The Colorado Rockies have not been subtle about their winter game plan: dramatically improving their bullpen in order to challenge the Dodgers in the National League West.
If your intuition says that makes sense because Coors Field is such a miserable place to pitch that the Rockies have to fill many more relief innings than the Dodgers do, well, your intuition would be wrong.
The Dodgers’ bullpen pitched more innings than the Rockies’ bullpen last season.
That was more a product of the Dodgers’ design than the Rockies’ struggles. The Dodgers kept their starters on a tight leash, generally preferring to rest them on the 10-day disabled list rather than extend them into the seventh inning.