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

Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black spoke with Rockies radio broadcaster Jack Corrigan for over half an hour on Friday in a Zoom interview and he spoke on a number of different topics.

For the first time in what could be a recurring thing for the time being at least, Colorado Rockies manager Bud Black spoke to Rockies radio broadcaster Jack Corrigan via Zoom for a roundtable discussion about the recent layoff from baseball, amongst various other things.

There is a lot to unpack from it since it was over 30 minutes in length so let’s dive into some of the highlights.

Black describes how games were shut down

For the Colorado Rockies and most of the rest of baseball, it was not a huge shock to see that baseball was ending considering what was on the horizon with the coronavirus pandemic developing into a massive problem in early- to mid-March.

With that, though, those in baseball were still carrying on as usual as long as they could and Black described how the decision, even though not unexpected, still came down quickly.

On the day after the rest of spring training was postponed, the Rockies were supposed to have a split doubleheader, with one game being at home in Scottsdale and one being on the road in Goodyear at night.

Black was telling some of the players where they’d be going (either staying in Scottsdale or getting ready for the game in Goodyear) for the following day.

Black picks the story up from there:

“Within an hour [of telling the players where they’d be going], Jack, we were told ‘there’s no baseball tomorrow,'” said Black, “and then, things happened so fast thereafter that it was sort of a blur and now, obviously, within the next couple of weeks, things slowed down [as far as baseball was concerned], but this has been crazy for sure, Jack. This is something we’ll look back on one time and say ‘do you remember in 2020 when we didn’t start the [season] because the coronavirus?”

Black on what he has done since games have stopped

Like most people are doing, Black said that he has been staying home. His two daughters have been working from home but, obviously, you can’t do that much with baseball.

He said that he has been in frequent contact with the Rockies front office and his coaching staff. After the interview with Corrigan, Black said that he was going to be on Zoom with Nolan Arenado, Trevor Story, Josh Fuentes, Ryan McMahon, Garrett Hampson, and a couple of his coaches for a total of ten people on the call.

Meanwhile, Black’s garage is “as clean as it’s ever been,” he has been doing a lot of yard work, including raking leaves, watching a lot of Netflix, and watching classic games on MLB Network, which is probably what most people have been doing if they have been at home.

Black on similar work stoppage circumstances in recent years

There have been three work stoppages that you can draw some comparisons to with the current situation: the MLBPA’s strikes of 1981 and 1994-1995 and the postponement of games following the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

For the 1981 strike, Bud Black was one of the beneficiaries of the work stoppage at the MLB level. Minor league players were still playing and, at the time, he was with the Double-A Lynn Sailors in the Seattle Mariners organization.

With the MLB players on strike, the MLB scouts were assigned to the minor leagues. Black recalls how a Kansas City Royals scout saw him at the time and he saw Black pitch three straight good games in the Eastern League. The scout reported back to Royals GM (and future Hall of Famer) John Schuerholz that the Royals should keep an eye on Black for a possible trade in the future.

After the strike, the Mariners called Black up for a cup of coffee as he made two relief appearances out of the bullpen for the atrocious Mariners team that was 21 games under .500 in just 109 games (equivalent to a 97 loss team in a full season). Coincidentally, the Mariners manager was Rene Lachemann, who was on the Rockies coaching staff prior to Black becoming the manager.

After the 1981 season, the Mariners traded for infielder Manny Castillo in exchange for a player to be named later. That player was Bud Black.

As Black said, his career may have never panned out as it had if not for that trade as Black went on to be a key starting pitcher for the Royals throughout the 80s and he helped them to a World Championship in 1985.

Towards the end of his career, in 1994, was the next (and most recent) work stoppage due to labor negotiations. The final 50 or so games of the season were canceled as well as the 1994 postseason, most of spring training canceled, and 18 games shaved off of the schedule in 1995.

The 28 MLB owners actually had replacement players ready in the event that the players wouldn’t return but future Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor ruled in a federal court that baseball must return and return with the regular players.

Most free agents (including Black and future Hall of Famer Larry Walker) signed with teams during the three week period between the strike ending and the regular season starting. That three weeks became Spring Training and, as Black described it, it was “like a fire drill” because everything came together for Spring Training so quickly.

Black lived in San Diego and signed with the Cleveland Indians (for a second go-around as he played for them from 1988 through 1991). They were training in Winter Haven, Florida at the time so Black had to go across the country to go to Spring Training. Corrigan was an Indians TV broadcaster in both of Black’s tenures there.

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).

Black on the Nolan Arenado trade rumors

“I texted with Nolan through January and his responses were great. Obviously, I’m in contact with [Rockies GM] Jeff [Bridich} all the time and when we got to Arizona, I saw Nolan in the clubhouse. He was unpacking his bag and he came up to me and gave me one of the best handshakes I’ve had all winter, a big smile, the guy hug, and he was fine and he was ready to play and get after it like Nolan does.”

Black continued:

“The thing that everybody has to remember is that both guys are extremely competetive and both guys want to win and the thing about it [is] we’re all trying to acheive the same goal: we’re trying to win a World Series,” said Black. “Jeff is, Nolan is, [Rockies owner] Dick [Monfort] is, all of us are so never be confused with what our goals are. Both of those guys are aligned on the same thing on what our outcomes want to be… “He and Nolan have interaction and everything was fine as far those two guys and where their heads are and what that means for the Rockies this season and moving forward. With that, rest assured that both guys are true professionals who understand what they need to do in their job.

Black explained that he thinks that the Rockies third baseman reached a new level of leadership in the abbreviated spring training that they had before the layoff.

“I think Nolan, for me,” said Black, “took it to another level this spring as far as leadership and setting the right example about what we want to do as [an organization] and it was really great to see.”