Call it Freeland’s learning curve

Rockies lefty thinks new pitch will make him more versatile

Kyle Freeland is SAN ready for his encore, and he’s added a new twist to his act. Actually, make that a curve. It’s a pitch he hopes to utilize Tuesday night when he make his season debut in the Rockies’ game against the Padres at Petco Park.

“It’s a pitch I wanted to develop, with the goal to be able to throw it in any count,” Freeland said Monday.

The left-hander, coming off an impressive rookie season, knew that he needed another pitch in his repertoire, so he began tinkering with a curveball back in December. He honed the pitch all winter, and then used it to some success in Cactus League games, hoping he would be ready to use the pitch in the heat of moment.

“I feel extremely comfortable with it,” Freeland said. “At first, it was just feeling the rotation off the fingers and seeing the rotation and movement of the ball. Then I took the pitch into bullpens.

“Once I got into (spring) games … at first I was a little bit timid to throw it. I wasn’t sure how it was going to go or if I could command as I wanted to. Was I going to get hit around? But I had to find out about the pitch, and I think we have done a good job of revamping that curveball to where it’s going to be used at the start of the season.”

Freeland, 24, remains a work in progress, but he’s building off a strong foundation. He finished the 2017 season with an 11-11 record and a 4.10 ERA. He snuffed out the Dodgers in his big-league debut in Colorado’s home opener. On July 9, he took a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the White Sox.

Freeland’s 4.10 ERA was the fourth-lowest by a rookie in franchise history, and the lowest since Jhoulys Chacin set the franchise record for rookies in 2010 with a 3.28 ERA. What’s more, the Denver native finished 6-8 with a 3.72 ERA in 19 appearances (16 starts) at Coors Field. That was the second-lowest home ERA by a rookie in team history, bettered only by Denny Stark’s mark of 3.21 in 2002.

But manager Bud Black knew Freeland had to improve and diversify. Before the all-star break last season, Freeland went 9-7 with a 3.77 ERA and a 1.398 WHIP (walks plus hits allowed per inning pitched). After the break, he went 2-4 with a 4.81 ERA and 1.685 WHIP.

“Kyle does realize that in the second half of last year, teams made adjustments against him, so he has to adjust back,” Black said. “I think the breaking ball is part of that.”

Black understands that Freeland’s curve is a work in progress, but he views it as a usable pitch.

“Fundamentally, the curveball should come into play this year,” Black said. “It’s a pitch that should create a velocity difference for him — from a low-90s fastball, to a pitch in the high 70s. So the speed variance should help him. And his ever-improving changeup should come into play. But that doesn’t happen overnight.”

But it’s more than pitches and mechanics that have caught Black’s eye.

“I sense a little more poise with Kyle, a little more calmness in some of his spring training starts, and the way he’s walking around the clubhouse,” Black said. “I’ve seen just a little more self-assuredness.”

Quotable.

Black is often asked about the problems of pitching at Coors Field. Monday, when a San Diego reporter posed the question, Black had a ready response:

“There is a toughness we have to have with our pitchers in Colorado. There has to be an unselfishness, and an attitude where some of the internal numbers can’t be looked at by the individual pitcher as a baseline for performance.

“A pitcher has to be good and he has to just care about winning. Out-pitch the other guy in the same conditions that you’re pitching with. If you are worried about your ERA, your hits-per-innings pitched, number of home runs, all of these things, then you are probably in the wrong place.”

Footnotes.

Right-handed reliever Carlos Estevez (strained left oblique) is scheduled to pitch a simulated game Tuesday. He’s been throwing bullpen sessions for a week and is getting closer to returning. … Lefty Zac Rosscup has warts — not blisters — on his left middle finger. That’s causing the pain that landed him on the 10day disabled list. So far, Rosscup has received an injection, but the Rockies may have to remove the warts surgically.