Now 101 games into the 2017 season, one question becomes more pressing as each day passes for the Colorado Rockies: How will its young rotation fare deep into August and beyond?
Tyler Anderson, who surpassed his one-year mark in the major leagues just last month, said that with the training staff, led by Keith Dugger, behind them, there’s really nothing holding this starting rotation back, no matter how much experience they may or may not have.
“I just think that all of that really just comes down to our strength and conditioning program,” Anderson said. “I think we have a really good one in place, and I think guys follow that pretty regularly. So, I think that our stamina should stay good as a staff in general, whether it’s older guys or younger guys. Everybody should probably be from now on actually getting a little bit better, I would imagine.”
Jon Gray, a fairly young major leaguer himself, said that after he’s pitched a game, that recovery and work with the training staff is extraordinarily important to staying fresh.
“It’s definitely more [work] than you think it is,” Gray said. “It’s tough over a long time, and every five days you feel like you’ve been in a car accident. It can be tough on your body, but you got to know what you’re putting in and make it as strong as possible before the next time out. The better you do recover – especially with elevation; it can be kind of tough sleeping – the better you recover here, the more work you can put in before you’re out again.”
Of course, when it comes to Coors Field, the elevation adds another obstacle to the stamina and elasticity of the body, which often compounds the effects after each “car accident.”
“Your joints just feel rusty when you wake up in the morning, but it’s a lot easier at sea level. But here, it’s just something you’ve got to adapt to,” Gray said. “With elevation, you can get used to it like in a week or two, but just the way your body recovers in it, it can have an effect and you can have an episode. The more you use your amino acids and omega three’s and stuff and keep your body good and recover it faster, you’re going to get a lot more work in.”
Rookie Jeff Hoffman has noticed throughout the season that if you’re not feeling fresh heading into your next start, you’re doing something wrong.
“With the sports staff we have around us, it makes it hard not to keep your body in shape and everything,” Hoffman said. “The days leading up to our next [start], the next few days we’re sore and stuff, but we’re in the weight room, we get our protein and recovery drinks in us as much as possible. We have guys who helps us on the massage side of things. Like I said, the support staff is unmatched. We come in and we just make our stops throughout the day and the days leading up, and by the time that fourth or fifth day rolls around, we’re ready to go.”
Rookie Antonio Senzatela has noticed that he’s had to put in extra work in his somewhat unstable tenure with the Colorado Rockies so far this season, bouncing from the starting rotation to the bullpen. That was followed by a brief stint in Triple-A as he’s struggled at times to keep his velocity up and work out the kinks in his command. Additionally, he’s found himself having to make some hefty sacrifices en route to being at peak fitness.
“I just work really hard in the gym, and it’s good,” Senzatela said. “I stay away from chocolate, but it’s hard.”
Even though the move to the bullpen and then Triple-A was certainly not ideal, the benefits that Senzatela reaped from it should help him out in the long run, and the difference in his command and speed is something he’s noticed already.
“I feel really good, I feel strong,” Senzatela said. “They helped me by putting me in the bullpen for a couple of weeks, and that helped. Now that I’m back, that helped my arm feel good.”
Sometimes, however, it’s just best to rest in between big games, and not overdo it.
“I think, if anything, when you think you need to do more sometimes is when you need to do less because you’ve done all this work to build up a good base and be in good shape that when you start to get tired, the natural instinct is that I need to do more so that I’m in better shape,” Anderson said. “But it’s probably because your body’s fatiguing, so if you pull back a little bit, that’s time to recover and get back to normal, and that’s when you can get the work back up.”
At the end of the day, these young pitchers just have to be ready for anything, and that’s something that Gray preaches every day.
“I just tell them to look forward to tomorrow and always be ready, because there are going to be times when you got to step up and do good stuff for the team, so be ready for that call.”
