ST. LOUIS – Rockies first baseman TJ Rumfield’s strong rookie season is a product of teamwork.
Rumfield, 26, entered Friday night’s 3-2 loss to the Cardinals at or near the top of the leaderboard among qualified MLB rookies in many categories. He added to that with a 3-for-4 performance with two runs scored – on a night when the Rockies also wasted Jake McCarthy’s three hits and Willi Castro’s two hits by going 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position.
Just as important as Rumfield’s offensive numbers is his durability, with appearances in all but three of the Rockies’ 116 games.
The Rockies acquired Rumfield from the Yankees over the winter, which in a sense makes his season more notable. He’d never done Spring Training in the Arizona desert, and never played in arid, high-altitude climates like Triple-A Albuquerque or Denver. And Opening Day this season was his Major League debut, so all of this is new.
“I’ve played a lot of games in the past, but never a big league season,” Rumfield said. “So it’s picking people’s brains but also knowing what worked for me in the past. It’s a little bit of both.”
Here are some keys:
Hard work, smart work: One look at Rumfield’s frame – 6-foot-5 with wide shoulders and elongated muscle – screams that he enjoys time spent in the weight room when he is not on the field.
“I do things in the gym to push my body to be able to play 162 games or however many games I’m asked to play,” Rumfield said.
The stats in which Rumfield is at or near the leaders among rookies do not include pounds lifted. The workouts are to have him ready, whether the games are in Denver or in muggy St. Louis.
“There are times where you just have to feel, and we also have things in the gym that test you to make sure you’re actually ready to perform that day,” Rumfield said. “If the numbers are down, then maybe it’s an easier day in the weight room. And there’s communication between departments.”
Input helps output: Rockies dietician Samantha Hawkins issues each player a water jug with his jersey number. The goal is hydrating by drinking two of those a day as a general guideline. Rumfield likes a more specific calculation.
“I like drinking half of my body weight in fluid ounces,” he said. “I weigh 230, so [around] 115 fluid ounces a day.”
But Hawkins said it’s not just water – especially for a team that is traveling in and out of Denver’s unique atmosphere, where oxygen and blood flow are restricted in ways they aren’t anywhere else in the sport.
“I recommend every single guy on our roster, every single day with altitude, having some sort of electrolyte before the game,” Hawkins said. “There are tablets that we have and heavier duty stuff. Sports drinks.”
Education from morning to night: Rockies director of physical performance Gabe Bauer said some of what keeps a player healthy and effective – especially when his workload is heavy – is done when he’s doing absolutely nothing but dreaming.
“It comes down to, is he doing the recovery things right?” Bauer said. “Is he getting the eight or nine hours of sleep a night? Is he hydrating properly?”
Bauer and Hawkins met with Rumfield to help with the adjustment to the altitude. Part of the result was some dietary additions.
“You want to do more carbohydrates when you’re at altitude, so we added in a shake or a banana, then one of our fruit juices,” Bauer said. “And I push for the whole team, not just whoever is new, to add beet juice – it has nitric oxide, and that helps with blood flow.”
Bauer noted that the hydration program starts from the moment Rumfield or any player wakes up, especially during the latest homestand during a run of hot weather in Denver.
“You need to be getting good meals and proper nutrition, and you need to be making sure you get electrolytes in at the beginning of the day, long before the game starts,” he said.
Rumfield improved his batting average to .296 and his on-base percentage to .374. Both were upper-echelon figures in the NL before Friday.
Rookies are expected to hit the proverbial wall, but the Rockies need him to break through it.
“It’s a real thing,” Rockies manager Warren Schaeffer. “It’s very important to do that throughout a season, otherwise [a rookie] will fall apart, especially someone like TJ, who has never experienced a big league season before. But he’s in there all the time and he knows what it takes.”
Whether it’s at the plate, on defense (he entered Friday second among first basemen in defensive runs saved) or in his preparation and recovery, Rumfield’s goal is consistency.
“It’s everything that helps blood flow, and all the things that go into recovery,” Rumfield said. “How you feel the next day is as important as how you feel that day. And it’s the day after that and the day after that. It’s all about building on the good days.”