Colorado Rockies: An In-Depth Look at Bud Black and Bullpen Management

During the Colorado Rockies’ recent homestand, the bullpen was taxed by short outings and the loss of Mike Dunn to the disabled list. All of that happened in a perfect storm type of scenario against the Washington Nationals, a team that came to Denver red hot at the plate and took three of four games from Colorado.

It may seem like ancient history now, but we can learn some lessons from what happened against the Nationals.

Take Thursday’s 16-5 Washington rout, for example. Colorado’s bullpen lineup of Carlos Estevez and Jordan Lyles gave up 11 runs in two innings. Scott Oberg allowed another run in his one inning of work. That day, the box score reveals three unproductive innings by the bullpen.

Washington touched Colorado’s bullpen for five runs in four innings on Wednesday and five runs in five innings on Tuesday. In all, that’s 23 runs in 12 innings for the Colorado bullpen. In years past, that might be considered normal. This year, it’s an aberration.

It’s not exactly how Colorado wanted to hit the road and head to Arizona, but it’s the hand that was dealt to Bud Black. How the Colorado manager has handled it and some of the key points he looks for when moving forward toward the Diamondbacks is pretty interesting insight into his bullpen philosophy.

“The innings, for me, don’t matter,” Black told Rox Pile and other members of the media on Thursday. “It’s the number of pitches certain guys threw that might tax them. There were high pitch counts and that’s a little bit of concern. We’ll keep an eye on their arms.”

That’s one part of it. But read what Black said in this next quote, particularly about the “feel” involved when it comes to when to use a reliever and when not.

“There’s an expectation that relievers put on themselves that I am acutely aware of,” Black told Rox Pile and other media members last week. “Because of my past, I understand where those guys are coming from. There’s an ongoing discussion every day between Darren (Holmes, bullpen coach), Steve (Foster, pitching coach), me and our pitchers about how they’re doing on many different levels, physically, just the pure pitching aspect and the mechanics. Being in tune with where they are, what they’re doing and how they’re feeling. Their confidence level, both physically and mentally and performance. You can sort of gauge how to use them. I can tell when guys are sort of rolling and feeling it and you want them back out there. I can also tell when guys are maybe needing an inning here or a day off or a couple of innings here or a couple of days off. Then maybe you can get them into that position when they’re truly confident. “A lot of it is feel and how to use those guys. That feel is inherently, for me, I just sort of get it because I’ve been in their shoes before. These guys have been honest with their pitching coaches and I about how they’ve been feeling. This goes back to spring training about how their arms are and what they need. There’s been great dialogue about how they’re feeling physically.”

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Colorado is unique from other teams in Major League Baseball because of the effects of Coors Field. Yes, let the discussion begin about playing at altitude but it is something Black learned early in his Colorado managerial career. He mentioned at spring training how Colorado’s roster was built differently, with an extra reliever at the ready, compared to the majority of other Major League clubs.

“That’s part of the reason that we carry eight relievers and we do have some flexibility with our goals and what roles they have with us,” Black said.” These guys will play catch here and we’ll talk to them and see how they feel. We’ll monitor that.”

But don’t let the Coors Field narrative dominate the discussion, Black is quick to point out.

“It’s still baseball,” Black said. “The games can get chaotic and you never know how they’re going to play out. There are things, at times, that happen here than other parks but it’s still one team against the next. That’s the thing that I always go back to. On that given night and that given game, we’re still playing the same conditions. Somebody’s going to win that game. That’s the mindset that I want our guys to have.”