Rockies' nicknames for Players' Weekend

August 19th, 2019

DENVER -- Players' Weekend is in its third year. So during the coming weekend’s series against the Cardinals, players will be in youth league-inspired uniform designs with colorful nicknames.

Here are nicknames for the Rockies.

Yonder Alonso: "MR. 305"

Fitting for a guy from Miami.

Nolan Arenado: "NADO"

Last year, he said he was going to change things up at some point. He didn’t get around to it.

“I got a little lazy on that one,” Arenado said. “I might just leave it as it is. Everybody knows me by that now, and people call me that.”

Charlie Blackmon: "CHUCK NAZTY"

Of course. The four-time All-Star was an early social media participant who adopted @Chuck_Nazty as his moniker for a tongue-in-cheek tough guy presence.

Wade Davis: "WADER"

Yonathan Daza: "CANANA"

“That’s the name of my neighborhood in Maracaibo, Venezuela,” said Daza, an outfielder who debuted this season. “That’s where I’m from. That's where I was raised and where I began to play ball. It's a part of the city that's very dangerous. Not many baseball players come out of there. And I think that it's an honor for me to have that as my nickname.”

Ian Desmond: "DESI"

Jairo Diaz: "EL PANDA"

His body somewhat resembles a younger version of Giants third baseman Pablo Sandoval.

“In 2015, a Dominican friend called me ‘Baby Panda,’ and that’s how it started,” Diaz said. “Like Sandoval. I like the nickname.”

Kyle Freeland: "F. STANLEY"

“When I was growing up there was an elementary school project, Flat Stanley,” said Freeland, a lefty starting pitcher. “My friends would call me that when I was growing up -- they still call me that to this day because I was skinny growing up, small guy.”

Chi Chi Gonzalez: "CHI CHI"

His real first name is Alexander. The nickname came from his great uncle.

Jon Gray: "(WOLF EMOJI)"

His Twitter handle (now rarely used) is @MrGrayWolf22, with 22 being his number at the University of Oklahoma. His Rockies number is 55 -- 22 flipped vertically in most fonts. When he arrived in the Majors, then-Rockies manager Walt Weiss occupied 22, which he also wore during his playing days.

Garrett Hampson: "G HAMP"

Peter Lambert: "LAMBO"

“It doesn’t mean anything to me,” said Lambert, a rookie right-handed starter. “Just kinda what everybody tends to call me.”

German Marquez: "MARQUEE"

Jake McGee: "MAC CHEEZ"

Ryan McMahon: "RY MAC"

Daniel Murphy: "MURPH"

Bryan Shaw: "GEEK"

He’s a tech guy, always playing around with electronics. During the winter, he combined tech and pitching when he went to Driveline, a performance analysis and workout facility near Seattle and developed a curveball that has helped on many occasions this season.

Trevor Story: "TRUE"

Story has seen puns with his name pretty much all his life. But the nickname from another former Rockies All-Star, Vinny Castilla, who works for the club as a special front-office advisor, made it to the back of his jersey this year.

“I was hitting in the cage, I think it was my first big league Spring Training and he was like, ‘That’s True Story hitting right there,’” Story said. “So it just kinda stuck. I liked it.”

Raimel Tapia: "EL FIFTY"

“When I was little I listened to a lot of songs from the rapper 50 Cent,” Tapia said in Spanish through an interpreter. “When I was little, I didn't understand the words and my friends would ask me why I listened to that if I couldn't understand it. I just told them that I liked the rhythm of the music and that’s why that name stuck.”

Jesus Tinoco: "TINO"

Tony Wolters: "(PAPER EMOJI)"

The Rockies claimed Wolters off waivers from the Indians early in Spring Training 2016. He was the classic new guy.

“I go into the locker room the first day in Spring Training, and, I wanted to go up and introduce myself, but I didn’t even know who the pitchers from position players were because they all had bats,” Wolters said. “I wasn’t used to pitchers having bats. I had my wife help me study the pitchers.

“Then throughout the season I was with [veteran catcher] Nick Hundley, and I had this stack of papers all the time trying to learn the league. Nick helped me through that. ‘Cargo’ [Carlos Gonzalez] and [Gerardo] Parra come up with the nickname, ‘Papers.’

“My whole locker was full of papers and my chair was full of papers. It still is. I was just a mess with papers. It kind of stuck, and everyone calls me ‘Papers’ now.”