo Moscoso, Jeremy Guthrie and Esmil Rogers. That's just... remarkable...in every possible awful way. That said, I don't blame him entirely, because he's being horribly miscast in this horribly thrown together pitching scheme.

At the top, Carlos Gonzalez remains #1 for now and for possibly ever. He will be the Rockies lone all-star representative this season... and rightfully so. Tyler Colvin also earned a top five spot with a huge month in limited playing time. Yes, he still strikes out too much, but when he connects the ball explodes off his bat and often leads to instant offense.

The rest of the top five is made up of relievers. Matt Belisle is about as reliable as it gets in his role, and when you step best and look at his consistency over the past three seasons, there might be a damn good argument to make for him being the most effective pitcher Colorado has ever employed. Josh Roenicke is a guy I like to view as Matt Belisle in training, so that would be a cool. And how good has it been to see this version of Rex Brothers? There's still so much upside there it's scary.

And the last thing I'd like to mention is how well Chris Nelson has played over the past two weeks. Here's a guy I was honestly ready to give up on, and the Rockies may have been ready too had Troy Tulowitzki returned on schedule. But Nelson received an extension so to speak, and he's making the most of it right now. And it all really started in Detroit when you could him focusing on driving the ball to the opposite field. He's a totally different hitter since then.

More Rockies thoughts await you if you follow me on Twitter: @Townie813 & @HeavenHelton