@MarkKnudson41
As comebacks go, it was a nice first step, but Ty Blach won’t be satisfied until he is back in a big league uniform for real. And if it happens to be as a member of the team he grew up watching, so much the better.
And it would be great for the Colorado Rockies if the veteran lefthander pitcher – a grad of Regis Jesuit High School – was able to do more of what he did in the team’s first Spring Training exhibition game. Blach threw two scoreless frames with four strikeouts in Colorado’s first win of the Spring.
Blach is a non-roster invitee to Colorado’s spring training camp this season, a camp that finally got underway after the three and a half month long Owner’s lockout was finally settled with the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement between the Owners and the Player’s Union. Blach joins Thomas Jefferson High School product Kyle Freeland and Legacy High School’s Lucas Gilbreath – both part of the Rockies 2021 team – as lefthanded pitchers from the metro area who are trying to help bring success back to their favorite team from childhood.
These three want what Rockies fans want…and they want it even more. Wouldn’t it be cool if all three were part of the Rockies pitching staff and able to contribute to some much needed improvement in the National League West standings?
There have been a handful of us (this author included) who have grown up in Colorado and played for the Rockies. It’s a special feeling that brings with it special pressure to perform. It also brings an extra passion when you’re playing in front of friends and family on a nightly basis.
Most importantly, players – especially pitchers – from the Mile High have the advantage of being acclimated and prepared for the unique conditions here. The altitude of course, but also the dry air and unpredictable weather. You pretty much have to be ready for anything when you’re playing baseball in Colorado in the summertime. Pitching at altitude is easier for those who have don’t it before, grown up knowing exactly how much spin to put on a breaking ball to make it move right. Known how to handle conditioning and recovery.
It’s also been a mystery why the Rockies organization hasn’t pushed harder to bring native Coloradoans who are quality major league players onto the Rockies roster. Why they didn’t try to sign Grandview product Kevin Gausman or Golden’s Mark Melancon this off season. They did draft Douglas County’s Case Williams in the 2020 draft and he’s still in the organization. But they’ve passed on a lot of guys who possess an intangible that can’t be overrated – no fear of pitching at 5280.
And for some odd reason, the Rockies have never featured a native Coloradoan among their position players. Currently, Westminster’s Brandon Bailey, Longmont’s David Bote and Fountain product Chase Headley are active big league position players who were born here. (The New York Met’s Brandon Nimmo is from Cheyenne.) Bote, currently on the IL with the Chicago Cubs, was a standout at Faith Christian High School in Arvada (a school that also produced San Diego Padres reliever Pierce Johnson.) You can be sure that someone like him would welcome a chance to don the purple pinstripes.
The region has produced a lot more professional pitchers over the years, largely due to the limitations the weather puts on the number of games and at bats position players can get while growing up here. Of course with the advent of travel/club baseball, local products are getting more of those reps, so perhaps we’ll see and local product crack the Rockies line-up sometime in the future.
Be sure to catch Mark Knudson and Manny Randhawa on the Park Adjusted Rockies Podcast each week, available on all major Podcast platforms.