Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Christian Bergman on pitching at Coors Field, more

This offseason and particularly during the MLB lockout, MLB Trade Rumors has had some Q&A’s with a number of former MLB players. That continued on Wednesday with former Colorado Rockies pitcher Christian Bergman.

Bergman played in the majors for parts of five seasons and pitched for the Rockies in the majors from 2014 through 2016.

Throughout the nearly two-hour-long Q&A, Bergman answered a slew of questions, and many of them involved his time with the Rockies, some experiences in the minors, and some of the people that he is closest to with the Rockies.

Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Christian Bergman was asked about how it was to pitch in Coors Field

Coors Field has always been a place that pitchers feared because of the elevation. However, in recent years, the Colorado Rockies have been able to figure out how to pitch better there.

Just before the Rockies really started seeing success there and success in general, Christian Bergman was on the Rockies. One person asked him if the elevation messed with him and if he ever had instances where the ball would fly out of Coors. Bergman said it was more about pitch location.

“In Colorado at least, the hard part wasn’t as (many) popups turning into HRs, it was more getting your pitches to do what you wanted,” said Bergman. “When I was in Colorado Springs (the Triple-A affiliate for the Rockies through 2014), I had to take about 5 mph off my curveball just to get it to do what I wanted it to do. If you overthrow a pitch it tends to just go straight so (the) margin for error is small.”

Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Christian Bergman is still close to a few former teammates

When Christian Bergman broke in with the Colorado Rockies in 2014, they were a young team. Their offensive players were the fifth-youngest in the sport and their pitching staff was the league-average in age (28.5 years old). However, that included pitcher LaTroy Hawkins, who was 41 and the oldest player in the NL at the time.

Bergman said that despite playing for the Rockies six to eight years ago and being out of baseball since 2019, he is still “very close” with his former pitching teammates Chad Bettis and Tyler Matzek. Bettis retired after the 2020 season and Matzek is with the Atlanta Braves after he was out of MLB for a number of years.

He also spoke well of new Rockies pitching coach Darryl Scott. Scott was promoted to the pitching coach spot this offseason after spending two seasons as the Rockies bullpen coach. Bergman said that Scott “probably had the biggest influence” on his career.

Bergman was also asked about the best player he has ever seen play in person. Despite facing Mike Trout four times in his career, Bergman went with someone else.

“Nolan Arenado is the best player I’ve ever seen in person, probably on both sides (offensively and defensively) of the ball.”

The minor league life was tough for former Colorado Rockies pitcher Christian Bergman

But Christian Bergman wasn’t eating $100+ steaks dinners every night, especially in the minor leagues with the Colorado Rockies. He was asked about the current situation in the minor leagues where they are making pennies (or less than a penny) on the dollar to MLB players.

“(MiLB) players need to be paid a livable wage and provided with tools and resources to succeed, mainly food,” said Bergman. “I would have run out of money if I had to spend one more month in Colorado Springs (which had a cost of living slightly higher than the national average in 2021).

“Trust me, I wasn’t eating $100 steak dinners every night. I was bringing food home from the clubhouse. If you have a family to support, forget it. Unfortunately, the solution so far has been to cut minor league teams, which is a loss to those communities.”

Bergman decided to get retire from baseball after the 2019 season and he had an opportunity to return to the minors as a pitching coach. He got an offer, took a week to think about it, decided to accept, and the team hired someone else in the meantime. He said that the business part of things is why he’s not looking to get back into baseball anymore.

Currently, he is in the real estate business in Scottsdale, Arizona. You can read the full transcript of the conversation here and check out his Instagram page here.