Colorado Rockies ready to make noise in NL West

Heading into the 2011 MLB season, a lot of the talk amongst MLB Betting pundits is about the Philadelphia Phillies and their stacked starting pitching unit. Everyone is expecting them to run over the rest of the field but what a team looks like on paper is not always what transpires.

Another team that looks ready to make a postseason run in the NL according to Baseball betting is the Colorado Rockies. They have the players, the right manager and their recent history all points in a successful direction for 2011.

The Rockies are not without question marks of course. But their strengths are impressive enough to make them legitimate contenders at the very least.

They have two of the best young players in the game in shortstop Troy Tulowitzki and outfielder Carlos Gonzalez. Tulowitzki was fifth in the NL balloting for Most Valuable Player in both of the last two seasons, while Gonzalez was third in 2010. Both have won Gold Gloves. Both are young enough that improvement could be easily projected. You can't win without a few stars and Colorado has two of the best players in baseball, who have not even hit their full potential yet.

The Rockies also have solid lineup depth which is improved from recent seasons. One reason for that is the acquisition of the versatile Ty Wigginton. He may be even more valuable than expected given that third baseman Ian Stewart has been out with a knee sprain.
The injury bug was extremely damaging in 2010 for the Rockies and as it is hard to predict how 2011 will be, they should have substantially better results in 2011.

Like most teams it is going to come down to how the pitching staff holds up. At the top of the rotation, Ubaldo Jimenez had a breakthrough season in 2010 and emerged not only as an elite pitcher, but an overpowering, dominant pitcher.

From top to bottom, the Colorado rotation is obviously not the as strong as the Phillies' rotation, but it is well above average. Philly has put together a rotation that is unmatched and should be the reason they win the NL.

The Rockies still have questions marks like most teams when it comes to pitching. Aaron Cook was out with shoulder inflammation and then broke the tip of his right ring finger. He'll be sidelined for some time. Esmil Rogers appears to be the leading candidate for the fifth starter's spot.