MLB Team by Team: 2008 Colorado Rockies

They came out of the West, a group of faceless strangers, and went on a rampage, coming from nowhere to take the Wild Card away from the San Diego Padres, upending the heavily favored Philadelphia Phillies, authors of their own comeback, stomping out yet another Cinderella team in the Arizona Diamondbacks for the first National League pennant in franchise history before finally meeting their fate at the hands of the Boston Red Sox. They are the Colorado Rockies.

Last season, the Rockies, before having to watch Jonathan Papelbon dance, took 20 of 21 to end the year, and gave the Red Sox somewhat of a hard row to hoe before succumbing. But will Cinderella dance again now that the league knows more what they're dealing with?

OFFENSE: A

Let's state for the record: If you have the kind of season Matt Holliday had last year (.340 average, 36 homers, 137 RBI), you should be the National League MVP. Unless, of course, you have the kind of year Jimmy Rollins did. Anyway, Holliday is back, still young (28) and a near-unstoppable force that could dominate for years to come. Add in another young gun that had a great season, Troy Tulowitzki, stalwart veteran Todd Helton (not the power force he once was, but still hits .300+ in his sleep), and Garrett Atkins (25 homers, 111 RBI), Brad Hawpe (29 and 116), and the mile-high Denver altitude giving an already talented team yet another advantage, and this offense is going to be near unstoppable barring injury.

PROJECTED LINEUP: 1 Tavares CF 2 Tulowitzki SS 3 Helton 1B 4 Holliday LF 5 Atkins 3B 6 Hawpe RF 7 Torrealba C 8 Nix 2B 9 Pitcher's spot

STARTING PITCHING: D

Of course, here's where that altitude works against the Rockies, when they're the ones throwing the ball. Jeff Francis had a phenomenal year last year (17-9, 4.22, 165 strikeouts against 63 walks in 215 innings), and has been pretty solid overall for the past three years, but after him, the Rockies don't have much. Aaron Cook was a barely over .500 pitcher last year, and well below for his career overall, Ubaldo Jimenez is going into his first full year in the majors, as is Franklin Morales, and your three options at the five slot are Jason Hirsh (5-7, 4.81), Mark Redman (2-4, 4.62) and Kip Wells (7-17, 5.70 with St. Louis last year). This is the division with the pitching heavy Diamondbacks, Padres, and Los Angeles Dodgers in it. This could be a huge problem for the purple and black.

PROJECTED ROTATION: Francis, Cook, Jimenez, Morales, Hirsh

BULLPEN: C

Many teams don't even have one viable option at closer. The Rockies had two last season in Manny Corpas (19 of 22 converted) and Brian Fuentes (20 of 27). Both return and, if form holds, the eighth and ninth innings are set. Six and seven may be as well with Luis Vizcaino, provided Father Time doesn't remember him, or heavy use doesn't catch up to him (70+ appearances in five of the last six seasons, 60+ in the one that wasn't). Filling in around these three are rookies and nearly rookies, which could make certain situations interesting, but, overall, not a huge concern for the Rockies in the 'pen.

CONCLUSION

It's hard to see the Rockies not finish above .500 again, and, provided the offense can continue to light up the scoreboard like a pinball machine on tilt warning, it looks good that they will. But the starting pitching outside of Francis looks awful suspect, and, as last year showed when they won 92 games and still had to win number 93 by the skin of their teeth to get into the playoffs, a few missteps could have them on the outside looking in this year. And probably will.

PREDICTION: 85-77, 3rd in National League West.