Paul DePodesta made a name as one of Billy Beane’s acolytes during the Moneyball era and in 2004, at the age of 31 became the Dodgers’ GM. He was hounded by the musty old LA Times sportwriters (who called him “Google Boy) and local LA media for the two seasons he lasted in the job — one local radio host summoned all of his brain cell to coin the name ”Paul Stupid-desta.“ He landed on his feet with the Padres and then the Mets before leaving MLB altogether. In January 2016, he became the ”chief strategy officer” of the NFL’s Cleveland Browns and proceeded to spend 9 years further burying the wholly irrelevant franchise while introducing the NFL to SQL.
So, when the Colorado Rockies — a franchise that hasn’t had a winning season since 2018 and has lost 629 games over the previous 7 seasons —set out to hire someone from outside the organization to run the operation, DePodesta was at the top of their list, naturally. He has similarly introduced the Rockies to Computer and it seems like it’s going… okay? They’re 20-37 as they prepare to host the loserly San Francisco Giants in Coors Field for the first time this season, and while that’s definitely not good, it’s a vast improvement over where they were a year ago. Their record through 57 games going back to 2019:
2025: 9-48
2024: 21-36
2023: 24-33
2022: 25-32
2021: 23-34
2020: 25-32
2019: 30-27
There’s bad, there’s awful, and then there’s whatever the Rockies have been. It’s not pleasant to look at and it’s only palatable when they’re losing to your favorite team. Even with the DePodesta providing his “genius” as President of Baseball Operations— and with Josh Byrnes back in the org as GM (he’d been their AGM at the turn of the century) following successful stints with the Red Sox, Diamondbacks, Padres, and Dodgers — they’re still the worst lineupe in the sport (81 wRC+) with the worst team ERA in the sport (5.18). Their 229 runs scored isn’t last (it’s 21st) but that’s the extent of the Coors Field effect. They still don’t hit for power (.135 ISO — 24th) or walk much (7.6 BB% — 29th) and they strike out a lot (24.3 K% — 28th). They are tied with the Giants in home runs with 49. Their team batting average of .241 is 15th, though, not too far behind the Giants’ .245 (10th).
They’re just 6-19 in May with a -70 run differential. The Giants are 9-16 with a -28.
So, while the Rockies are worse than the Giants both on paper and in reality, they’re probably a lot closer in quality than Giants fans want to admit and Rockies fans might be surprised to see.
They didn’t do much in the offseason, but their “big” free agent acquisitions have made impacts:
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INF Willi Castro (2 years, $12.8 million) hasn’t hit much (77 wRC+), but has been great on defense (+1.8 Defensive Runs Above Average)
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SP Michael Lorenzen (1/$8MM) has been one of the worst starters in baseball (7.21 ERA / 5.13 FIP), but has a comically large home/road split: HOME: 10.03 ERA (2.44 WHIP), ROAD: 5.04 (1.48 WHIP).
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RHP Tomoyuki Sugano (1/$5.1MM) has been their most consistent starter, with a 4.01 ERA (5.33 FIP) in 11 starts.
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1B TJ Rumfield (acquired in trade with Yankees) has 7 home runs and a triple slash of .281/.359/.448.
Before he hit the IL, they were getting a great contribution from starter Chase Dollander, their 1st round pick of the 2023 draft. But otherwise, the modest bounceback from the demonic 2025 season seems to be the result of tinkering at the margins as DePodesta and Byrnes assess the entire organization. Not unlike how 2019 was a transition season as Farhan Zaidi took over from Bobby Evans.
But the question is if Computer will be No Computer in the battle for Not Last Place in the NL West. The Rockies have been last place for so long that it has started to feel like they’d achieved a tenured position. But this year, the Giants might be bad enough — and dumb enough — to unseat them from the Last Place Chair.
Series overview
Who: San Francisco Giants (22-34) at Colorado Rockies (20-37)
Where: Coors Field | Denver, Colorado
When: Friday at 5:40pm PT, Saturday at 6:10pm PT, Sunday at 12:10pm PT
National broadcasts: None.
Projected starters
Friday: Logan Webb (RHP 2-4, 5.06 ERA) vs. Michael Lorenzen (RHP 2-7, 7.21 ERA)
Saturday: Adrian Houser (RHP 2-4, 5.30 ERA) vs. TBD
Sunday: Robbie Ray (LHP 3-6, 4.60 ERA) vs. Tanner Gordon (RHP 0-0, 5.85 ERA)
Players to watch
Rockies
Antonio Senzatela: He’s been a foil for the Giants throughout his career (5-3, 4.89 ERA) and this season might change the nature of the rivalry in that he’s transitioned from an iffy starter to a dominate reliever. In 33 IP (16 G), he has a 1.36 ERA (3.19 FIP) and allowed just 2 home runs (career 1.1 HR/9). Conventiently, Michael Baumann wrote a nice piece about Senzatela this morning for FanGraphs.
If you take “believe” to mean “think Senzatela will continue to put up Prime Dennis Eckersley numbers,” there’s reason to be skeptical. Senzatela’s running a .198 BABIP, an 87.8% strand rate, and a 5.4% HR/FB rate, which is a little over a third of what it usually is. All of those are big, honking regression indicators.
But where should we expect Senzatela to regress to? Well, his FIP is 3.19 and his xERA is 3.09. Not only are those numbers really good for a multi-inning reliever, full stop, they’re also about half of what he was running last year. That’s a huge improvement. He’s like a new pitcher.
So what’s different?
The Rockies have done some weird stuff with bullpen roles this season (pre-injury Chase Dollander’s stint as the world’s greatest bulk reliever comes to mind), and they’ve been similarly creative with Senzatela. He’s faced at least four batters in all 16 of his appearances this year, and recorded five or more outs on 14 occasions. He’s yet to pitch on back-to-back days, and he’s turned over the lineup more often (five times) than he’s pitched on just one day’s rest.
The piece goes on to highlight how he throws a great fastball and more than one fastball: a four-seamer, a sinker, and a cutter, which opponents have hit just .143 against.
This will be an interesting series because the Rockies’ formal closer, Victor Vodnik, has been on the IL since 5/20 with right ulnar nere inflammation. Dollander, who has also relieved, is on the IL. It’s not as though the Rockies had a great bullpen before, but it’s a little dinged up.
TJ Rumfield: The offseason acquisition has been day to day recently after a hit by pitch on May 25th. Prior to the injury, he was hitting .308/.400/.500 in May with 4 homers and 3 doubles, with 13 strikeouts against 9 walks. Pretty close to a Three True Outcomes player who would be one of the biggest threats in the Rockies’ lineup with Mickey Moniak on the IL. Otherwise, it’s last yaer’s All-Star and Silver slugger Hunter Goodman who is the real remaining power threat (12 HR).
Tanner Gordon: His third major league start ever came back in 2024 against a barely recognizable Giants lineup:
DH Jorge Soler
RF Mike Yastrzemski
CF Heliot Ramos
LF Michael Conforto
SS Tyler Fitzgerald
3B Matt Chapman
2B Brett Wisely
1B David Villar
C Curt Casali
SP Hayden Birdsong
He gave up 4 runs in 6 innings but struck out 5 and walked 0. Last season, he started 15 games for the Rockies and… it didn’t go well (6.33 ERA). His first 7 appearances this year were in relief, but his last appearance was against the Dodgers in LA. He allowed just 1 run on 6 hits in 5 innings of work, striking out 3 and walking 1.
Giants
Rafael Devers: He has 3 homers in 8 career games at Coors, making a triple slash of .229/.315/.454. His 0-for-4 in Wednesday’s game didn’t damage his hot May too much. He’s at .287/.333/.564 (.897 OPS) through the first 25 games of the month. Can he start another hot streak in these three games?
Jung Hoo Lee: He’s set to be activated off the IL today and for good reason. He has a career .911 OPS against Colorado, but in Coors Field, he’s hitting .357/.455/.539 (.990) in 33 PA. Not a robust sample size, but maybe a great way for him to step into a hot streak right off the IL.
Logan Webb: On the flip side, this is a tough place for a pitcher to come off the IL, but the Giants need Webb to get that ace-like performance going ASAP. In 10 career starts at Coors, he’s got a 4.37 ERA. The Rockies have a team groundball rate of 42%, which is 14th in MLB, so it might not be that easy for Webb to get the groundballs he needs in order to get out of long innings. On the other hand, they have just a 37.1% flyball rate, one of the worst in the sport (24th) and their HR to flyball rate of 9.5% is also nearer to the bottom third of the sport (19th). It could go either way, which only means that if Webb is right, he should be able to give the Giants a solid start.
Tony Vitello watch
His opponent in the Rockies dugout is Warren Schaeffer, who was a Rockies farmhand turned coach who wound up on the major league coaching staff in 2023 before taking over as interim manager from the deposed Bud Black. I only bring this up because in the first couple of months of the season it has seemed as though the least experienced managers still have an edge over Vitello simply by having been around the major leagues more. That doesn’t mean Vitello might never become the type of success he was in college ball, but it suggests that aura isn’t transferrable. Or, at least, there’s an exchange rate.
If you remember, Coors Field is where Buster Posey first met Tony Vitello, and it was this meeting that Andrew Baggarly remembered when coming up with a list of managerial candidates following Bob Melvin’s dismissal. Does this stadium hold a special place in Vitello’s memory or has it become a house of horrors for him as it has for the Giants over the years?
Prediction time
Last time out, I predicted that the Giants would not get swept by the Diamondbacks, so, what do I know? Also, what an embarrassment. I thought the Giants could win 1 game at home against a division rival. Oh well. Lesson learned. This time, I’ll predict that the Giants will hit at least 5 home runs in this series.
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