In a batting cage in the bowels of Coors Field, behind a closed black door, rookie shortstop punches away doubt. Swing by swing. Some days he unleashes 50. This time it takes just 12 lightning strikes before he’s satisfied.
He then grabs his glove and hustles out to warm up. Barmes takes infield as if he’s trying to make his high school team, scooping countless groundballs, throwing from different angles.
Through a troubled April, Barmes is the best thing to happen to the Rockies this season. An explanation for his success – starting with his tops-in-baseball .438 batting average – is provided off the field.
He is a feel-good story because he refuses to enter a game without feeling good.
“Everything is about confidence,” Barmes said. “If I have confidence, I know I will be at my best. If you have any concerns, you are only hurting yourself.”
These are heady, lamp-rubbing good times for Barmes, whose Coors Field introductions are greeted with loud cheers for a fandom trying to learn the names of the young players. In spring training, his last name – pronounced Bar-mess – was routinely butchered in road games. Entering tonight’s game against Florida, Barmes leads the Rockies in home runs (four), runs scored (19) and on-base percentage (.488).
Now, when reporters ask about Clint, they aren’t referring to the manager.
“He’s so hot,” second baseman said, “I told him the other day I thought he was glowing.”
Forget the box score. Barmes need only check his cellphone for affirmation of his remarkable April. The messages are frequent. He has heard from former coaches, long-lost high school teammates, distant relatives.
“It’s been cool,” Barmes said. “I wish I had time to return all their calls.”
That’s never going to happen. Not with the madness to his method.
On a typical day, Barmes, 26, arrives at the park practically in time for breakfast – for a night game. With the excitement of someone just called up to the bigs, he takes early batting practice, dissects scouting reports, chats up teammates, works on his defense, plays nine innings as if he were a Norman Rockwell creation, then cools down in the weight room.
“What makes good players is when they have that kind of ritual,” Rockies general manager Dan O’Dowd said. “I worry about him overworking himself. But that’s his personality, how his engine runs. It would be hard to change him.”
Even more noticeable than Barmes’ statistics is his energy. He plays with unbridled passion, deriving joy from little things such as a push-bunt single or a fundamentally correct underhand flip that starts a double play.
“You’re out there,” catcher JD Closser tells Barmes, a longtime friend, about his energy level.
That’s saying something, given Closser is so hyper he long ago earned the nickname “Spaz.”
Barmes is quick to admit that he doesn’t have the God-given talent of others he has played against. He didn’t just have to work to play well. He had to work to play at all. It was only a few years ago that playing shortstop was a nervous breakdown divided into innings.
“I would get in slumps fielding as much as hitting,” said Barmes, an admitted perfectionist. “There were times I didn’t even want to go out there.”
The watershed moment in Barmes’ career came in the summer of 2001. He joined the Rockies’ Single-A Salem team, and the club immediately started winning.
He continued growing on the Rockies’ scouting department as he adapted to a less pull-oriented swing and worked on developing the first-step quickness required to play shortstop at the big-league level.
“I know there was talk he would be a (utility player). But I was impressed with his desire,” said Diamondbacks shortstop Royce Clayton, the veteran whom Barmes replaced. “I would suggest that he do something, and the next day he was trying it.”
Standing at his locker after Sunday’s game against the Los Angeles Dodgers, Barmes answered repeated questions. His politeness masked his impatience. It was not yet 5 o’clock, plenty of time for more work to get done.
“I know I can’t just sit back and rely on natural ability,” he said. “I have improved, but I need to continue getting better.”
Staff writer Troy Renck can be reached at 303-820-5457 or trenck@denverpost.com.
Rock the vote
It’s early, but ‘ rookie-of-the-year candidacy is off and running. A look at the top candidates: : Rockies SS, above, .438 average., 50 total bases
Willy Taveras: Astros OF, .305 avg., 5 stolen bases
Yhency Brazoban: Dodgers RHP, 3.24 ERA, 5 saves
: Rockies LHP, 1-0, 4.37 ERA
TROY E. RENCK
