This is fun: Troy Tulowitzki, still sounding bitter after the way last summer's trade from the Colorado Rockies to the Toronto Blue Jays
went down, told USA Today that he prefers his new spring training home
over the Salt River Fields facility in Scottsdale, which the Rockies
share with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"I like this place a lot better than Arizona," Tulowitzki said of the
Jays' Dunedin, Florida, home. "That place was like a country club. Guys
got comfortable because it was so nice."
Having been to all the
spring training sites in Arizona, I will say this: The Salt River
complex is gorgeous, a little slice of baseball heaven. It does
feel like a country club, with spacious clubhouses, perfectly manicured
practice fields and a sweet home stadium, with the two clubhouses
located beyond the outfield. The Chicago Cubs'
facility that opened last year in Mesa is stunning as well, except with
one significant difference: Their clubhouse is cramped, much smaller
than the other new facilities in Arizona, perhaps a deliberate move by
the Cubs to improve team bonding.
Anyway, I guess Tulowitzki's
implication is ... what? That the Rockies are losers because of their
spring training facility? That they're not working as hard in spring
training as other teams because of the country club atmosphere? OK,
let's run with this. If there's something to what Tulo said, how would
it show up? The Rockies would get off to a slow start, right? They
wouldn't prepare themselves for the season, and the reality of
regular-season baseball would expose that softness.
The
Salt River complex opened in 2011. Here's how the Rockies have fared
each season in their first 14 games, in April and over the entire
season: 2011
First 14 games: 11-3 (.786)
April: 17-8 (.680)
Season: 73-89 (.451) 2012
First 14 games: 7-7 (.500)
April: 11-11 (.500)
Season: 64-98 (.395) 2013
First 14 games: 10-4 (.714)
April: 16-11 (.593)
Season: 74-88 (.457) 2014
First 14 games: 6-8 (.429)
April: 16-13 (.551)
Season: 66-96 (.407) 2015
First 14 games: 7-7 (.500)
April: 11-10 (.525)
Season: 68-94 (420)
Tulowitzki couldn't be more wrong. The Rockies have played better every April -- usually much
better -- than they do over the course of the regular season. In those
five seasons, they've gone 71-53 in April, a .573 winning percentage.
That's the fourth-best win-loss record in the majors in April over that
span, behind only the New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals and Texas Rangers. After April, the Rockies have played .399 ball.
Back
to the drawing board, Tulo. The Rockies have finished under .500 the
past five seasons, but don't blame the spring training facility. This is
why players don't always make the best analysts.
Anyway, that spread between April and the rest of the season is worth digging into deeper: Offense, 2011-2015
April: .271/.333/.445, 5.0 runs per game
Season: .269/.325/.448, 4.6 runs per game Defense, 2011-2015
April: .752 OPS, 6.9 SO/9, 4.5 runs per game
Season: .790 OPS, 6.9 SO/9, 5.0 runs per game
The
offense scores about half a run less over the season than it does in
April -- even with a minimal difference in its triple-slash line. Eight
points of OBP isn't minor, although that's somewhat offset by additional
slugging. Looks as if the Rockies have had better timely hitting in
April. The pitching does get significantly worse, getting hit much
harder and giving up an extra half-run per game. That could be a result
of altitude attrition, that Rockies pitchers get hurt more often or get
more fatigued due to pitching at elevation. Or it could simply be a
reflection of a lack of pitching depth in the organization that every
team needs -- even those who play at sea level.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Colorado Rockies manager Walt Weiss took issue Monday with Troy Tulowitzki's
published comments that the team has grown comfortable playing in a
state-of-the-art spring training facility that's the equivalent of a
"country club."
Tulowitzki told USA Today Sports that he prefers his new spring training home with the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin, Florida, to the 140-acre complex that Colorado and the Arizona Diamondbacks share at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick.
"I
like this place a lot better than Arizona," Tulowitzki told the
newspaper. "That place was like a country club. Guys got comfortable
because it was so nice."
Weiss, in his fourth year as Rockies
manager, disputed the notion that the Colorado players have gotten soft
because of the amenities at Salt River Fields. Colorado's half of the
facility includes six practice fields, modern training and video rooms, a
108-seat theater and an 11,000-square-foot weight room.
"I think
that's the furthest thing from the truth," Weiss told reporters. "We
have a nice place here and we're proud of it, but our guys are mentally
tough and they compete. I have no issue with our guys being soft or
country-clubbish. Our guys are the opposite of that.
"We
have a nice place here and we're proud of it, but our guys are mentally
tough and they compete. I have no issue with our guys being soft or
country-clubbish. Our guys are the opposite of that."
Rockies manager Walt Weiss
"It's
a great facility. It's beautiful. We talk about gaining a competitive
edge because of this facility. A facility doesn't change their
mentality. We've got guys who work hard, play hard and compete extremely
well."
Tulowitzki's "country club" comments were part of a
wide-ranging interview with USA Today in which he criticized Rockies
general manager Jeff Bridich and the Colorado front office over the way
the team handled the July 27 trade that sent him to Toronto. Tulowitzki
made five All-Star teams and won two Gold Gloves as Colorado's starting
shortstop from 2007 to 2015.
"I'll never talk to him, never talk
to those people," Tulowitzki said of Bridich. "You get lied to, straight
to your face, you get upset. I believe in forgiveness, but at the same
time, I don't plan on being friendly with them, or anything like that."
While
Bridich declined comment to ESPN on Tulowitzki's critique, Weiss said
the Colorado organization has tried to move past the tension that
resulted during the process of trading Tulowitzki to the Blue Jays.
"Tulo
and I have a good connection, but in baseball timing, that's eons ago,"
Weiss said. "It happened last year, and that's a long time ago in
baseball terms. There's a time to move on from it. That's what we've
done."
TAMPA, Fla. -- Aroldis Chapman
has been in Yankees camp for nearly two weeks now, and one thing we can
report unequivocally is something you probably already know: He is
forbidding.
And that's just in the clubhouse.
On Monday the
Yankees got a chance to see just how forbidding he can be on the mound,
too, at least a "fortunate" foursome of rookies chosen to face him in
his first live batting practice session. Tyler Wade, Jorge Mateo, Ben Gamel
and Cesar Puello each got their turn in the cage, but only one got even
a decent swing. That was Gamel, who lined a Chapman slider into short
right field. The others either kept the bats safely on their shoulders,
corkscrewed themselves into the ground trying to hit the ball or walked
away holding a bat fragment while shaking out a vibrating hand, as Mateo
did after one of his turns.
"They were trying, but they were just
laughing and saying, 'This is unhittable,'" said Carlos Corporan, who
caught for Chapman. "They knew they had no chance. And he wasn't even
throwing hard. Can you imagine 104 with that kind of changeup he has?
You've got to go home, bro. Game over."
Corporan,
who is trying to make the team as the backup catcher, was one of the
few Yankees in that cage happy to see Chapman because, of course, he
didn't have to attempt to hit off him. At the end of Sunday's workout,
coach Tony Pena asked Corporan if he had ever caught Chapman.
"Nope," Corporan said.
"Well, you're catching him tomorrow," he was told.
"I
went home all excited and I woke up like a little kid," said Corporan,
32, a veteran of six big league seasons who is here as a nonroster
invitee. "I was looking to do that. I was like, 'I can die now and I'll
be happy. Now I can go to heaven.'"
Corporan now knows Chapman
about as well as any of his teammates and certainly better than his
manager, because the closer seems to communicate best when he is on the
mound. There is no mistaking his message when he has a baseball in his
hand; it is basically, "I'm going to throw this and you can't hit it."
"He wasn't even trying today, and he was throwing 98," Corporan said. "That's God-given. It's a real talent."
Off
the field, it appears to be a different story. Chapman spends much of
his time in the clubhouse facing into his locker, often while staring
into a smartphone. His interview sessions with the beat writers,
hampered somewhat by a language barrier, often yield one- and two-word
answers and rarely exceed a couple of minutes. (His post-workout
"session" on Tuesday lasted precisely 59 seconds before he was hustled
away by a member of the Yankees PR staff.)
Even manager Joe
Girardi, who said last week he would strive to "get to know" Chapman
before forming an opinion on the domestic violence suspension hanging
over the pitcher's head, basically admitted he had yet to accomplish
that mission.
"I’ve had some conversations, but I mean, they’re
short," Girardi said. "He seems to fit in very well into our clubhouse. I
think our guys accept him, want to be there for him, just like they
would anyone else, but everything I’ve seen is he’s been good in the
clubhouse."
Asked why his interactions with his new closer have
been short, Girardi cited the language barrier, a lack of time and a
responsibility to get to know the other 65 players in camp too.
There
is also, of course, the looming prospect of an MLB suspension, which
always seems to come up in the conversation and understandably makes
both Chapman and his questioners uncomfortable.
"It’s a sensitive issue, and it should be a sensitive issue," Girardi said.
It
doesn't help that there is almost always a daily "tip" to either a
media member or a member of the Yankees hierarchy that this will be the
day commissioner Rob Manfred comes down with his ruling. Nearly two
weeks have come and gone since Manfred said he was getting close to
making a decision on two of the three domestic violence issues involving
ballplayers -- Jose Reyes and Yasiel Puig are the others -- and while he has placed Reyes on paid leave, he has yet to rule on either of the other two.
"I
know that at some point, we're going to hear something," Yankees GM
Brian Cashman said. "Now, it's not out of my mind. But it's not in our
control. We just knew when we acquired him that there would be something
that we're dealing with. Whatever it's going to be, it's going to be."
It lends an air of awkwardness to all transactions with Chapman. Except, of course, when he is on the mound.
"I
just wanted to see what it was like," said Wade, a 21-year-old
infielder. "Obviously I’ve seen him on TV a lot, and it was a good
experience. It was everything I’d heard of and more. It was definitely
difficult, that's for sure. I mean, it’s tough to see the ball coming
out of his hand, especially being a left-handed hitter. It was really
fun."
Fun? "Well, I had one decent swing off him, so I consider that a victory," he said.
Corporan,
who has an opt-out at the end of March, said he would be happy to catch
Chapman again. Just so long as he doesn't have to step in against him.
"No,
I don’t want to hit against him," he said. "In fact, I'm probably going
to become his best friend so if I ever face him, I’ll have half a
chance."
With the enigma that is Aroldis Chapman, that might be the loftiest goal of all.
