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Rockies GM attributes NL-best record to young starting pitchers

Aaron Doster / USA TODAY Sports

The Colorado Rockies have made just one World Series appearance in their more than two-decade long existence, but the team now boasts the best record in the National League more than one quarter of the way through the season.

Jeff Bridich, who has presided over the team's general manager position for the past two seasons and has been a fixture of the front office since 2005, knows where the credit is due for his first-place club.

"Some of the pitching we're seeing now, our young starters," Bridich told Tracy Ringolsby of MLB.com, "is a product of the Draft, scouting, development for several years.

"It is part of a plan we put in place the last few offseasons."

"We felt where the game is going and with what our needs were," the 39-year-old GM added, "to get young impactful pitching we could develop was a good use of our resources." Bridich's plan to infuse youth into the Rockies seems to be paying off.

Under Bridich's tenure as GM, the Rockies have acquired German Marquez and Jeff Hoffman via trades - both of whom have made seven combined starts for the team this season. Additionally, in the Marquez deal, the Rockies also acquired left-handed reliever Jake McGee, who has been a key component of the team's impenetrable bullpen.

The Rockies have four starters who have made nine starts each in Kyle Freeland, Antonio Senzatela, Tyler Anderson, and Tyler Chatwood. The eldest two, Chatwood and Anderson, are still just 27 years old, while Senzatela is just 22 - the second-youngest pitcher to make a start so far this season.

Freeland and Anderson are particularly encouraging developments for the Rockies' amateur scouting and development department, as both are a product of first-round selections in the 2014 and 2011 drafts respectively.

Much maligned as a hitter's park, building a starting rotation that will succeed in Coors Field has been a puzzle. Even now, the Rockies starting staff ranks just 14th in baseball by ERA. But, in terms of park and league-adjusted ERA, the Rockies rank fourth in all of baseball.

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