Pick Up All the Rockies!

Alas, we’ve made it to the final week of the season! If you’re trying to maintain a prize spot, reach a prize spot, or just keep playing until the end for respect and honor, it’s time to turn your attention to Rockies hitters. The team finishes the season with a full week of home games at hitter friendly Coors Field. Since they play a doubleheader on Tuesday, that’s seven games at the hitter’s haven! Most Rockies starters are owned in the majority of CBS leagues, but this trio is not and are in the starting lineup nearly every day.

Brendan Rodgers | CBS 12% Owned

It seems like so long ago, but Rodgers was once a top prospect. His player page still shows him as the team’s top prospect and 31st best overall back in 2020. With average to above average scouting grades across the board, he looked like a very solid player and potential excellent fantasy contributor playing half his games at Coors Field. Unfortunately, injuries have held him back and when he’s been in the lineup, meh is the perfect description of his offense.

With 50/60 Game Power and 55/55 Raw Power grades, combined with a Coors Field home, you would expect better than a career 11.6% HR/FB rate and .139 ISO. What’s surprising about the lack of power output is that he has still managed a maxEV of at least 111 MPH every season in the Majors, so he’s certainly capable of hitting the ball hard. His career 6.7% Barrel% isn’t very good, but it’s risen every season and sits at 8.3% this year over a small sample. A lot of the problem stems from his low FB%, which has never exceeded 30%. It’s impossible to barrel the ball and hit a homer if it’s being hit on the ground! It doesn’t make sense to be such a ground ball hitter in a park that inflates home runs.

So clearly Rodgers’ swing hasn’t taken advantage of his home park, which screams mechanical adjustment, as his maxEV suggests he does have the power necessary to lift the ball more often and do damage with those flies, rather than merely fly out. That power is in dire need of showing up for fantasy owners, as amazingly he has never even attempted a stolen base in about two full seasons worth of PAs.

Since he has batted second in five straight games, he’s clearly locked in there, which is a good spot to accumulate PAs for the week. He owns a career .344 wOBA at home versus just a .283 mark on the road, but oddly hasn’t shown much more power at home. It’s anyone’s guess if and when his power is going to show up (though I just checked scores as I type this and saw he homered today, as in Sunday). But for a week at home, he’s probably better than a lot of second basemen and MIs fantasy owners have been rolling with.

Elehuris Montero | 10% Owned

Of the three here, Montero’s playing time this week is sketchiest. He should be starting against all lefties, but it’s anyone’s guess if he’ll be in the lineup against a right-hander on any given day. He has started that majority of those games, but not all.

At age 25, Montero is no prospect and was last ranked just 16th back in 2022. However, with a 55/60 Raw Power grade, I’m interested for as long as he’s earning regular or mostly regular playing time. In the minors, he has shown big power and enjoyed his best performance yet while he was at Triple-A this year. There, his HR/FB rate shot up to 30.6%, ISO to .359, and his maxEV sat at 114.4 MPH, which is elite. He even took full advantage of that power by hitting fly balls at a rate above 40%. Oh, and he posted a sub-20% strikeout rate too, so he was striking out below the league average rate while displaying massive power. Put it all together, and you end up with 15 homers in just 163 PAs, essentially a 60+ homer pace over a full season.

It hasn’t been nearly as good in the Majors, of course, as his HR/FB rate in about half a season sits at just 13.2%, with a .155 ISO. Those aren’t the numbers you’d expect from a big power hitter playing half his games at Coors. While his maxEV sits at 110.5 MPH, his Barrel% is actually below Rodgers’ at just 6.5%. Another major red flag is that he simply hasn’t been able to make consistent contact. His strikeout rate is an ugly 37.4%, driven by a 20.4% SwStk%. That’s hard to do with Coors helping you out!

He actually debuted in 2022, so has played about two-thirds of a full season. His career splits are typical Coors-aided, as his home wOBA sits at .365, with a .208 ISO, while his away wOBA is at just .233 with a .142 ISO. He’s precisely the type you only start during these long homestands. Since he’s no sure thing to start all seven games this week, he’s a better play in daily transaction leagues where you could bench him if you notice he’s not in the starting lineup.

Brenton Doyle | 5% Owned

Doyle is another 25-year-old non-prospect, who ranked just 19th on their list heading into the year. However, with both 60/60 Raw Power and Speed grades, along with 55/60 Field grades helping to keep him in the lineup during offensive slumps, he may be interesting in fantasy leagues.

Doyle has shown excellent power in the minors, posting HR/FB rates between around 20% to nearly 26% from the Rookie league up to Double-A. That power hasn’t fully translated to the Majors yet, though, as his HR/FB rate has dipped to just 11.3% during his rookie season in the Majors. Once again, we find a good maxEV of 111 MPH, and actually the best Barrel% of this trio at 8.9%. Surely that should result in a better HR/FB rate than he has posted. Surprisingly, his ISO sits at just .135, as he has not been very adept at hitting doubles, with just 15 of them.

To make up for the lack of power, he has swiped 20 bases, so at least one of his 60/60 scouting grades is showing up as fantasy contributions. He’s even done that despite a weak .248 OBP, so imagine how many more attempts he would be at if he posted even just a .300 OBP!

Like Montero, strikeouts have been a major issue. But unlike Montero, Doyle has struggled to make contact throughout the majority of his minor league career. Since 2021 at High-A, he has posted a strikeout rate over 31% and his SwStk% has never fallen below 16.5%. To make matters worse, he rarely walks, taking a walk just 5.5% of the time. It has led to a laughably bad 22 walks versus 141 strikeouts. The Rockies have put up with the poor offense thanks to his fantastic defense. He leads all of baseball in UZR, and it’s not particularly close, and is near the top in OAA, RAA, and Def. Because of that strong defense, he continues to start every day in center field, despite not hitting a lick. In fact, he has posted the lowest wOBA among all hitters with at least 400 PAs.

What’s surprising here is that Doyle has actually performed worse at home than on the road, posting just a .234 wOBA at home, but also a poor .268 wOBA on the road. Still, the samples here are small, and I wouldn’t let these splits deter you from picking up Doyle to take advantage of the homestand. This is especially true if you need stolen bases.