Tucked away in the corner of the clubhouse, Soulja Boy’s “Crank Dat” blaring above the screams, Willy Taveras and Kazuo Matsui celebrated the Rockies’ wild-card tiebreaker victory over the San Diego Padres.
Matsui grabbed the bottle and showed Taveras how to pop the top. In hindsight, the passing of the Dom Perignon was the unofficial passing of the baton.
Matsui, the team’s leadoff hitter for much of September, is gone, leaving Taveras to serve as the catalytic force from the top of the lineup. It is one of the Rockies’ biggest questions entering spring training:
Can Taveras put together a full season?
He practically slobbered when asked about his role as a table-setter. Health willing, the speedy center fielder doesn’t see any reason the Rockies can’t ride a dynamic offense back to the playoffs.
“People should pick us to win the division,” the 26-year-old Taveras said. “Look around. Look at our pitching. Look at our defense. And we could have five guys with 100 RBIs? Huh? Are you kidding me.”
Matsui’s absence alters the offensive makeup, creating higher expectations and added responsibilities for Taveras and No. 2 hitter Troy Tulowitzki.
Manager Clint Hurdle will make baserunning a priority this spring, encouraging players to take bigger leads and be more aggressive in stealing second, and more important in Taveras’ case, third base.
Said Hurdle, “This is an area where we can close the gap and have marked improvement as a club.”
If Taveras were to swipe 70 bags that would go a long way toward achieving the goal. Taveras hit .320 and stole 33 bases last season in 97 games, forced to the sideline on multiple occasions because of a lingering right groin injury. Doubling that total, he said, is related to at-bats.
“My goal is to play 140 games, to get close to 600 at-bats. You look at what guys like Juan Pierre (41 in 668 at-bats) and Eric Byrnes did (50 in 626 at-bats) with a lot of at-bats,” Taveras said, before cautioning, “If I steal 100 and we don’t win it won’t matter.”
Taveras is a rare blazer who isn’t interested in padding his stats. He wants his stolen bases to mean something, executed in close games.
Motivated to put together his best season, Taveras tweaked his workouts this winter, following a program designed by Rockies strength coach Brad Andress.
He admitted that playing his first season in altitude was harder than anticipated, that his old way of staying off his feet before games with minimal stretching didn’t work.
While he will change his pregame warm-up routine, don’t look for many in-game adjustments. His attack will center on bunts — sure he might push a few more toward first base — not power. It is here where Matsui, even while with the Astros, will have a lasting impact.
“He left behind his special bunting machine. We used that all the time (in the indoor batting cage),” Taveras said. “It’s a big help. You can get a lot of work in. I hope he doesn’t want it back.”
Footnotes.
In the wide-open, super-powerless National League, the Mets have become the favorites following the acquisition of pitcher Johan Santana. They might come to regret his $137 million contract — see Mike Hampton and Barry Zito — but not this season. Santana will win 20 games, easing the pressure on Pedro Martinez and John Maine. . . .
Encouraging sign for Rockies fans: Two days after the World Series concluded the Coors Field weight room was full. And it has stayed that way for the past three months.
