The Colorado Rockies have an elite reliever and he has an incredible story

In his first three seasons (142.2 innings pitched), Oberg had a 5.05 ERA, 1.542 WHIP and a walk rate per nine of 4.2. He was erratic and constantly conceding the big hit.

Even in 2018, he started out by allowing eight earned runs in his first 11 innings, including five of his 11 walks this year. Worse, he had inherited 13 runners … and 11 of them came around to score.

In late April, given that he looked like the same unstable guy he had been for the prior three seasons, he was sent down to Triple-A.

“There were a lot of things I had to go back to and rethink about when I was in Triple-A,” Oberg told Rox Pile. “Not go back to scratch but change my approach and mentality. I tried it down there then brought it up here and haven’t skipped a beat.”

This isn’t the story of a new mechanical tweak, added pitch or finding the secret sauce in the fountain of youth. This is the story about a middle of the road reliever who didn’t seem like he’d have a fruitful career who turned it around because of his brain.

“Adversity, for a lot of players, makes a player stronger if they fight through it,” Colorado manager Bud Black told Rox Pile. “A lot of guys fall through the wayside when there is adversity. But there are those people who fight through adversity, and hard times and get through it — and they’re talented. Scotty is one of those guys.”