A fast start is only that, but that's ok

Baseball is best described as a slow moving tragedy. Most seasons are drawn out failures where the majority of games are worthless wastes of time for anyone expecting a championship. The Rockies have had more seasons like this than not, seasons where August and September felt like an eternity while other teams got to celebrate. This type of season, this tragic end, is not pushed away by a fast start. The Rockies 8-3 start with a lockdown bullpen does not eliminate the possibility of a tragically boring August, it simply tricks us into the belief that it could be the opposite.

Through 11 games, there is no doubt the Rockies have at least been fun. The pitching has been (mostly) as advertised. Ground balls, lockdown innings, and avoidance of major meltdowns have absolutely been part of why the Rockies are where they are after the first set of games. This is pretty good and the jury is out on if this is sustainable, but the Rockies have done this before haven’t they.

In 2020, in the middle of a shortened 60 game season, the Rockies started 11-3. That’s nearly 25% of the total games playing at a .786 win percentage. The 162 game equivalent of that is opening the first 40 games of the year at 31-9. It is a bonkers start that should have been buoyed by the short season into an easy playoff spot. A team starting 31-9 would be a penciled in playoff team without a doubt. Even if you played just under .500 ball the rest of the way you could finish 18 or 19 games above .500. It would take a completely embarrassing collapse to finish outside the playoffs after a hot start like that.

The Rockies missed the playoffs.

This is just who they are in many ways. From 2011 - 2014 the Rockies had numerous hot starts. In 2011 they were 17-8 coming out of April, they followed that up with only EIGHT wins in May and finished miles away from the playoffs. They are who we think they are. What is dead may never die.

But, there’s no real point in toiling away in that worry or ruining the fun they are now by agonizing if your September is going to be ruined by them. The Rockies, right now, are fun. CJ Cron and Connor Joe, two players that were signed basically out of the junk yard, are posting OPS+’s of 224 and 192 respectively. Is that going to continue? Probably not! Are they still very fun and cool stories? Yes. Daniel Bard, Chad Kuhl, Justin Lawrence, and Jhoulys Chacin are all pitching the lights out. Will that stay true all year? I doubt it! Is it still wild to see it happen? You bet.

Not to go all George Will on your ass but the problem with baseball and with life is that we worry too much about what is to come. The long hot days of August baseball are dozens of games away. Whether or not they are fun or meaningless drivel meant to be forgotten is not important right now.

There are about a half dozen movies that discuss the whole metaphor of a time loop. What would you do if you were stuck in the same day forever? Would you find life to be more meaningless, carefree? Would the lack of a passing of time give you the freedom to explore what life meant? Or would it be a prison? These are questions we must answer ourselves and ultimately do not matter at all to the 2022 Rockies but sometimes it is important to reflect on the absurd, especially when it comes to this organization. If August were to never come, would we be able to enjoy an 8-3 start? Would we be able to reflect on how fun it’s been so far? Or would it be a prison to never know if they could sustain this momentum? The Rockies start will likely have no impact on their finish so why is it so hard to just expel our anxiety and watch each game with a different sense of optimism?

Those who hate this idea would argue that it’s important to keep expectations grounded in a long, marathon season. The Rockies stumbling from here on out is more painful if you’ve tricked yourself into believing they are good. That is probably true. If you don’t start believing until enough games have passed that it makes sense to do so, you definitely appear smarter and more emotionally stable.

But what if I wasn’t asking you to believe? Just to let these games pass through you like the earth itself. Connor Joe clutch hits in April can’t hurt you if he slumps through September. It’s not nihilism, simply an acceptance that these April results where they win can be a good thing. The season is long and arduous but it doesn’t have to only be that. Even when it doesn’t matter.