The Colorado Rockies Are Better Than You Think

With their tremendous winning streak of late, the Colorado Rockies have been generating a lot of discussion. Is this team as good as the 2007 club that rode a lucky streak into the World Series? Or are they destined to fade down the stretch?

Many pundits are inclined to believe the latter, and why shouldn't they? After all, this is the Rockies we're talking about, right? What reason do we have to believe they're going to be able to keep this up?

Friends, the Colorado Rockies are much better than you think they are.

It should come as no surprise to anyone that the best team in baseball right now is the Los Angeles Dodgers. It's probably also no surprise that the next four best teams are all in the AL East: Boston, New York, Toronto, and Tampa Bay.

Would you believe the Rockies are actually the next best team?

It sounds ridiculous, but there are numbers to back it up. The best single statistic to back up a team's potential and talent is not their win total, but their run differential, or, simply put, how many more runs they have scored than their opponents.

The Dodgers, despite having the league's most runs, actually only have the second-highest run differential at +86. The Rays have outscored their opponents by 87 runs this season.

The other AL East powerhouses follow, with the Red Sox at +70, the Yankees at +53, and the Blue Jays at +41.

It may surprise you to learn that the Rockies have the sixth-highest run differential in the Major League, having scored 29 more runs than their opponents.

I imagine there will be plenty of people who will want to argue the worth of the run differential statistic, but when you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Teams that tend to outscore their opponents are the ones that are most likely to win, clearly.

It doesn't matter whether they do it with a powerful offense or an ironclad defense. The only way to beat a team is to score more runs than them.

There are many out there who are ready to count the Rockies out, but their favorable run differential is reason to hold out hope. After all, they currently have a higher run differential than highly-touted teams such as the Phillies, the Cardinals, the Mets, the Angels, the Brewers, the Twins, the Tigers, and the Cubs.

I'm not ready to anoint the Rockies a playoff team just yet, but they're definitely a team to keep an eye on over the next few months.

After all, they're a lot better than you think they are.