BSN Exclusive: The men who changed the narrative about Colorado Rockies pitching

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – As the Colorado Rockies begin their 25th season as a Major League Baseball team, the fans, front office, coaches, and players are all acutely aware that this is a new era in Denver.

For 24 of those 25 years, the Rockies’ success was contingent upon a lineup filled with big boppers, going all the way back to the Blake Street Bombers. In every single season, including this upcoming one, there has been at least one—usually two—world-renowned sluggers who strike fear into the heart of opposing pitching.

But last year was different. At times, the offense seemed to disappear altogether. And yet, the Rockies put up their best season in nearly a decade. And they did it on the strength of their starting pitching.

Like I said, a new era in Denver.

It would be easy, though foolish, to believe these kids proverbially came out of nowhere. But they didn’t. They came out of a system that was thoughtfully repurposed and reprogrammed to lead to exactly these kinds of results.

It began in 2013 when the Rockies brought in Mark Wiley to oversee the pitching philosophy and direction of the entire organization. Gone were the days of seeking out sinkerball specialists and in came the days of fastball/slider machines who were taught that if they trusted themselves, their stuff would work anywhere.

“Many years ago, when Mark came back, we were able to reevaluate what we were doing and how we were doing it and start to come up with some really specific plans,” Senior Director of Player Development Zach Wilson said. “Mark and the coaches have really executed that beautifully and it has worked to a ‘T’ to this point.”

The very first draft pick taken under this new regime, Jon Gray, has become representative of the very best aspects of this change. And he is giving a ton of credit to the men who have helped him and his peers change the narrative about pitching in Colorado.

“He’s got a lot of information,” Gray said of Wiley. “He’s been in the game of baseball for a very long time. He’s been on some really good teams, some championship teams. He’s a great person to take advice from. He was always really good at the younger levels for me. Like, if something bad happened he would come and talk to me about it, but he always had a story of success in that situation, someone who went through the exact same thing and then got out of it. So he was a really good resource.”

The next first-round pick the Rockies made was Denver native Kyle Freeland, who echoed those sentiments on Wily.

“He’s been a lot of stuff for me,” Freeland explained. “Probably location and getting my mind right going from rookie ball through every stage of the minors and even here at the big league level. He’s helped with the mentality of each pitch and how to locate them and attack hitters with the location. So, he’s helped me in a lot of ways. Other coaches different ways with mental side and other things that go into pitching, but with Mark, it’s been location.”

A lot of people get into the ears of these pitchers. They have a different coach at each level and a team of craftsmen all working on them constantly like they are prized classic cars in an exclusive shop. Having Wiley around as a constant voice, giving everyone direction, has been invaluable.

“Yeah, it’s something that you can always fall back on and have a conversation whenever you’re struggling or having success,” Freeland said. “To have someone who can look and see what you might need to work on or give you the mentality to continue to have success, and I feel like Mark’s one of those guys.”

That’s not to say those other voices are unimportant or should be shut out. Quite the contrary. It has taken nothing short of a small army of extremely dedicated coaches to take Rockies’ pitching from punchline to powerhouse.

It all goes back to the earliest stages as a pro, where former Grand Junction pitching coach Ryan Kibler had to begin the process of unleashing the true potential of these guys.

“Kibler was the guy I leaned on a lot,” Freeland admitted. “Especially being in rookie ball and then my second year rehabbing in rookie ball again. I’ve got a great relationship with Kibler. He’s full of a ton of knowledge and he’s someone I was able to connect with early and be able to work with very easily. And Dac was the same way”

If you’ve been watching the Rockies for more than the past six years, you are familiar with the name Bob Apodaca who served as the big league pitching coach from 2003-2012. Now, he roams the lower-levels of Colorado’s system, providing his expertise wherever it is most needed. This is the “Dac” Freeland refers to.

“He was down in rookie ball quite a bit, helping with the young guys. At that level of development, it’s nice having those two guys understanding what they’re doing and how to do it.”

Gray agrees and notes that it was nice to have someone around with so much experience in the place that would be his eventual home park.

“I remember Apodaca talking about Coors Field a lot whenever I was in Grand Junction,” Gray said. “He was good at mechanical things, he helped me out there a lot. But I didn’t get to spend much time with him.”

Despite Freeland and Gray making their way through those first few levels with relative swiftness, both Kibler and Apodaca left lasting impressions.

And up at the final stage of minor league development, Triple-A pitching coach Darryl Scott has become known in certain circles as a kind of pitcher whisperer. The players speak of him as though he carries a magic wand.

“He’s got an answer for everything,” Gray proclaimed. “I can go to him and say, ‘Hey Darryl, something in my delivery isn’t right. My front side isn’t right. My direction.’ He’s always got a quick fix for it. He’s always going to say something to you that makes sense to you. He’s good at communicating. He’s got a lot of quick fixes. He keeps you very calm. He’s not a guy that’s going to say, ‘Oh yeah, do this, do this, try this.’ He’s like, ‘Alright, on this one just stay over the rubber. Break your hands over the rubber this time and drive down.’ And it turns out, you see the result right there.”

“He’s one of those guys that everyone can connect with, somehow, someway,” Freeland said. “He does a good job, especially with me and a handful of other guys, he incorporates kind of a golf mentality. He loves to golf and a handful of us love to golf, too, and we golf with him. So, he kind of takes that mentality into pitching and vice versa. So, how you go about approaching each shot, you can take the same way with every pitch you throw. It gives you a different way to think about things, and it helps things click in a way. So that’s one thing that really helps with D. Scott and being able to connect with him.”

Whether it’s in final preparation for the big leagues or in helping with rehabbing or fine-tuning players with MLB experience, Scott’s impact on this club can be felt in every pitcher who has spent even the smallest amount of time with him.

He then hands the baton to the Cerberus of MLB coaches who are the newest members of the organization: Steve Foster, Darren Holmes, and manager Bud Black. The former two guys were the only coaches kept at the big league level when the latter guy was hired and they have been almost attached at the hip ever since.

“It works well. They’re like twins. They’re like brothers. They’re a really good duo,” Gray said of Foster and Holmes. “Foster’s always there. Great speaker. Great person to talk to. He’ll help you with any problem you have, on or off the field. He’ll always be there for you. You can count on him. And Holmey has a great eye for your body and your mechanics. Sometimes you can’t feel anything but he can kind of see it. He’s got a couple of pointers. He likes to watch me and if I start getting out of myself a little bit he’ll tell me one thing and get me back. So he’s got a really good eye for mechanics and what we do.”

“They’re a great couple of guys,” added Freeland. “Holmey’s a little more mechanical with things, and he’ll help you there. And then Fostey’s more of the mental. So, it’s good to have those two mixes together, where you can go to one or one of those things, and have one as the bullpen coach and one as the pitching coach is great. Those two work well together and they work well with our entire pitching staff.”

The knowledge and resumes for each coach speak for themselves. But the second this many minds—and potentially egos—were brought in to try to preach to the same group of players, concerns were raised about whether or not Colorado would have too many cooks in the kitchen. But Freeland insists that hasn’t been an issue.

“Bud really lets those two guys do their thing,” Freeland said. “When he feels he needs to step in or he has something to say, he’ll come approach you either with Fostey or Holmey or just by yourself. And he’ll talk pitching with you whether it’s in-game, postgame, pre-game, he’ll let you know his thoughts on what we’re about to walk into and how he’d approach it and how he might want to approach it. So you have that person to fall back on as well.”

In 2017, Gray and Freeland pitched to lower ERAs at home than they did out on the road; a feat previously only believed to be possible if your name was Jorge De La Rosa. Freeland and German Marquez finished in the Top 10 for Rookie of the Year voting, though both should probably have finished higher. And Gray was among the very best pitchers in the game by any measure in the second half. They were even led early on by 22-year-old Antonio Senzatela who handled ups and downs like a seasoned pro on his path to earning a vital role in 2018.

None of this was by accident.

Mark Wiley, Bud Black, Steve Foster, Darren Holmes, Darryl Scott, Bob Apodaca, Ryan Kibler, and plenty more sages of pitching are unified and steadfast in their efforts and philosophies that are now showing some pretty overwhelming signs of success, especially when compared to Rockies pitching before this team of coaches was solidified.

“We talked a lot in my interview process on the pitching side with Jeff [Bridich] about what he wanted to accomplish,” Black stated. “And a lot of it started with Mark and Steve and Darren and a pitching summit they had a number of years ago. Some of the principles they put in place are still intact today. I think development and instruction and philosophy is always fluid but with Mark, there’s a wealth of experience, knowledge, and credibility. I had Mark as a pitching coach in the late eighties and then again my last year as a player in ’95 so I know his work as a pitching coach and as a coach of coaches. The beauty of what I’ve seen is the true case of working together. No agendas. No egos. And Mark has a huge voice. He’s right there in the front seat giving great wisdom to our coaches and our players. He’s wonderful.”

In fact, he’s been so effective that his lessons are now being taught by his students.

“We’re at a spot now with those guys where not only is the message coming from us,” says Wilson. “It’s coming from our players to other players. I think that’s the most important part for guys who haven’t grown up in this organization but that are a part of it and now they’re understanding who we are and what we believe in. The players are coaching them as much as any of the rest of us are. And I think that’s a really important part of the process and it’s worked really well.”

It’s all fine and well to accurately describe and teach what should work, but it’s another thing altogether to go out and make it a reality, especially considering consistently dominating pitching has never existed in Denver. But Gray, and now Freeland and Marquez along with rotation veteran Chad Bettis, are living proof that it can.

“I think the great thing about Mark, and really all these guys,” Wilson explained, “is that none of them will take the credit and none of them care who gets the credit. It’s about what these players become and how are they helping us win games. Certainly, Mark leads our pitching development process but he doesn’t do it alone.”

Clearly.

For the first time in their history, the Colorado Rockies will enter a season knowing full well that it will be their arms more than their bats that must perform to get them to where they need to go. If there is a regression, many will likely strain to paint the 2017 season as an oddity and an outlier.

But, the more likely scenario is that this storm that has been brewing since 2013 is finally ready to unleash its full fury on the National League.