Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black on layoff, return, Nolan Arenado, David Dahl, and you

What Black expects when baseball returns

Black said that he expects that they will get a fairly advanced warning on when baseball will return and it will be in the form of Spring Training. He expects three weeks for players to ramp up, with starting pitchers getting their pitch count up more being the biggest factor in it being three weeks.

Black also said that with spring training likely being shortened, “we will have expanded rosters like we did in ’95.” In 1995, rosters were expanded to 28 players from 25 for the start of the season. With rosters already expanding to 26 players for 2020, the number that the rosters will be at has yet to be determined but Black said that he expects to see “upwards of 29, 30 guys” on the roster when the regular season starts.

Black on David Dahl and his injury history

Some questions were asked by Rockies season ticket holders and one of them was on David Dahl and how much he can be relied upon to play center field when, at least thus far in his career, he has seen his fair share of injuries.

Here’s what Black had to say:

"“I know that one of David’s biggest priorities–biggest goals– is to play and to prove that he’s a true, everyday, durable player,” said Black. “That is his mind set and I love that–where David is right now mentally–that’s what he wants to show. He wants to show that, obviously, to himself, he wants to show that to his teammates and the organization, and [to] everybody who watches baseball so his mind is in the right spot there. Let’s just hope that some of these freakish injuries he has had, he can stay away from.”"

As Black continued, he described how he had to have his spleen removed while he was in the minors and how he turned his ankle on a play in the outfield at Coors Field last year. Black is hoping that Dahl can “get to that close to 600 at-bat range” in 2020 and beyond.

Black compared Dahl and his ability and injury history to of his own contemporaries from the 1980s. Tomorrow, we will actually compare those two players to Dahl (spoiler: both of them have plaques in the Baseball Hall of Fame).