The Rockies took an unusual approach to recruiting pitchers this year: They didn’t.
They engaged in talks with most free-agent starters, as does just about every team, but new president of baseball operations Paul DePodesta and his lieutenants stopped short of trying to convince anyone who wasn’t immediately interested. Thirty-three years into baseball’s experiment at a mile above sea level, pitchers know what they are getting: Coors Field has a career ERA of 5.61. It has allowed the most runs in the sport since 1990, despite not opening until ’95. Kyle Tucker, who just got $60 million a year from the Dodgers, had an .841 OPS last year. The average hitter at Coors had an .828. It was hard to blame the pitchers who laughed and hung up. They wanted the ones who didn’t.
