Colorado Rockies Quick Hits: Story, Second Base, Black, Dunn, Hoffman

There have been some news and notes from interviews with members of the Colorado Rockies in the past few days in Scottsdale, Arizona at Spring Training.

One of the biggest changes for the Rockies in 2019 will be at second base, due to the departure of DJ LeMahieu to the New York Yankees. Somebody that worked with him a lot the past few seasons is Colorado Rockies shortstop Trevor Story and recently, Thomas Harding of MLB.com spoke with the Rockies shortstop on some of the potential options that the Rockies have for his double play partner at second base.

One of them is Ryan McMahon and Story said that his former double play partner, DJ LeMahieu, and McMahon “can be very similar — [and] that’s pretty high praise for Mac,” said Story. He added that they have “very similar builds, very athletic guys. They both played other positions growing up. It’s going to bode well for Mac. He probably won’t right off the bat be like DJ, but he has the potential.”

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For Garrett Hampson, Story said “He’s very solid — he has a very quick first step, and he gets to a lot of balls,” Story said that Hampson’s “a big-range guy — just from playing with him last year, I saw him make some pretty amazing plays, some diving plays, and get up and finish it. He has really quick hands, too.”

Story described Rockies top prospect Brendan Rodgers as “super-talented — one of the most I’ve ever seen.” Story added that Rodgers is “just one of those guys where you can tell he’s going to be one of the better players on the field. He’s putting in a lot of work over there, and you can tell he’s getting pretty comfortable.”

On Friday, Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry spoke with Rodgers in an exclusive interview and Rodgers said himself that he has felt more comfortable in this his second spring training camp, compared to last season in his first. You can read more about their conversation here.

Black even said on Sunday morning that Mark Reynolds could get a little bit of time at second base during spring drills.

Bud Black on Dunn, Hoffman

Bud Black spoke to the media, including our own Kevin Henry, yesterday on a variety of different topics but one of them was on Rockies reliever Mike Dunn. Black reported that Dunn is “doing great” but he’s about a week behind everybody else.

Last week, Black reported that Dunn will still be ready for Opening Day, though. Considering that Spring Training lasts for more than a month (and by the end of it, it usually feels like it’s longer than that), Dunn should still be ready for the season.

One of the other topics that he talked about was about the development of Rockies rotation hopeful Jeff Hoffman. Black said that the main thing he has noticed in spring training thus far is that “his delivery looks like a little tighter, a little more compact, which is great.” He also added that the “shape to his breaking ball looks much better as well as his ability to control it and throw it for strikes.”

Kevin Henry also spoke to Hoffman in an exclusive interview in which you can read, in addition to more comments from Black, in the link above.