DETROIT — Earlier this week, on the occasion of the 2,000 hit of his career, Todd Helton lamented that he’d lost bat speed since getting his first big-league hit on Aug. 2, 1997, at Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers Stadium.
So how come, at age 35 and playing with a surgically repaired back, Helton is hitting .338 entering play Friday and cranked out the fifth grand slam of his career Thursday night in Atlanta?
Manager Clint Hurdle, who’s seen almost all of Helton’s big-league hits, had the answer.
“It’s his plate discipline and his confidence at the plate,” Hurdle said. “One of the most overrated things in this game can be bat speed, because if you don’t have the hand-eye coordination to go with it, it doesn’t play out.”
Hurdle also noted Helton’s uncanny ability to work a pitch count. Helton got behind 0-2 against Braves reliever James Parr before putting a 3-2 fastball over the wall for his grand slam.
“He can put the barrel on the ball, and he’s probably as good as anybody in the game with two strikes,” Hurdle said.
Goodbye, Rusch.
Reliever Glendon Rusch’s career with the Rockies is over. Rusch said Friday that he would not report to Triple-A Colorado Springs, though he’s not retiring.
“I don’t want to go there and go through that again, especially if they start calling up younger guys as the season goes on,” Rusch said. “I would rather stay home with my family.”
The Rockies are expected to place Rusch on the restricted list, rather than grant him free agency. Rusch was designated for assignment last week.
The move blindsided and upset teammates. Though with the Rockies for only a year, Rusch was one of the most popular players in the clubhouse.
Footnotes.
Seth Smith, the Rockies’ best pinch hitter, got the call as the club’s first designated hitter this season. “I’ve never been the DH in the majors, so we’ll see,” Smith said. … Hitting coach Don Baylor, hospitalized earlier this week because of pneumonia, rejoined the club in Detroit after missing the first seven days of a 10-day road trip.
Patrick Saunders and Troy E. Renck, The Denver Post
