DENVER – If you’ve watched enough Rockies games this season, the odds suggest you’ve seen a player or two reach into their back pocket and pull out a note card.
Simply put, the laminated cards pertain to defensive alignments for each batter in the opposing lineup. And though these placements are based upon results of countless at-bats culled together by Colorado’s analytics department, the process of positioning players goes back several years in the organization.
While the analytics involved in calculating defensive value is still developing, many signs point to the Rockies having one of the better defenses in the game right now.
Thus far in 2019, the results couldn’t be any better. According to FanGraphs, the Rockies have the third highest DEF (Defensive Runs Above Average) in all of baseball.
Considering there were many changes on defense for Colorado since 2018, particularly with a new outfield alignment that required a center fielder to move to right field full-time for the first time in his big league career, an infielder to transition to the outfield for just the second time in his career and some youth in the final outfield spot, not to mention some new blood at second base after years of Gold Glove-caliber play, there was potential for disaster.
Though the success of the note cards at this point might suggest the information contained therein seems to be considered gospel within the organization, Colorado’s Front Office isn’t rigid about making adjustments.
“We’ve told them to use their athleticism and being intelligent big league baseball players and use their instincts,” Assistant GM Zack Rosenthal shared.
Feedback from the players at all positions has been nothing less than positive so far.
“I think it’s worked out well,” infielder Ryan McMahon told BSN Denver. “We’ve seen a lot of cool plays lately. I think they’re putting us in more optimal positions and it’s paying off.”
One such “cool” play came courtesy of McMahon himself on a recent trip to Milwaukee when he made a spectacular diving catch on a line drive up the middle. “No way I make that play without the shift,” he says.
Charlie Blackmon concurs. “That’s been a hit for 100 years. And we are taking some of those away now.”
Outfielder David Dahl shared nearly the same take on the note cards.
“I think it’s good. It’s definitely helped.” Dahl added, “There’s some balls where it’ll be hit right at me and it makes it an easy play. It definitely helps.”
“It was (odd) at first,” says Blackmon of using the cards, “but after one or two games it became normal.”
Without giving away too much of the secret sauce, Dahl continues to expound on the contents of the cards.
“That card shows us where they hit it the most, where they do the most damage, so we try to take away their extra-base hits out there in the outfield. It’s something that I trust,” he confides.
Though this is the first time seeing those in purple pinstripes employ this helpful strategy, it’s nothing new for Ian Desmond.
“I used it when I played the outfield in Texas,” said the 2016 AL All-Star outfielder. “It’s been a pretty smooth transition. We’re playing good defense so, yeah, I think it’s helped. I think it’s always a mix of instincts and analytics. I think we’re doing a good job of utilizing it the best we can.”
Manager Bud Black has acknowledged the room for growth while detailing the process for how and when implementation began for his squad.
“It’s like anything, guys are getting used to it,” Black said. “We talked about it in Spring Training at length about why and what we think it could do to help our overall defense. There’s daily discussions about the cards that give the players direction on what type of defense we’re going to play against a certain guy. And the game will tell us whether a guy is in scoring position or double play and things like this.”
Even the club’s resident six-time Gold Glove Award winner has bought into the latest system.
“The analytics people went about it in Spring Training, which is the best part about it,” says Nolan Arenado. “You can get used to it there. I like it, but you learn to adapt to it in Spring Training. It’s been super easy during the season. It’s been nice.”
Approaching his 900th game at third base in the majors – where he’s won six consecutive defense awards for his play – Arenado has had to adjust to getting positioned further off the third base bag than normal. The new location hasn’t been ideal, but he’s working with it.
“A little uncomfortable at times. Especially with guys like Kyle Freeland, pitchers who are lefties that throw cutters or sliders inside,” Arenado explains. “I feel like righties are always pulling that down the line… I hate when balls go down the line on me.”
Adapting to the new positioning has been a work in progress as the typical locations around the diamond are no longer the ones where players are standing anymore. According to Garrett Hampson, who plays both infield and outfield, it changes the way players prepare for the game.
“It’s tough. You’ve gotta practice playing at those different spots.” Explains the rookie, “Take ground balls at second base: if you think about how many reps you’ve taking at second base throughout the minors and then you get up here… I haven’t played in that spot where you take ground balls all season. It’s different.”
Ultimately, everyone within the organization has made it clear that it isn’t all about the information on the note cards.
“They know what they’re talking about with some things, but a part of me, I trust who I am and I trust my instincts and I trust what I do,” Arenado says. “So, it’s a little bit of both. They reiterate that they don’t want to take away our instincts, we just want to start here. It’s definitely something you have to adapt to. It’s been good. We’re doing a good job.”
And when one of the men at the top cautions against shifting and defensive alignments at all cost, you know it’s not just lip service.
“We have a good group of guys that trust and so we wanted to push a little bit while still giving them flexibility.” Rosenthal adds, “The one thing I never want is our players not feeling they are able to be athletes, not feeling they can use their instinct, not feeling they can do whatever it is that makes them comfortable.”
In addition, certain outcomes – which simply cannot be predicted every single time – leave everyone involved with a less than a comfortable feeling.
“Obviously, it’s easy to point out those double plays, like those ground ball to second base that are for hits,” admits Arenado. “It’s kind of frustrating because you’re like, ‘Man, that was tailor-made for a double play.’ But there’s some where they hit it at short and Story is playing a little over. That stuff can be a little frustrating, but we’ve had a decent amount of lineouts to center field and McMahon is standing right there. It plays both ways.”
Even after countless calculations to best configure the defense, there can be some additional logistics that can become frustrating with having up-to-date information.
“They are a pain the butt every time someone makes a roster move,” Rosenthal shared. “They have to get printed in a certain way so they can fit in a pocket. There’s a whole mess…. We’ve got to bring a laminator on the road with us now. It takes a lot of time. It’s got to be right.”
If you attend a game at Coors Field during this homestand, you might discover it’s even harder to find the players consulting the note card, especially with divisional foes San Francisco and San Diego in town.
“It’s something you get used to. It’s pretty easy,” McMahon shares. “Usually, once you play (the other team) once, you have an idea where to play them with a left-handed or right-handed pitcher. It takes just one time through to get used to it.”
If you watch any major league game, you’re going to see teams doing the same thing as Colorado. But will we see such strategies in the minors any time soon?
“You see what we’re doing here at the big league level. It’s going to have to start trickling down,” theorizes Hampson. “You’re going to have to get used to those different spots.”
And Blackmon still admits, “it stinks” when a hit is surrendered to a spot where normally a defender would stand but wholeheartedly believes the pros outweigh the cons in those situations. “It’s just so hard to get a hit on the ground these days,” adding from the hitting perspective that this also “stinks.”
If it’s aggravating the hitters, it’s working.
While it’s unclear if the minors will be getting this injection of analytics any time soon, it’s clear that the Rockies are utilizing this strategy throughout the foreseeable future.
And while it may look a little different from the baseball that has been played for over 100 years, it also appears to be paying off in a big way.
