Tuesday Rockpile: One month in: The Rockies, the White Sox, and . . . the Orioles?

Colorado Rockies news and links for Tuesday, April 29, 2025

Over the weekend, the baseball discourse took a strange turn. Here’s a sample from Ken Rosenthal on Monday:

The Orioles’ 10-17 record is the third-worst in the majors, ahead of only the Chicago White Sox (7-21) and Colorado Rockies (4-23). Their 5.83 rotation ERA is also the third-worst, ahead of only the Miami Marlins and Rockies.

That the Rockies and White Sox are bad is just a fact. (Mac Wilcox wrote a comparison last week.) But I did not expect to see the Orioles — a team I really like! — included in the comparison.

Criticism of the Orioles front office began in the offseason when the general consensus was the team had not done enough to improve around its promising young core. As Darragh McDonald wrote in mid-March, “There was some hope that the Orioles would become big offseason players in the first winter under new owner David Rubenstein. That didn’t exactly come to pass, though the O’s still showed a bit more aggression than they have in a while.”

Early in the season, the results from those decisions have not been promising.

As my Purple Row colleague Skyler Timmins pointed out in our Slack channel, apparently, the Orioles are pursuing the same strategy as the 2018 Rockies: refusing to pay for players to supplement a talented young core.

Mike Elias, if you’re reading, do not repeat the mistakes of the Rockies front office. That approach only leads to grief and suffering.

Photo by Diamond Images via Getty Images

Just to be clear at the outset, the early-season disappointing Orioles are absolutely not on the same historically bad track the Sox and Rockies are. However, given these teams’ early struggles, it might prove interesting to explore where they are now compared to each other and the rest of MLB.

(All numbers are current as of Monday morning, April 28, 2025, with the caveat that we are still in small-sample-size territory.)

Win-loss records

Obviously, the Rockies have the worst record in baseball. Note just how far behind the Orioles the Rockies are — despite a disappointing win total, the O’s have still won more than twice as many games. But the Birds lag well behind the AL East-leading New York Yankees (17-11) and even the fourth-place Toronto Blue Jays (13-15).

Currently, the Rockies are 14 games behind the NL West-leading San Francisco Giants (19-10) while the White Sox are 11 games out from the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers (18-10).

Takeaways: The Orioles may be disappointing, but the Rockies would give quite a lot to be where the Birds are right now.

Historical note: Last year at this time, the Rockies were 7-20 and the White Sox were 5-22. That means the 2025 Rockies are significantly worse than they were a year ago and slightly worse than the historically-bad White Sox.

Hitting

Let’s consider some offensive numbers.

Collectively, the Orioles have hit 33 home runs (tied for ninth in MLB) while the Rockies have 23 (23rd) and the Sox have 22 (25th). Leading the league are the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers, both with 45 dingers, while the Kansas City Royals have hit the fewest, a measly 15.

As for individuals, Cedric Mullins has hit six home runs for the O’s, Jordan Beck leads the Rox with five, and Andrew Benintendi has four for the Sox.

Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images

In terms of batting average, the Orioles are 27th (.233), the Rockies are 28th (.213), and the Sox are dead last (.211). Looking at OBP, the Orioles are 25th (.297), and the Rockies and Sox are tied at 27th (.286). Add to that SLG: Baltimore is 19th (.380), the Rockies are 25th (.349), and the Sox, again, come in last (.326).

The Orioles, it turns out, are better than the Rockies, but not by a lot, and none of these teams is very good offensively.

What about strikeouts?

The Rockies lead baseball in K% (28.7%), Baltimore is fourth (23.8%), and the White Sox come in 11th (23.2%). Michael Toglia (39.6%, third in MLB) and Ryan McMahon (36.4%, fourth) are well know for their free-swinging ways. Luis Robert Jr. leads the Sox in this category (31.5%, 12th), while Gunnar Henderson swings the most for the Orioles (29.1%, 24th).

Takeaways: First, in terms of offense, the Orioles have a higher ceiling than the Rockies or White Sox do, so I would expect improvement on that front. Second, strikeouts are absolutely killing a Rockies offense that already misses offensive contributions from Brenton Doyle and Ezequiel Tovar.

Stolen bases

Believe it or not, the White Sox lead these teams in terms of stolen bases with 20 (16th in MLB) followed by the Orioles’ 15 (24th) and the Rockies’ 14 (26th).

Part of the Rockies’ poor showing on this front stems from Doyle’s absences due to health and personal reasons. Plus, a team that cannot actually get on base will find it difficult to steal bases, and the Rockies are not getting on base.

Leading the league in this category are the Chicago Cubs with 44 while the Athletics bring up the rear with nine.

Robert Luis Jr.’s 10 stolen bases lead the Sox (third in MLB) while Cedric Mullins has five, and Jordan Beck has four.

Photo by Jason Miller/Getty Images

Takeaways: This was never going to be a strong point for the Rockies, but good for the Sox.

Pitching

The Orioles were roundly criticized for their failure to shore up their pitching, and the early results suggest the critics were right.

Currently, their starting rotation has a 5.83 ERA (28th) while the Rockies starters own the cellar (6.42 ERA). The best ERA goes to the Sox respectable 3.99 ERA (16th).

Shane Smith of the Sox has a 2.30 ERA followed by Tomoyuki Sugano (3.54), and Ryan Feltner (3.86)

Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images

And the bullpens? Here, Colorado comes in 17th (3.98 ERA) while the Sox are 20th (4.28 ERA), and the Birds are 24th (4.75 ERA)

The best relievers with at least 10.0 IP? Bryan Baker has an impressive 0.90 ERA, Jake Bird is back (1.08), and Mike Vasil is holding his own (1.17).

Takeaways: Keep in mind, it’s early in the season, so the Rockies young relievers are rested and ready. That will change as the season wears on, and they get more innings on those arms.

Defense

We’ve got a number of metrics to work with here, but let’s start with DRS.

The Sox have two (19th), the Orioles have -7 (25th), and the Rockies are a dismal -11 (26th).

Two seems to be the operative individual number: Ryan Mountcastle, Ryan McMahon, Michael A. Taylor, Matt Thaiss, and Miguel Vargas all have 2 DRS.

Photo by Nick Cammett/Diamond Images via Getty Images

The best defense in the game? That goes to the Tampa Bay Rays (28 DRS) and the Athletics have a mind-numbing -33 DRS. (How does that even happen?)

What about Outs Above Average? Here, the Sox are 13th (1), the Rockies are 25th (-5), and the Orioles are 27th (-8).

Takeaways: I suspect these poor numbers for the Rockies have a great deal to do with the absences of Doyle and Tovar. Still, Dick Monfort predicted possibly one of the greatest defenses ever. While I expect the numbers to improve, this will not be a stellar defense.

Closing thoughts

What are the easy takeaways?

First, the White Sox have some bright spots (and their own front office issues). They look to be less-bad than they were in 2024 but still not good. Second, the concerns about the Orioles are well founded. How they choose to resolve this (or not) will be a story to watch. (Seriously, Mike Elias, do not repeat the mistakes of the 2018 Rockies.)

And the Rockies? They were never going to be a good team this season, but their chances have been hobbled by a roster that struggles to hit, an already exhausted pitching staff, and unrelenting injuries.

We also know that the Rockies are on track to be an historically bad team.

Whether they turn it around or score a dubious baseball history win will be a story to watch.

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This week on the internet

Sunday marked Dinger’s birthday.

Why exactly was Southpaw there when no other MLB mascots were? He was like the person who goes to the party and doesn’t really know anyone but is planning to just get free food.

Still, Happy Birthday, Dinger!

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“Besting” the 2024 Chicago White Sox | FanGraphs

Now that we have a better sense of just how bad the 2025 Rockies may be, Dan Szymborski asked ZiPS to revisit its earlier projection when comparing the Rockies to the White Sox. He writes, “The Rockies simply have a lot of saving throws that could lead to more positive outcomes this year. The start makes it possible that the Rockies will match the 2024 Sox for futility, but when you watch Colorado, your eyes aren’t physically forced to stare blurrily into middle distance at the Stygian maw.” After all, as he points out, it is really hard to lose this many baseball games.

The Chatter’s Box: Jordan Beck Talks to The Rockies Insider | Just Baseball

Jordan Beck spoke with Patrick Lyons about hitting fiver homers in two days.

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