Click here to return to the general 2010 MLB Season Preview. The Rockies ended the Clint Hurdle era after 46 games and went on another late season surge to overtake the Giants to win the NL Wild Card for the third time in franchise history and second time in three seasons. 2009 Opsera Finish: 7th What Happened In The Winter Though not terribly celebrated, general manager Dan O'Dowd has recovered from his early mistakes in free agency when he grossly overpaid for Mike Hampton and Denny Neagle and has built the Rockies into a consistently competitive team in a carnival of a park. This winter was more about preserving and extending rather than adding new faces, though they did lose quite a few significant components in Garrett Atkins, Josh Fogg, Yorvit Torrealba and Jason Marquis. Continuing on their midseason acquisition of Rafael Betancourt, O'Dowd offered him arbitration and he eventually agreed to a two-year deal worth just over $7.5M. He also kept Jason Giambi on a one-year deal worth less than $2M. Giambi's decline into the final years of his thirties has been rapid, but he did have two homers and seven walks in 31 plate appearances after coming over from Oakland. Miguel Olivo was signed from Kansas City to spell Chris Ianetta, who was limited to just 93 games in 2009. Melvin Mora came over from Baltimore on a $1.3M deal and he'll get starts at third for Ian Stewart against lefties, as the latter hit for an OPS of .664 in 2009. Extensions came for Iannetta, Todd Helton, Huston Street and Ryan Spilborghs during the winter. The Street deal seems troublesome at $22.5M over three years and also a player option for a fourth season at $9M. Rockies Offensive Preview The Rockies have fully transformed from the leviathan veteran sluggers of the nineties taking advantage of the thin air to the speedy youngsters taking advantage of the huge outfield to cover a ton of ground defensively and on the base paths. The Rockies still hit a lot of homers (190 in 2009), but they absolutely make their killing in the gaps with doubles (300) and triples (50). All told, they finished second in the NL in runs with 804 and first in OPS with .784. Of course their OPS did drop from .850 to .718 on the road and their run splits were just as stark (464/340), but they are so well-equipped to dominant at Coors Field (51-30 record), it didn't matter that they were barely a .500 road team. No team has a better competitive advantage at home than the Rockies and credit has to go to O'Dowd for exploiting it. The Rockies have Carlos Gonzalez and Dexter Fowler at the top of the order. Both are under 25 with high OBP and great speed. Gonzalez is a product of the Arizona system, who came to Oakland in the Dan Haren trade and was eventually flipped to the Rockies for Matt Holliday. If he duplicates or even comes close to duplicating his second half of 2009 in which he had a .992 OPS and 12 homers in 223 plate appearances, he can be the single biggest offensive difference maker in the NL West. We'll need to see Gonzalez consistently hit lefties (.809 OPS) and on the road (.811 compared to .943 at Coors) before we anoint him a full-fledged star, but he is absolutely on the cusp. Fowler is a switch-hitter and doesn't have the upside of Gonzalez, but he did have an OBP of .363 with 29 doubles, 10 triples, four homers and 27 steals. He had an .813 OPS in 61 plate appearances in the two-hole, where he'll bat this season, compared to .748 as the leadoff hitter in a far bigger sample size of 440 plate appearances. Following the speedsters will be Helton, Troy Tulowitzki and Brad Hawpe in the heart of Jim Tracy's lineup. Helton regained his health and became one of the game's purest hitters again with a .904 OPS. What is most promising about Helton's 2009 that suggests he should duplicate it in 2010 is the consistency of his output throughout the long season. He also hit well in clutch situations with a .985 OPS with two outs and runners in scoring position. Tulowitzki went from baseball's next great superstar at the end of 2007 to an underachieving injury case in 2008 (.732 OPS), but he had a brilliant 2009 with career highs in just about every category imaginable and a .930 OPS (.377 OBP). The .930 OPS is more impressive when considering his slow start in April (.724) and May (.710), which were followed by four consecutive months of an OPS over 1.000. It feels like the only thing that can stop Pujols from winning NL MVPs is a move to the AL, but Tulowitzki is probably the best candidate to unseat him. Tulo is scary good and is right there with Joe Mauer, Pujols and Evan Longoria in the conversation of who you would be your first pick to build a franchise around. Hawpe has been a consistent slugger producer for Colorado since becoming a regular in 2006. More impressively about Hawpe, he isn't a product of Coors Field with career home/away splits of .887/.864. His continued road production is critical if the Rockies are going to be over .500 off Blake Street. The bottom of the lineup features Iannetta, Stewart and Clint Barmes. I think Iannetta will bounce back in 2010 and become one of the NL's top echelon offensive catchers, while Stewart still has a lot of room for improvement, especially if he figures out lefties. I really like Seth Smith as their fourth outfielder, a guy who hit for an OPS of .889 in 2009. Between Smith, Giambi, Mora, Olivo and Spilborghs, the Rockies have the kind of depth on their bench that would start regularly for some of the other NL West teams. Eric Young will also eventually join them and he has the same kind of skill set as Gonzalez and Fowler (great speed, high OBP potential) to be a Coors Field star. Rockies Pitching Preview Similar to the difficulty of hitters winning a batting title in a baseball/football stadium like Oakland where there is a ton of foul ground, can a pitcher ever win a Cy Young while pitching in Colorado? The Rockies actually have a potential candidate in Ubaldo Jimenez. Given the way he throws heat and keeps the ball on the ground, he manages to thrive at Coors Field with a home/away split of 3.34/3.58 in 2009. He has been very consistent and continues to get better. Southpaw Jeff Francis is healthy again and will be Colorado's second starter. He missed the entire 2009 season, but also has a positive history pitching at home. Aaron Cook continues to be as consistent as ever despite his extremely low strikeout rate. He has a career ERA of 4.33 in 166 career starts with the Rockies, which is just short of miraculous. He wasn't healthy at the end of the season, but he's looked sharp this spring and is transitioning from their opening day starter to more of a middle of the rotation guy seamlessly and speaks to the quality of the front end. Jorge de la Rosa and Jason Hammel are Colorado's fourth and fifth starters. de la Rosa improved as the season progressed (5.21/3.46 first/second half splits. He was very good on the road (3.32 ERA), but had predictable struggles at home (5.21 ERA). Hammel doesn't have the upside of de la Rosa since he isn't a strikeout pitcher, but his FIP of 3.71 suggests he'll be better in his second season with the Rockies. He also suffered in the BAbip department with a .337 mark allowed. Even though I'm a little skeptical of Street, Colorado has a lot of live arms with Franklin Morales, Betancourt, Matt Daley and Manuel Corpas. Taylor Buchholz should be back from Tommy John surgery by the All-Star break, which will give the Rockies relievers a timely boost. What Are Their 2010 Chances? The NL West is the most difficult division in baseball for me to prognosticate since there are four legitimate contenders expecting a playoff berth. Even though my gut says things will come together for Arizona to win it, I still believe the Rockies are the safest bet to be in contention by late September. They are so difficult to beat at home it is as if they are spotted 10 wins before Opening Day. Ultimately, I think the Rockies will have to brutally fight it out with the Phillies for the Wild Card and may come up just a little bit short. Click here to follow Chris Reina's Twitter feed. Click here to return to the general 2010 MLB Season Preview.