Colorado Crafts A Catcher Camp

DENVER—Catching coordinator Mark Strittmatter, acting with what player development director Zach Wilson called “complete selflessness,” opened his Denver-area home to several catching prospects for the second straight year.

During a 10-day period beginning in mid-January, Ryan Casteel and Troy Stein, followed by Dom Nunez and Chris Rabago worked with Strittmatter, who has a batting cage attached to his garage with a pitching machine that enables the catchers to hone their receiving and blocking skills.

Nunez stayed with shortstop Max George, a Rockies farmhand who lives in the Denver area. Casteel, Stein and Rabago stayed with Strittmatter, his wife and their two children. All four catchers paid for their flights.

“There’s something to be said when a guy financially invests in himself and his career to get better,” Wilson said, “because it just puts another sense of accountability and ownership into what they’re doing.”

Nunez and Casteel visited Strittmatter last year, along with catcher Tom Murphy, who finished 2015 in the big leagues.

Strittmatter said of his program, “I think now it’s got some traction with Casteel coming back, Nunez coming back . . . But I’m hoping that after their experience, more guys might be interested.”

Four, maybe five, catchers is the likely limit Strittmatter said he can accommodate at his house. After the players work out, they spend about one hour each day working on catching skills and another hour hitting in Strittmatter’s batting cage. For him, the opportunity to build relationships is as important as the baseball activity.

“You want to be a great coach,” Strittmatter said. “You capture the heart of the player, and you become a great coach. This is part of it—me getting up in the morning and making them breakfast. That’s what I want to do.”

ROCKY ROADS

• Because its new ballpark will not be completed, Double-A Hartford, which moved from New Britain, is scheduled to start the season with 34 consecutive road games and play at home no earlier than May 12.

• Frank Gonzales will manage Rookie-level Grand Junction. He managed short-season Boise last year after spending his first two seasons in the organization as a pitching coach at that level.