Colorado Rockies news and links for Tuesday, July 16, 2024
For the third straight season, the Rockies didn’t have a representative in the Home Run Derby on Tuesday night.
Considering the breakout season Michael Toglia is having, and a slugger the Rockies selected in the 2024 MLB Draft, hopefully, the trend could end sooner than later.
While it’s not every year, the Rockies have had competitor in the annual homer contest 14 of their 32 seasons, including two players (Justin Morneau and Troy Tulowitzki) in 2014. There have been long stretches without a Rockies slugger, like 2002-2006, 2008-2011 and the current stretch.
Trevor Story was the last Home Run Derby participant and he made it count with 20 homers in the Coors Field All-Star celebrations in 2021, even though he didn’t advance past the first round. (For a complete history, check out Purple Row’s breakdown of Rockies Derby history from 2021).
The Rockies recent homerfest against the Mets could be reason to believe that things are slowiy changing for the Rockies.
In the final series before the All-Star break, the Rockies set a franchise record by hitting 12 homers in a three-game series at Citi Field. This was notable for many reasons, the most exciting being that it happened on the road. The other most encouraging factor is that the Rockies hit six dingers on Sunday, half of which came off the bat of Toglia — in consecutive at-bats nonetheless.
Perhaps the team home run derby the Rockies unleashed on the Mets will be a turning point not only in generating more Home Run Derby participants, but also in bringing back the power surge the team was once known for and depends on for success.
While his long-term staying power and consistency has yet to be determined, switch-hitting Toglia is certainly seizing his chance to be the Rockies next first baseman — one that could bring power back to a position that saw Home Run Derby participation from Rockies Todd Helton (2001) and Morneau (2014).
The season Toglia is having is impressive. At the All-Star break, he has 16 homers, including six in his last seven games. Even if it’s impossible to continue at that clip, that power surge is notable just because he’s capable of the streaks big home-run hitters display. On top of that, Toglia has posted 16 homers in only 51 games (173 at-bats) for a jaw-dropping 11 at-bats per homer.
Following MLB’s standards of needing to have 3.1 plate appearances per scheduled game to qualify for individual leaderboards, Toglia has only 192 PA, which puts him about 109 short. It’s still worth seeing how he measures up to that leaderboard regardless.
Compared to the eight Home Run Derby competitors, Toglia has more homers than Alex Bohm (11) and the same as runner-up Bobby Witt Jr. His average exit velocity of 92.9 mph is third behind only Gunnar Henderson (93.8) and Marcell Ozuna (93.4). His 43.8% of no doubters, home runs that would be home runs in any MLB park, is third to only Witt’s 75% and Pete Alonso’s 52.6%.
Toglia has a small sample size, but if his numbers hold, he will prove he belongs in the top tier of MLB’s power hitting category. He could bring a Rockie back to not only the Home Run Derby, but perhaps the top-10 HR leaderboards as well.
On a side note, the lone Colorado All-Star, Ryan McMahon, also has numbers that aren’t too far off from the Derby hitters. Ezequiel Tovar and Brenton Doyle could also join the ranks if they continue to trend upward in their power at the plate.
More help could be on the way thanks to the Rockies top 2024 draft pick — Georgia slugging corner infielder Charlie Condon, who led the NCAA with 37 homers in the 2024 college baseball season.
In the meantime, perhaps there’s hope that Toglia, as well as McMahon, Tovar and Doyle, are bringing homers back to the Rockies and it could launch at least one player into the national spotlight as a member of a Home Run Derby in the near future.
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Rockies’ All-Star Ryan McMahon finds balance, on and off the field | Denver Post ($)
Patrick Saunders has a great feature on the Rockies third baseman, Ryan McMahon, who makes his All-Star debut tonight. His ability to juggle baseball and family, especially with a five-month-old daughter at home, could be part of his career year — at least that what his wife, Natalie, says.
It’s not often the Rockies get a shoutout as the best of anything, so when it happens, it has to be acknowledged. In the top nine best things from the first round of the MLB Draft, Jim Bowden put the Rockies at No. 3 for their No. 3 pick of Charlie Condon. Bowden has Condon for a power hitter that can hit 40 homers a year, explaining that “Plugging Condon’s bat into the middle of their lineup, with half his games coming at homer-friendly Coors Field, should be a game-changer for the Rockies in the coming years.”
Rockies Claim Antoine Kelly, Designate Josh Rogers | MLB Trade Rumors
The Rockies picked up former Texas Ranger Antoine Kelly on Monday. The 24-year-old lefty was trending high when he pitched in the 2022 Futures Game but has struggled this season in the Texas farm system with a problem the Rockies bullpen is all too familiar with: a high walk rate and not enough strikeouts. Although he’s on the 40-man roster, which led to Josh Rogers being DFAed, he was also optioned to the Arizona Complex League Rockies.
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