Colorado Rockies notebook: Five things we learned from Kyle Freeland and Bud Black today

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The taxi squad and what Bud Black likes to do with it

Today, we found out that the Rockies taxi squad looks like this for the roadtrip.

• Catcher Brian Serven
• Outfielder/infielder Ryan Vilade
• Right-handed pitcher Chad Smith
• Right-handed pitcher Jose Mujica
• Right-handed pitcher Justin Lawrence

Black had indicated before that he plans on changing the taxi squad out each road trip with five different guys each time but there are some similiarites with each.

1. A catcher is on (which is required) but it’s only one (they had as many as two catchers on a four-man bench for a few series in 2019)
2. The Rockies mainly want rookies on the taxi squad, mainly as a learning experience in travelling with a MLB team.
3. Each time, there has been one right-handed pitcher with very limited MLB experience (Antonio Santos the first time and Jose Mujica on the second). Otherwise, all of them are rookies.

Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry discussed more about how the Rockies are using the taxi squad here.

So those are the most important things that we learned from the duo but we also did find out that the Rockies will have Elias Diaz catch German Marquez tomorrow and Yonathan Daza and Garrett Hampson will return to the lineup to face the left-hander Alex Wood tomorrow.

Today, most of the Rockies moved up in the lineup and Josh Fuentes and Sam Hilliard are in the starting lineup as well.