Blackmon relishes challenge of center field | MLB.com
Thomas Harding interviews Charlie Blackmon about the difficulties in playing center field at Coors Field for the Colorado Rockies. Not only is there a lot of area to cover, but Blackmon talks about the process he uses to recover his body from all the running. Inside the article, there’s also a blurb about how Mark Reynolds’ emergence has cut into the playing time of other regulars.
Rockies most loyal fan is a homeless ex-con who lives in an abandoned batting cage | Denver Post
Nick Groke continues the Post’s series about the 25th year of Major League Baseball in Denver by relating the story of Angelo Peterson. Peterson has been a fixture at spring training for years and has developed a relationship with Rockies players and staff, including Charlie Blackmon and Tyler Chatwood, imparting baseball suggestions as well as life advice. Blackmon also recounts a cool story about seeing Peterson in the 16th Street Mall Shuttle.
Pat “Valatenight” has been a revelation for the Rockies reserves | BSNRockies
When Pat Valaika was first promoted and compared to Cristhian Adames, I thought Valaika had more power, but based on their histories, it looked like Adames would ultimately be the better bat. Currently, Valaika’s getting on base at a .314 clip, which isn’t much of a clip at all and he’s four for his last 20 at bats (.200 batting average) with just one walk.
Now, the smoke and mirrors of a recent 4-for-20 performance is really not much more suggestive of future failure than a 3-for-10 pinch hitting performance is indicative of future success, so it may take some time to figure out whether Valaika is truly better than Adames or not. In all likelihood, the difference between Valaika, Adames and a hundred other backup infielders is mostly negligible and a matter of taste. We also know it’s not uncommon for players to experience some initial success until the teams around a league develop a scouting report to defeat them. So, unless Valaika figures it out on a consistent basis, he might become the next Stephen Cardullo, who was another cool story and the sort of thing legends were made of upon his promotion, until he proved to be an unexciting option just a month later.
Dodgers Roberts’ praises Rockies ‘very balanced club’ | Mile High Sports
Alissa Noe reports on Dave Roberts observations about this iteration of the Colorado Rockies. He noticed that though the Rockies offense has not changed much, the pitching staff has gained an ability to not only pitch well, but to find additional quality pitchers to fill in the gaps when injuries occur.