Last year, I won the bidding for Matt Holliday in the NYC-based UBA league, an NL-only roto league. I won the bidding with a bid of $50, as I expected Holliday to come close to his 2007 performance: 36-137-11-.340. That and the fact that I had lost the bidding on Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins prior to Holliday's name coming up. I wanted a hitter who played in a hitter's park, and I got one.
Little did I know that Holliday's 2008 performance would reflect big drop offs in HRs and RBIs, yet he almost tripled his SB output from 11 to 28. Holliday's HRs dropped from 36 in 2007 to 25 in 2008, his RBIs from 137 to 88. He maintained a high BA but hitting .320 in 2008.
His performance got me looking at the performance of the rest of the Rockies lineup in 2008. I figured if their best player saw big drops in the power categories, the rest of the team probably saw the same drop-offs. For the most part, I was right. And the reason....the humidor.
Here is a sampling:
Garrett Atkins
2007: 25-111-.301
2008: 21-99-.286
Brad Hawpe
2007: 29-116-.291
2008: 25-85-.283
Then there is Chris Iannetta who broke out in 2008 by hitting 18 HRs after hitting only 4 in 2007. But, 7 of his HRs were hit in the road. In his career, Iannetta has hit 24 HRs-12 at home and 12 on the road.
We roto/fantasy owners have come to expect the Rockies hitters to provide us with solid power totals year in and year out, but has the time come to lower the value of the Rockies hitters due to the use of the humidor at Coors Field?
Well, I for one, say yes. The Rockies used to lead the majors in runs scored every year, but over the last decade they have seen their runs scored drop from 968 in 2000 to 747 in 2008.
On the flip side, Rockies pitchers have benefitted from the use of the humidor. In 2000, Rockies pitchers had a team ERA of 5.26 and gave up 221 HRs. In 2008, Rockies pitchers had a team ERA of 4.77 and gave up 148 HRs. Is it time to draft some of the Rockies starters in 2009?
It is quite obvious the use of the humidor has had a huge impact on the value of Rockies hitters and pitchers over the last several years.
Aaron Cook for a $1 anyone?