DENVER – On paper, the Colorado Rockies have one of the longest and scariest lineups in the National League. Unfortunately for those in Denver, parts of those paper have been whited out and marked up while others have been frozen and pushed down in hopes of pressure creating heat in their bat.
Most know pressure can create heat, but pressure can create ice too. This is the issue the Rockies are facing with two of their sluggers: where and how does a first-year manager push to help pull Carlos Gonzalez and Trevor Story out of their slumps.
Neither player is new to a slump. In fact, slugger and slump go together like candy and cavities. In 2013, Story almost had his development derailed by a slow start; in 2015, a few deranged Denverites were ready to designate the All-Star for assignment in the first half.
Arguably this is the lowest valley either player has ever faced to start a season. With a new manager and a completely new hitting coach staff, the two are grappling to the old habits which once made them so successful and many think will make them successful soon.
“With CarGo, there is still conversations going on but they’re more about how he’s feeling and if he’s seeing the ball and some mechanical things,” Bud Black said. “You keep looking at history and you realize things are going to turn around.”
“He’s been through these before,” Black continued. “I haven’t done all the research on how long on how some of his valleys have been but what I’ve been told by the Rockies and the people that have been around CarGo is this length of time has been there before. I guess 2015 there was a stretch like this early in the year and he turned it around significantly. That’s where the belief in the player comes into play.”
That 2015 season saw CarGo OPS a mere .766 in the first half, and through his first 27 games—the amount he’s played in thus far—it was just .573. The sweet-swinging left-hander is at .578 right now, down from a career OPS of .861.
As Black said and as anyone that has seen him play for as long as the fans of the Rockies have, this isn’t a shocking slump.
Story’s slump has shocked some. Last year his start was historically good, maybe the best for a rookie ever through one month of play.
“With Trevor, I think there is more conversation,” Black said. “Whether it’s mental approach or physical, the fundamentals. We’ve had more discussions and more time in the cage, and a couple discussions in my office. More conversations with Trevor than I have with CarGo just based on where they are in their careers.”
“With Trevor some of these stretches—according to Duane (Espy) and he’s probably been around him more than anyone—he’s had some of these in the minor leagues, especially early in the year at different levels,” Black kept on. “And Duane says he has always come out of these battles before.”
Back in 2013, a year so unsuccessful for Story that he had to repeat High-A he started with a sorry .167 batting average through his first 29 games, the same amount he’s played this year. He’s down to .155 at the moment. Most talk about that season as a whole being bad for Story but from game 30 through 130 to complete his season he batted .252. Hitting 11 of his 12 home runs in that stretch and upping his OPS by about 200 points. He had fast starts in the minors in 2014 and 2015 along with what we know he did in 2016 with the Purple Pinstripes. The point Black wanted to relay is that this isn’t something Story is unaccustomed to.
“When things are going not a player’s way, everybody’s intention is to help the player,” Black told. “That’s me, the hitting coaches, teammates, parents, high school coaches, next-door neighbors, sportswriters, baristas, uber and cab drivers… I get emails too, John from Broomfield, Mary from Parker, you’re hearing it from everybody and some players listen but it can be overwhelming. But most players that get to this level have a great deal of confidence and self-esteem in their ability to come out of it but it’s not easy when you feel as though you’re the focal point of so many people. You try to narrow it down to what makes the player perform at his highest level, and you break down his strengths and see if he’s meeting his criteria of his strengths. It’s one thing to talk about it but it’s another to do it between the lines. Trevor has a good perspective, he is not lost.”
The lack of pop from the sophomore shortstop has seen an effect on the overall numbers. The Rockies who are almost always first in run production sit at No. 11 in baseball.
“We still have a couple guys that haven’t hit their stride,” Black said. “At any one time we’ve had three guys swinging well and a couple not. When teams are rolling they have five or six guys really swinging well. We need five or six, we’re capable of it, we have the talent to do it we just haven’t done it yet.”
The Rockies are completely capable. Their pitchers have held down the fort, it’s up to the offense to take the Rockies to another level.
