Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer’s vision for success at Coors Field? The Blake Street batters, not Bombers

Warren Schaeffer’s vision for the Rockies came to life last week in LoDo.

In splitting a four-game series against the Dodgers, the Rockies snapped a 10-game losing streak against their Los Angeles bullies.

As happy as that made the Rockies’ interim manager, that wasn’t what left Schaeffer positively buoyant. Rather, it was seeing the offense Schaeffer envisioned produce more unselfish at-bats, fewer strikeouts and aggression on the basepaths.

Home runs are great, of course, but Schaeffer doesn’t view them as a be-all, end-all. He wants an offense that not only dominates at Coors Field, but also gives the Rockies a fighting chance on the road.

“I couldn’t care less about that, to be honest,” Schaeffer said when asked about his players’ home run swings after shortstop Ezequiel Tovar went deep in Monday night’s series-opening win. “I care about guys who put the ball in play on a highly consistent basis. That plays in this yard.”

In that game, Colorado beat L.A., 4-3, on rookie first baseman Warming Bernabel’s hard-hit, walk-off groundball single to center.

Two days later, the Rockies dominated the Dodgers, ripping off 16 hits and knocking superstar Shohei Ohtani out of the game after four innings en route to an 8-3 victory. In the fourth inning, the Rockies smacked five consecutive hits off Ohtani.

It was a distillation of the approach Schaeffer wants to see every night at 20th and Blake.

“We had a good plan against (Ohtani) and we executed our plan throughout the game,” he said. “He went soft a lot, and it seems like the boys didn’t spit on the balls outside the zone. We kept him in the zone.

“They took the ball the other way, took what was given to them. That’s been a huge key for us. Taking the ball the other way and not trying to yank everything like we were doing earlier in the year.”

Schaeffer’s future in Colorado is uncertain. While the Rockies (37-91 entering the weekend) are no longer tracking toward setting the record for most losses in a season, they will undoubtedly lose 100 games for a third straight year. There is no guarantee Schaeffer will return, especially if the Rockies shake up their front office.

Colorado’s starting pitching is a mess with a 6.60 ERA and a .317 batting average against. A cleanup looks far away. But Schaeffer’s Colorado blueprint is clear, and he sees the Milwaukee Brewers as his template. The Brewers, with the 23rd-highest payroll in the game, entered the weekend with a major league-best 80-48 record.

“I like the way the Brewers play the game,” Schaeffer said.

There’s a lot to like. The Brewers are among the leaders in average (.258, second), stolen bases (138, second), and on-base percentage (.332, third). Their 20.5% strikeout rate is the fifth-lowest, and their 3.48 walks per game ranks fourth.

The Rockies have had several identities over the years, most famously the Blake Street Bombers. The 1996 Bombers remain the only team in major league history to hit 200 or more home runs (221) and steal 200 or more bases (201) in the same season. The 2018 Rockies, the last team to make the playoffs, batted .256, hit 210 homers and stole 95 bases.

Walt Weiss, who played shortstop for the Rockies from 1994-97 and managed the club from 2013-16, likes Schaeffer’s vision, but notes that it’s not unique in Rockies history.

“My thought, when I managed there, was that I wanted to overwhelm teams at Coors Field,” said Weiss, who’s served as the Atlanta Braves’ bench coach since 2018. “I wanted to be a multi-dimensional offense, and I wanted to push the tempo all of the time.

“I tried to make Coors Field the biggest home-field advantage in baseball. I always said that. The Rockies need to capitalize on that.”

Hall of Fame outfielder Larry Walker, a member of the Blake Street Bombers, says the key for the Rockies must be developing hitters in the farm system.

“You just can’t go out and purchase or (spend) a ton of money on players, or trade off a lot, because then you are left dry,” Walker said last September when he was in Denver to celebrate Coors Field’s 30th anniversary. “So the farm system needs to be built up a little bit to have that pool of young players that you can call up.

“I think, perhaps, they are running a little bit thin right now in that department. That’s a process that’s got to start. It doesn’t happen over a couple of years. It’s going to take some time.”

Of course, now the question becomes, do the Rockies keep loading up on big, strong power hitters like first baseman Michael Toglia — a first-round pick in 2019 who was demoted to Triple-A Albuquerque because of his exorbitant 38.3% strikeout rate? Or like Charlie Condon, who’s slashing .258/.370/.469 with six homers in 36 games since his promotion to Double-A Hartford?

Or will the Rockies buy into Schaeffer’s vision of drafting and developing faster, athletic, put-the-ball-in-play players?

“A lot of how you play is based on your personnel, of course,” Weiss said. “You can’t put a square peg in a round hole, so you have to have the right personnel to play the type of game that the Brewers do.”

Dan O’Dowd, Colorado’s general manager from September 1999 through the 2014 season, says the Rockies need to find the right combination of on-base guys and power hitters.

“Very simply, they have to have guys that can hit and hit with at least average power at every position on the field, with a few aircraft carriers mixed in that can absolutely mash,” said O’Dowd, an analyst for MLB Network. “We were the Brewers in 2000, and a lack of power got us.”

The 2000 Rockies finished 82-80, and their non-pitchers hit .304. But Hall of Fame first baseman Todd Helton was the only real masher on the team. Helton hit 42 homers, while right fielder Jeffery Hammond was a distant second with 20.

Earlier this season, the Rockies were a disaster, and their offense had no identity, save for its ability to pile up strikeouts.

Through their first 18 games, they hit .209, led majors with a 29.6 strikeout percentage, ranked 27th with a 7.3 walk percentage, and were tied for 29th with 12 home runs. During a three-game series at San Diego from April 11-13, they were shut out in three consecutive games for the first time in franchise history. Colorado managed just nine hits (12 baserunners), the fewest in any three-game series.

Last season, the Rockies struck out a team record 1,617 times, the most in franchise history and the third-most in major league history. Clint Hurdle made it a priority to cut down on the Ks when he was brought back into the fold in April.

“It can’t be an elephant in the room that we aren’t going to talk about,” Hurdle said early this season. He was named the hitting coach after the team fired Hensley Meulens three weeks into the season, and then became the bench coach when Bud Black was fired and replaced by Schaeffer.

“Bottom line, I don’t think there is enough angst in the game about striking out,” Hurdle said. “I see it in our men, as a group. If you punch out 12 times in a game, you have watched the pitcher and catcher play catch in front of your dugout for four innings. Now you’re asking yourself to beat the other team with five innings of offensive baseball.”

The Rockies have improved their approach, albeit slowly. By the All-Star break, the team was slashing .230/.291/.378 with a 26.5% strikeout rate. Still bad, but better. Moreover, players started buying into Hurdle’s preaching and Schaeffer’s preferred style of play.

“When the second half came, we had a meeting and we said, ‘Hey, let’s flush the first half,’ ” said outfielder and leadoff hitter Tyler Freeman. “We said, ‘We’re not going to give at-bats away. The record may not show it yet, but we’re getting better, we’re really getting gritty.’ ”

Since the All-Star break, Colorado slashed .273/.320/.451 with a 21.5% K rate going into a weekend series at Pittsburgh. Schaeffer said the drop in strikeouts is the result of personnel changes and a better approach at the plate.

“It’s a combination of both,” he said. “Because we have certain guys up here now. You have (rookie) Kyle Karros at third and Bernable at first, and both of their biggest strengths are putting the ball in play. And they are replacing ‘Mac’ (Ryan McMahon traded to the Yankees), who’s a great player but a high strikeout guy (31.0%), and Toglia, who’s a high strikeout guy. Naturally, those strikeout rates are going to go down.

“But, yes, our approach has gotten better. It’s a testament to the work of our hitting coaches (Jordan Pacheco and Nic Wilson). The boys love working together with those guys. When there is a good collaboration going on, the sky’s the limit.”

Freeman is Schaeffer’s philosophy personified. He entered the weekend hitting .297 with a .372 on-base percentage. True, he’d hit just two homers, but his strikeout rate was a minuscule 9.6%.

Last year with Cleveland, he moved to center field but batted .209 in 118 games in a season shortened by a left oblique injury. He was in line for the Guardians’ starting second base job before the Rockies acquired him for outfielder Nolan Jones in spring training.

“My mentality coming into this year was getting back to who I am,” he said, admitting that he’d previously fallen into the trap of swinging for the fences. “I wanted to concentrate on doing the smaller things — bunting, stealing bases, little things like that, not worrying about the long ball. Coming over here with a fresh start was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. I found myself again.”

Freeman won’t have the All-Star impact that Charlie Blackmon did in 2017 when Blackmon won a batting title with a .331 average, 37 homers and 14 triples, mainly from the leadoff spot. But Schaeffer believes Freeman is the type of player the Rockies need to set the table.

“I love the way Tyler Freeman plays baseball,” Schaeffer said. “I love the way he puts the ball in play and battles, and uses the big part of Coors. There’s a lot of space out there for balls to drop in and go first to third. He plays that game well. He runs well.”

Schaeffer understands that in-the-gap triples, bloop doubles and soft singles are part of baseball in LoDo. He just wants to do it better than the opposition.

“You see it all the time here,” he said. “Our pitchers give up those hits because other teams put the ball in play. That’s what we need to do in our own ballpark — only better than the other guys. And, I think a big bonus for us is that that style plays on the road.”

When Schaeffer replaced Black on May 11, he already had his vision in mind.

“Since Day 1, since I stepped into this job, that’s one of the things I’ve been preaching,” Schaeffer said. “For me, you just have to keep preaching it, and then see some good results on the field.

“It’s part of our game now, and we can beat teams and score runs in different ways now, as opposed to just going station to station and trying to hit a home run. That’s tough to do at this level.”

Turning it around

The Rockies began the season with the worst offense in the majors. Since then, the team has steadily increased its output. Following is a month-by-month look at the Rockies’ offense:

* Statistics through Aug. 21.

Want more Rockies news? Sign up for the Rockies Insider to get all our MLB analysis.