​The Rockies dropped Tuesday’s game to Seattle 10-6, and the pitching wasn’t pretty – seven walks combined between Feltner and Dollander, and the Mariners did damage when they had the chance, going 7-for-15 with runners in scoring position. But box scores in March are snapshots, not verdicts, and Schaeffer saw enough in the adjustments to feel okay about the bigger picture.
Ryan Feltner was the first man out, and he was his own worst enemy early – four walks in 3.1 innings, too many deep counts, too much dancing around the zone. But he came back out after a brief break and looked like a different pitcher. The conversation in the dugout with pitching coach Alon Leichman was short and direct.

“He just said, this is good practice for when stuff goes wrong in the season,” Feltner recalled. “Instead of cashing in the outing when one inning doesn’t go your way, it’s important to keep the team in the game.”

The adjustment itself was refreshingly simple: stop being clever, start being direct. Feltner admitted he’d been moving catcher Hunter Goodman around – working thirds of the plate, trying to locate precisely – and it was costing him.

“I get greedy,” he said. “The tradeoff isn’t worth it. We’re just going to go back down the middle and fill up the zone.” When he did that, the soft contact followed, and he started finding the rhythm he’d been chasing.

Schaeffer was blunt but fair in his postgame assessment. “We’ve got to pound the strike zone from the time we take the mound,” he said. “Good adjustments – let’s just make them quicker.”

Chase Dollander’s day had a similar arc. He walked three and gave up four runs in his first two innings, looking nothing like the pitcher who has flashed dominance in his time since joining the Rockies organization. Then Alon Leichman leaned over in the dugout and gave him three words: spike a volleyball.
It sounds like a fortune cookie. It worked like a key.

“My arm slot was dropping a little bit, causing me to push the ball,” Dollander explained. “The adjustment was just thinking like I’m hitting a volleyball – just trying to get through it.” He retired the last six batters he faced, and in typical Dollander fashion, processed the whole thing with the confidence of someone who isn’t losing sleep over a bad spring inning.

​“I don’t even pay attention to the competition for a rotation spot,” he said. “I know I’m the best. It’s a fun competition, but that’s the mindset you have to have.”

​On top of that swagger, Dollander is quietly adding a weapon. He’s throwing his sinker significantly more to right-handed hitters this spring – a deliberate offseason decision after discovering the pitch was moving more than ever.

“If that’s my better fastball, that’s my better fastball,” he said simply. “The most somebody can do, really, is put it on the ground. I think it’s going to be huge for playing at Coors.”

Bright Spots in the Lineup

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​If you haven’t been paying close attention to Jake McCarthy this spring, now is a good time to start.
The newly acquired outfielder came over from Arizona carrying the quiet confidence of a player who has taken a long, honest look in the mirror and likes what he sees. He batted leadoff today, went 2-3 with a double and an RBI, and played the kind of game that doesn’t necessarily jump off the page, but absolutely matters.
McCarthy is one of those players whose value lives in the details – getting on base, seeing pitches, moving his legs on the bases, playing defense at a high level in multiple spots. He knows it, embraces it, and has found a manager in Warren Schaeffer who sees it as clearly as he does.

“When I help the team win, it’s normally not me slugging and crushing home runs,” McCarthy said. “On a consistent daily basis, I can put together good at-bats, swing at the right pitches, and get on base. Batting leadoff, if I can see a lot of pitches, if I can be standing on first for the guy behind me – I think that really helps.”

​Schaeffer singled McCarthy out in his morning press conference as the player who best exemplifies something he’s been preaching all spring: knowing yourself. In a sport that constantly tempts players to reach for more, McCarthy has arrived in Colorado with a clear-eyed understanding of what he does well – and a stubborn commitment to doing exactly that.

“He knows who he is,” Schaeffer said simply. “The bunt game, the run game, get on base, score runs, play good defense – that’s who he is. We don’t need him to be more than that. That kind of player helps you win ball games.”

It connects directly to the broader aggressive baserunning philosophy the Rockies have installed this spring – and McCarthy is very much a part of making it work. He noted the running game is more sophisticated than it may look from the outside. Delayed steals, reading foot movement, manufacturing situations – it’s as detailed and deliberate as any other part of the game.

“It just makes life a little harder for the defense,” he said.

McCarthy, for his part, said it took exactly one conversation with Schaeffer to feel completely bought in. After a season in Arizona that he candidly described as one he wasn’t proud of, landing in Colorado, with a team that actively went out of its way to acquire him, felt like a reset he didn’t know he needed.

“A lot of guys don’t get another opportunity after the season I had,” he said. “A team went out of their way to trade for me and said, ‘ We like what this guy’s got, we want him on our club. That meant a lot.”

He also wasted no time fitting into the fabric of the outfield group, which he described as “a dynamic bunch” – a collection of players who can affect a game in multiple ways, share a similar approach, and have been genuinely collaborative in sharing what they’ve learned around the league. McCarthy even knew many of them already, having faced them across multiple levels in his time with Arizona.

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Sugano is Back – and Ready

The day’s transactions gave the roster crunch more clarity. Right-hander Tanner Gordon and second baseman Adael Amador were both optioned to Triple-A Albuquerque, trimming the Major League camp roster to 43.Neither move reflects a lack of belief. Schaeffer was effusive about Gordon, who adopted new grips this spring and looked sharp throughout camp.

“He did everything we asked him to do,” Schaeffer said. “Sending Tanner Gordon down today was a very difficult thing to do because he’s a really good pitcher. We just have multiple good pitchers – which is a good thing.”

The depth Colorado has built in the starting pitching market this winter is, by Schaeffer’s own admission, something that “hasn’t necessarily been the case a lot in the recent past.” The problem of having too many good arms is a welcome one, even when it produces uncomfortable decisions.

For Amador, the assignment is straightforward: go to Albuquerque and dominate. The talent is not in question. The refinement is.

“His at-bats need to be exceptional down there,” Schaeffer said. “He needs to walk and conduct quality at-bats on a daily basis. Needs to improve his defense, quickness, and baserunning – all of those things.” The manager was clear that Amador remains at second base only for now, with no conversations about positional versatility on the table.