Michael Toglia was blunt.
“Our offense has been pretty bad, I’m not going to lie,” the first baseman said Wednesday before the Rockies hosted the Brewers at Coors Field. “We haven’t put up a whole lot of runs yet, and it’s pretty frustrating. Because if you look at our lineup, we have guys who should be doing damage.”
Toglia, who hit eighth Wednesday night, counts himself among “those guys” who have struggled during Colorado’s 2-8 start in which the Rockies have scored just 31 runs, tied for the second fewest through 10 games in franchise history. Toglia entered the game slashing .154/.214/.205, with zero home runs and zero RBIs. He’s struck out 20 times in 42 plate appearances. That 47.6% K rate is more than double the major league average of 22.6%.
On Tuesday night, Toglia started his 100th consecutive game at first base, surpassing Blake Street Bomber Andres “The Big Cat” Galarraga for the longest streak of starts by a first baseman in franchise history. The Rockies love Toglia’s durability. They hope he’ll become a bona fide National League force.
“No doubt he can become one because he’s an everyday player,” manager Bud Black said during spring training. “He plays defense, he hits for power, he’s durable. He just needs improvement in incremental ways offensively.”
Those improvements have yet to appear, but Toglia is not worried, noting that the Rockies had played only 10 games and that statistics are often overstated at the beginning of a season.
“I had a stretch like this last year, but at the time, I had 250 at-bats under my belt, so it didn’t get magnified,” he said. “Now, since it’s at the beginning of the season, it just looks a lot worse on the scoreboard. So, keeping that in mind, I don’t let it bother me. I know I can go out and hit a couple of homers and the numbers will look right.”
Last season, after two tune-ups at Triple-A Albuquerque, Toglia hit just .218 but did swat 25 homers. Following his final recall on June 6, he slashed .232/.331/.470 in his final 100 games and hit 21 homers, tied for 10th in the National League.
However, the strikeouts and lack of clutch hitting remain an issue. His career K rate is 33.8%, and his batting average with runners in scoring position is .162.
Black has preached that the Rockies must put the ball in play more to jump-start their stagnant offense. Toglia agrees, up to a point.
“I think the trap is that if you fall into is trying to be too cute, and just trying to put the ball in play, for the sake of not striking out,” he said. “That can get you in trouble. I think there might be some of that going on with us. I know I have certainly felt that. I have done that in my career, but I’ve found that you have to be convicted and you have to be aggressive.”
Black agreed with Toglia’s point — up to a point.
“(Toglia) is a power hitter, and we want him to be a power hitter,” Black said. “But there’s also got to be a component to your swing where you have another type of swing to be able to put the ball in play in certain situations. That’s where most coaches — and most players — would come from.”
Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.