Shawn Trewartha | February 12, 2026

Image credit to 5280.com

For years, sinkerball pitchers were viewed as synonymous with Coors Field. Think Aaron Cook, Jhoulys Chacín, and early career Ubaldo. All dominant Colorado Rockies pitchers relied on heavy, arm-side moving sinkers that were used predominantly to produce weak contact, preferably on the ground.

The logic is sound, these sinkers tend to work great against righties and lefties, and the theory is that they are easier to control and avoid mistake locations, so they should handle well at the high elevations of Coors Field.

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All of that is true; they do work great at Coors Field. In fact, if we evaluate every pitch thrown between 2021 and 2025 and classify a pitch as “successful” when it results in a strike, a foul ball, or a batted ball with an xwOBA of 0.100 or lower, the pitch with the greatest ‘average success rate’ is the sinker ball (or 2-seam).

Thus, the argument has been made that the sinker is the most effective pitch thrown at Coors Field. The caveat is that the sinker is also the most effective pitch thrown across all major league ballparks. And in fact is far less effective at Coors than it is at other parks. 

With the sinker’s complex relationship with Coors Field and pitching success generally, let’s take a look at the relative success of every single pitch type to confirm more narratives surrounding pitching at Coors Field, while challenging others.

Coors Field is a unique challenge in professional sports, and to be successful there, it is important to build a ball club tailored to excel in the thin air of altitude.

Why the Sinker Isn’t the Answer at Coors Field

So instead of looking at the overall pitch success rate, a better visual is to look for pitches with a higher success rate at Coors Field than at other parks. When we look at the difference graph, there are three pitches that, on average, perform better at Coors: sweepers, curveballs, and sliders. 

That’s not to say that sweepers, curveballs, and sliders are the only pitches that will work at Coors. Other secondary pitches like knuckle curves, splitters, and changeups, while slightly less effective at Coors Field, still compare nicely to the same pitches thrown elsewhere. It’s the fastball variants that show a pronounced underperformance at Coors Field.

As mentioned above, sinkers/two-seamers see the largest difference in performance at Coors Field versus leaguewide, while four-seam fastballs and cutters (often thrown like a cut fastball) are next in line for the largest negative difference in success. These findings not only challenge common narratives that breaking balls are ineffective at Coors Field but also suggest that heavy fastball usage may be to blame for Coors Field struggles.

Let’s take a look at a few of the more successful Rockies pitchers from the last handful of seasons:

Kyle Freeland‘s Blueprint for Success

Kyle Freeland has shown consistent success at Coors Field throughout his career, using a combination of 3 secondary pitches: a cutter, knuckle curve, and a sweeper, which he added to his arsenal in 2025. The sweeper generated a higher pitch success rate than anything else in his arsenal at Coors Field, likely due to the additional downward movement that he generates at home. This compensates for the fact that the pitch has 2.5 less inches of horizontal break when pitching at Coors.

On average, sweepers from left-handed pitchers drop around 0.5 inches more at Coors Field, while Freeland averages 3 inches more. This is likely explained by the strategic execution of the pitch (trying to induce more verticality versus horizontal movement).

Colorado Rockies Home Road Splits: Why Hitters Struggle Away From Coors Field

Downward movement generally plays well at Coors Field, as evidenced by Freeland’s knuckle curve. At home, his spiking curveball generates 3 fewer inches of break on average compared to on the road, but its success rate is the same regardless of where he throws it. This means that while he may be missing fewer bats at home, the downward trajectory of pitches still plays at Coors, helping to induce weak contact.

His fastball, on the other hand, does not play well at Coors Field. While he has good command of this pitch and is able to throw it for strikes, its horizontal run is less than the league average, and in 2025, the fastball generated the highest exit velocities against that he has seen in his career when using his 4 primary pitches. This is exacerbated at home, where horizontal break is reduced. In 2025, he utilized his fastball more than in any season since 2019, and his overall hard hit percentage was the highest of his career in the bottom 6% of MLB.

Germán Márquez and Repeatable Breaking Ball Movement

Germán Márquez features a fastball, knuckle curve, sinker, and slider. By pitch success rate, his slider is his most effective offering, which he threw about 20% of the time to right-handed batters in 2025.

The interesting thing about Márquez’s slider is that it doesn’t rely on dramatic movement like many of the sweeping sliders in today’s game. His average slider generates less than one inch of horizontal glove-side movement. However, that lack of movement makes it more translatable to Coors Field. The same is true of his knuckle curve, which has much less vertical break than many around the league.

Data Dump: Sugano and Quintana

The difference in total movement for both his slider and knuckle curve between Coors Field and on the road is less than one inch. A repeatable pitch with predictable movement is a major advantage when changing altitudes, and Márquez’s breaking-ball arsenal is a perfect example of that.

Conversely, his sinker, used roughly 20% of the time, showed the largest discrepancy in success rate between Coors Field and other parks. This is not particularly surprising, as the movement on his sinker is almost four inches shorter at home than on the road. Along with his four-seamer, this represents a much larger movement gap than we see with his other pitches, leaving his most used offerings far more dull than hoped.

Jimmy Herget’s Unique Coors-Friendly Arsenal

Another pitcher worth highlighting–this time out of the bullpen–is Jimmy Herget. It’s been reported this offseason that the Rockies may consider transitioning Herget into the starting rotation in 2026. While that likely won’t come to fruition, his pitch profile is very well-suited for success at Coors Field.

Hergert has basically a three-pitch mix of curveball, slider and sinker with a changeup and 4-seam fastball mixed in occasionally. By pitch success rate, his slider is far and away his most productive pitch. Along with the curveball, both breaking balls perform the same if not better while pitching at home. His sinker, on the other hand, is far less successful and fares better on the road. 

The movement profile of Herget is considerably different than that of the average MLB right-handed pitcher. Mostly due to his very low, sidewinding arm slot. This makes his curveball have more of a sweeper-esque trajectory with more gloveside action, and less downward bite. While it, like everything else, doesn’t break nearly as much laterally at Coors Field, it does have, on average, over 3 more inches of drop at Coors than it does on the road. The sharper shape allows for a lot of swing-and-miss potential even at altitude.

Why Fastballs Struggle in Denver

Looking at the MLB-wide averages for pitch movement at Coors Field compared to the road, a clear pattern begins to emerge as to why sliders, sweepers, and curveballs are disproportionately more successful in Denver: downward action. These three pitches, along with the knuckle curve, are the most downward-breaking pitches in the game today. While they do lose movement at Coors, they are more likely to stay down in the zone, generating swing-and-miss or weak rollover contact.

In contrast, fastballs, sinkers, and cutters tend to rely more heavily on lateral movement. When they inevitably move less in Denver, they are more susceptible to flattening out, staying elevated, and ultimately being driven for extra bases.

Building a Pitching Staff for Coors Field

Now, this is not to suggest that the Rockies’ coaching staff should instruct pitchers to abandon their fastballs at Coors Field; they still generate higher success rates than most other offerings. However, when constructing a pitching staff, the organization should consider the types of pitches that perform even better at home than they do on the road.

Evaluating differences in pitch movement between home and away environments may also help explain why certain pitches maintain their effectiveness, and why others struggle, in Denver’s unique conditions.

Written by Shawn Trewartha.