Manager ready for high-altitude fixes

Black says he learned about rest and recovery for pitchers

SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.» Bud Black is a baseball lifer, and smart enough to know that there’s still plenty to learn, especially about leading a Rockies team that plays half its games at a mile above sea level.

While managing baseball at high altitude for the first time last season didn’t change Black’s basic, strategic view of the game, he has come to recognize that he must tweak his approach, especially when it comes to handling the physical toll on his pitchers.

“Managing the game itself wasn’t drastically different, and there weren’t a lot of new things I learned about managing a game,” Black said Thursday as pitchers and catchers worked out in a chilly drizzle at spring training. “I probably learned more about rest and recovery and the physical aspects of playing Denver.”

The Rockies beefed up their bullpen this winter, spending $104 million to sign closer Wade Davis and setup men Bryan Shaw and Jake McGee. Add in Mike Dunn, Adam Ottavino, Chris Rusin, Scott Oberg and others, and Black should have plenty of tools at his disposal. But Black, who pitched 15 years in the majors and managed for eight-plus seasons at San Diego, now realizes that he can’t overuse those tools.

“Generally speaking, you would like your starting pitcher to pitch into the game as deep as you can, because you have to try to avoid going to the bullpen too early,” he said.

Then he provided an example.

“Let’s say we come back from a seven-game road trip and we have seven games in a row in Denver,” Black explained. “And in the first game, so-and-so is pitching. We sort of need this guy to go deep. Because what if you have to use five guys that first night? Heads up, those next six games.

“So you might have to be a little bit more patient with your starter. And if he has to suck it up and have a rough (game), then that might have to be the case.”

Under the tutelage of Black, pitching coach Steve Foster and bullpen coach Darren Holmes, Colorado’s young rotation exceeded the expectations of many last season as the Rockies finished 87-75 and qualified as a wild-card playoff team. The rotation went 63-56, posting the second-most wins by starters in franchise history, trailing only the 69-50 record of the 2009 playoff team.

However, the young starting rotation logged just 887 innings, ranking seventh in the National League. For the sake of his bullpen, Black would like to see the starters carry a heavier load in 2018.

Managers are often second-guessed by fans and media for moves made on the mound. Black explained, however, that those outside the Rockies’ clubhouse seldom know the true story of how altitude taxes a bullpen.

“I’ll simplify it and put it this way: More guys were down than you thought, on the pitching side, last year,” Black said.

Inside the clubhouse, the pitchers have found Black to be their trusted ally.

“If I have to pitch three innings and haven’t pitched three innings in a long time, I’m going to be sore for two to three days,” said Rusin, whose 85 innings in relief topped the NL last season. “Bud will give me those days off. He’s always communicating and I’m communicating with him, because I might be able to recover faster and be ready to pitch in a day or two if I have a long outing or whatever.

“He’s been good. He did a great job last year keeping all the arms fresh. I’m really looking forward to it this year.”