"Mike Hampton is getting baseball's biggest contract. Now he has to avoid what has been routine for his Colorado Rockies' predecessors: one of its highest ERAs," wrote Ronald Blum of the Associated Press.

What do the additions of Hampton and Denny Neagle mean to the Rockies' pitching staff? Will we finally see some decent earned run averages from Rockies' pitchers?

Actually, the Rockies already had good pitching -- before they added Neagle and Hampton. It's just that no one realized it was good because of their ERA figures. The Rockies' pitchers will always have high ERAs because of the influence of Coors Field. That doesn't mean they're not doing their jobs.

Take Pedro Astacio for example. He has had back-to-back solid seasons for the Rockies. Did anyone notice? Of course not, because his earned run averages hovered above 5.00.

In 1999, Astacio's ERA was 5.04. However, that's because his Coors-inflated home ERA was 7.16. On the road, his figure was a superb 3.60. He went 17-11 for a team that lost 90 games. Only three other pitchers managed to win 17 or more games for a 90-loss team in the 1990s. His season was absolutely brilliant, but it was camouflaged by his apparently nasty ERA.

It's time to vindicate the Rockies' pitching staff. Here are the 2000 earned run averages for each National League team in road games only. Road statistics are far more indicative of actual performance than home statistics because they are not impacted by the biases of teams' home ballparks.

The Rockies led every team except two. Obviously, their staff was already quite good. Otherwise, they would have gotten hammered on the road, which certainly didn't happen.

Now let's take a look at the 2000 runs scored totals on the road for each NL club.

The Rockies had the worst offense in the league away from home. Only the Phillies came close to matching their ineptness. Of course, most people didn't notice because their hitters did enough damage in home games to make their overall stats look good.

These weren't only one-year trends. Here are the Rockies' NL rankings on the road in both ERA and runs scored in the past three seasons.

The pitching staff was about average in 1999. However, they ranked near the top of the league in the other two seasons. Meanwhile, their offense has been consistently awful.

The Rockies played much of last season without Larry Walker. And it sounds like they'll attempt to upgrade their hitting this offseason. If not, they'll enter 2001 with an offense that's well below average.

On the other hand, the pitching staff looks outstanding -- if it remains intact. That doesn't appear likely as rumors persist that Astacio is headed elsewhere. If he stays, a rotation of Hampton, Astacio, Neagle, Brian Bohanon, and either Masato Yoshii or Ron Villone sounds impressive. Their bullpen is already in good shape with Jose Jimenez, Gabe White, and Mike Myers.

Hampton should be a good fit for Coors. He is one of the most extreme groundball pitchers in baseball. His groundball-to-flyball ratio was the second highest in the Major Leagues last season. Not surprisingly, he allowed only 10 home runs.

Hampton and Neagle both change speeds effectively, which Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd believes is vital when pitching in Coors.

Of course, even a fine pitcher like Hampton might post an ERA above 5.00 for Colorado. If so, he won't receive any Cy Young votes. Nonetheless, he can still help this team win. If the offense improves, the Rockies could really be a force.