Colorado Rockies need to follow in the footsteps of the San Francisco Giants, others

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SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA – SEPTEMBER 19: Manager Gabe Kapler #19 of the San Francisco Giants looks on from the dugout during the game Atlanta Braves at Oracle Park on September 19, 2021 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

One of the divisional rivals of the Colorado Rockies, the San Francisco Giants, were ahead of the curve before the 2021 season when they adopted a new style of coaching staff: have a lot more coaches than a usual coaching staff has. Manager Gabe Kapler had 15 coaches (including five coaches working with pitchers and catchers and three hitting coaches) and that ended up being a factor in the success the Giants had this past season.

Now, there are other teams that are starting to follow suit, including the Milwaukee Brewers, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Kansas City Royals have followed the Giants to an extent as each will have at least three hitting coaches in 2021.

But to follow in the steps of the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies need to go further than they have in recently.

The Colorado Rockies did go a step further to an extent in 2021.

The Rockies had three hitting coaches on their staff in 2021 in Dave Magadan (hitting coach), Jeff Salazar (assistant hitting coach), and Tim Doherty (major league coach). While Doherty didn’t have an official “hitting coach” title, he was a hitting coach or coordinator in pro baseball prior to joining the Rockies MLB staff before 2021 so he was a de facto hitting coach.

The Rockies also have Doug Bernier, who was added to the MLB coaching staff before the 2020 season as the “Major League data and game-plan coordinator.”

But since the end of the 2021 season, the Rockies have let Salazar and Doherty go.

Now, in addition to hiring replacements for them, the Rockies should go further than what they have had in recent years.

DENVER, CO – JUNE 6: Manager Bud Black of the Colorado Rockies (R) and Pitching Coach Steve Foster looks on during the first inning against the Oakland Athletics at Coors Field on June 6, 2021 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Justin Edmonds/Getty Images) /

The San Francisco Giants had five coaches working with pitchers including Andrew Bailey (pitching), Brian Bannister (director of pitching), Craig Albernaz (bullpen coach as well as catching coach), J.P. Martinez (assistant pitching), and Brant Whiting (bullpen). The Colorado Rockies should have something similar to that on both the pitching and hitting fronts.

The Rockies have a director of pitching in Steve Foster, who just accepted the role after leaving the role of pitching coach and the retirement of Mark Wiley. Darryl Scott is the new pitching coach, who was promoted to the spot after Foster was promoted. The Rockies do have a “coordinator of pitching strategy” in Flint Wallace as well. But they still have to hire a bullpen coach and they do have manager Bud Black (a former pitcher and pitching coach himself) but they could use another pitching mind (like an assistant pitching coach).

We all know that the Rockies always have to have help in the pitching department in creating consistency. Fortunately for them, they have the best starting rotation in the team’s brief history. But they had a more glaring issue in 2021: pitching on the road.

In 2021, Rockies pitchers had an ERA of 4.67 at Coors Field and opponents hit .256/.326/.427 against them. On the road, the Rockies had an ERA of 4.99 and opponents hit .264/.339/.443.

Here’s a look at the Rockies five primary starting pitchers at Coors Field in 2021:

Germán Márquez: 8-3, 3.67 ERA, 18 starts, 1.175 WHIP
Jon Gray: 5-5, 4.02 ERA, 14 starts, 1.149 WHIP
Antonio Senzetela: 3-3, 3.97 ERA, 15 starts, 1.212 WHIP
Kyle Freeland: 4-3, 4.83 ERA, 11 starts, 1.475 WHIP
Austin Gomber: 5-1, 2.09 ERA, 9 starts, 0.951 WHIP

And here are those same pitchers on the road in 2021:

Germán Márquez: 4-8, 5.38 ERA, 14 starts, 1.403 WHIP
Jon Gray: 3-7, 5.22 ERA, 15 starts, 1.528 WHIP
Antonio Senzetela: 1-7, 5.05 ERA, 13 starts, 1.515 WHIP
Kyle Freeland: 3-5, 3.84 ERA, 12 starts, 1.361 WHIP
Austin Gomber: 4-8, 6.22 ERA, 14 starts, 1.441 WHIP

So, ironically enough, the Colorado native (Kyle Freeland) was the only Rockies starting pitcher who wasn’t better at Coors Field.

Another pitching coach, one especially who specializes in analytics, may be able to help that.

As for a third (and possibly, a fourth) hitting coach, the Rockies need to be able to find someone that specializes in analytics and help the Rockies be able to figure out their hitting woes on the road.

Here are the offensive splits for the Rockies at home and on the road:

Coors: .280/.341/.475, 764 hits, 171 doubles, 25 triples, 104 homers, 443 RBI
Away: .217/.291/.352, 574 hits, 104 doubles, 9 triples, 78 homers, 266 RBI

Those away numbers are better than they were before their road games in September. In the month of September on the road, the Rockies hit .244 and averaged 5.23 runs per game on the road.

But in addition to being able to find a solution to those issues, the Rockies (and other teams) are behind the Giants in diversity in their coaching.

In addition to diversity in their baseball backgrounds and a few Spanish-speaking coaches (primarily, their quality control coach Nick Ortiz and assistant pitching coach J.P. Martinez), the Giants have a coach (Taira Uematsu) who is a native Japanese speaker. He is the first MLB coach to be born in Japan. They also have a female coach in Alyssa Nakken, who had been in the Giants baseball operations department since 2014.

The Rockies NL West rival, the Arizona Diamondbacks, are hiring coaches with proven experience. They hired former Texas Rangers manager Jeff Banister as bench coach, they hired former Cincinnati Reds assistant hitting coach Joe Mather (who will have three assistants, two of which will be in the majors and one in the minors but they will rotate for that), and they have reportedly hired Brent Strom to be their pitching coach. Strom had been the Houston Astros pitching coach since 2014. He was one of the key figures behind turning them from one of the worst pitching teams in baseball to one of the best in the last half-decade.

Jun 19, 2021; Denver, Colorado, USA; Detailed view of a MLB baseball on the top of the mound at Coors Field before a game between the Milwaukee Brewers against the Colorado Rockies. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports /

So here’s what the Colorado Rockies need to do to help some of the team issues from 2021.

They will add a bullpen coach to replace Darryl Scott but they really should hire an assistant pitching coach as well so they can have plenty of minds as pitching coaches, in theory (director pitching Steve Foster, Director of Pitching Strategy Flint Wallace, Scott, an assistant pitching coach, a bullpen coach, and Bud Black.
They will add at least one hitting coach but they should have another coach that is, at least, a de facto second assistant hitting coach and, possibly, a third. Perhaps one of them could be a “director of hitting,” who could help with hitting strategies in the majors and minors and, particularly, getting players in the majors and in minors getting used to going between sea level and altitude.
They need to add some coaches that bring some more diversity. That could be female coaches, coaches that are fluent in Spanish and/or other languages, and/or diversity in backgrounds (especially in analytics). They already have a few coaches and people around the team that are fluent in Spanish but adding coaches that are fluent in other languages (like Japanese) could help bring some other players to the Rockies.

dark. Next. This is the Rockies 2022 dream lineup

The Rockies have added extra coaches in recent years and that has helped them better understand some of their issues. But now that they have identified the issues, they have to find solutions to them and not let the problems fester. And adding coaches to their staff, like the San Francisco Giants have and other teams like the Arizona Diamondbacks and Milwaukee Brewers are doing, will help them find solutions.

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But to follow in the steps of the San Francisco Giants, the Colorado Rockies need to go further than they have in recently.

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