Good things are going to happen

The Rockies are off to the worst start in franchise history, and questions need to be asked.

They entered a weekend series at Pittsburgh with a 7-24 record, putting them on pace to finish 37-125. While they will likely improve on their .226 winning percentage, enabling them to avoid contending with the expansion 1962 New York Mets (40-120) as one of the worst teams in MLB history, another 100-loss season appears probable.

The Rockies, amid a youth movement, have intriguing talent on the current roster and in their farm system, but they are a bad team right now. Following a 5-4, 10-inning loss at Miami on Thursday, manager Bud Black called a team meeting during which he urged the team to keep playing for one another and ride out the storm.

Still, coming off last year’s 103-loss season, the Rockies face significant issues.

With that in mind, I spoke with general manager Bill Schmidt in a one-on-one interview. Now in his third full season as the GM, Schmidt expressed frustration with how the Rockies are playing, but he made it clear that he believes the club is headed in the right direction.

Q: Obviously, this is not the start you wanted. What’s been the biggest issue?

Schmidt: I think it’s been clear. It’s been the inconsistency of our offense. We do have some young players on the team, but there were a number of guys who got off to slow starts — (Nolan) Jones, (Kris) Bryant, (Brendan) Rodgers — guys we expected more from.

We have been in a lot of games, but we haven’t figured out how to win those games. Kyle (Freeland) had a couple of rough starts in the beginning, but for the most part, our starting pitching has kept us in games. But at the end of the day, we haven’t gotten the big hit to put us ahead, to get us back into the game, to win a game. For me, it comes back to our offense and our lack of execution.

Q: Is the poor offense because of the team’s strategy and approach?

Schmidt: It’s not about our strategy. We just need to put the ball in play. We strike out too much, we chase, and we chase outside the zone. We average (10.2) strikeouts per game. That’s too many. Our guys care, and they are trying hard, but they have to be more disciplined.

(Hitting coach Hensley) Bam Bam (Meulens) and those guys talk about that all the time. They talk about the strike zone and being patient. The work ethic is great. Guys are trying, but at the end of the day, guys aren’t getting it done.

Q: But wasn’t that the major emphasis in the offseason? To be a more disciplined and productive offense?

Schmidt: We talk about it all the time. We have to keep grinding through it. We have some young guys who are trying to establish themselves at the major league level. At some point, you have to focus on somebody else and not necessarily yourself.

Sometimes, you want to do so well for yourself and, ultimately, for the team. But rather than focusing on yourself, the focus should be, ‘I’m going to pick somebody else up, and I am going to do this for my teammates.” That’s a little bit of what we are going through.