Rookie Brenton Doyle is the best defensive center fielder in Rockies history. Period.
At least for one season.
The statistics say so. So does the eye test.
Doyle should win a National League Gold Glove when the awards are announced Sunday night. If he does not, the managers and coaches who cast votes weren’t paying attention or didn’t do their homework.
“Cory (Sullivan) and I have already said he’s the best center fielder in Rox history,” said Ryan Spilborghs. “Go back to the tape. We said it within watching him for a week.”
The duo knows what it’s talking about. Spilborghs and Sullivan, the Rockies’ TV analysts, both roamed the wide-open spaces of Coors Field. Spilborghs started 89 games in center, from 2005 to ’11. Sullivan started 183 games, from 2005 to ’08.
Doyle’s numbers were off the charts. He led all major league players with a 24.5 Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR), more than 10 points higher than the next closest player, San Diego’s Fernando Tatis Jr. (13.8). UZR quantifies a player’s entire defensive performance by attempting to measure how many runs he saved. It takes into account errors, range, outfield arm and double-play ability. According to Baseball Savant, Doyle is in the 99th percentile in range, arm value and arm strength, while ranking in the 98th percentile for sprint speed.
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Those skills are essential at Coors Field, which is baseball’s most spacious ballpark. The playing surface covers 2.66 acres — 0.18 acres more than the average MLB park (2.49 acres). That is one-third of an acre, or about 14,400 square feet, larger than Fenway Park.
“I thoroughly enjoy playing half my games in Denver,” Doyle said during a phone interview from his home in Virginia. “Playing there definitely improves your skills overall. I remember playing in some other stadiums on the road, and I remember thinking, ‘This is the tiniest stadium I’ve ever played in.’
“I know that’s an exaggeration, but it almost seemed like I played at high school stadiums that seemed bigger.”
Very quickly, Coors made him a better outfielder.
“The next thing you know, your numbers start to show up and you get more and more comfortable at various outfields because you’re so used to the challenge at Coors Field,” he said.
Evidence of that came on a highlight-reel play at Fenway Park on June 14. In the third inning, Pablo Reyes scorched a ball to center field, but Doyle went Superman for an incredible catch. Rockies starter Austin Gomber threw his hands over his head in disbelief.
“What sets Doyle apart is that he flies,” Spilborghs said. “He covers more ground than anyone before him with the Rockies by running great routes. That makes him extremely efficient going after the baseball, like a Pro Bowl wide receiver.
“He also plays shallow, which allows him to get the soft contact hits in front of him, which is the true separator at Coors. It’s not going back that impresses us, it’s coming in and rewarding pitchers for inducing soft contact.
“That’s the Coors Field effect — the soft contact which falls for hits versus balls hit into the stands. Doyle also has one of the strongest arms ever. He prevents runners from trying to turn a single into a double or stops guys trying to score from second. So he’s constantly preventing extra bases, extra hits, and he takes away the gaps because of his speed and routes.”
Charlie Blackmon, the veteran who’s started 667 games in center during his 13 seasons with the Rockies, marvels at Doyle’s closing speed.
“Watching him get to balls that should not be caught is something see,” Blackmon said. “You think he has no shot to get to the ball and then he catches it.”
Doyle is also fearless.
Shortly before the Rockies called him up from Triple-A Albuquerque for his big-league debut April 24, he was injured while crashing into a wall chasing a flyball. A month later, he leaped into the center-field wall at Coors trying to rob Miami’s Jorge Soler of a hit. The ball bounced out of Doyle’s glove and into the stands for a two-run home run. Doyle hit his right knee against the padded wall and had to be carted off the field. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured.
Doyle said he’s not going to change how he plays.
“As an aggressive outfielder, you can’t play scared,” he said. “I’ll run into the wall 10 out of 10 times to save a run, no matter the score.
“I remember that sometimes when games were out of hand, some of the pitchers would tell me, ‘Hey, you don’t have to crash into the wall for me,’ if we were ahead by eight runs or whatever. But that’s how I am, and that’s who I’ve always been. I’ve never been scared to play aggressively and bump into a wall here and there.”
Of course, winning a Gold Glove is one thing, but becoming a complete player is quite another. In 126 games and 432 plate appearances, Doyle slashed .203/.250/.343 with an OPS+ of just 52. He did hit 10 home runs and he also swiped 22 bases, getting caught just five times, but he struck out 35% of the time.
Doyle’s mission this offseason is to tweak his approach, improve his pitch recognition and plug some holes in his swing. If he can do that, the Rockies believe he can be a .250 hitter with some power.
Defensively, Doyle will get even better, Sullivan predicted.
“His growth will come from his ability to adapt, adjust and trust himself,” Sullivan said. “He’ll learn the strengths of pitchers on his staff, as well as what is working each night.
“He’ll be reading swings and anticipating an executed pitch result vs a non-executed pitch. When he does those things, with all the skills he has already shown, the conversation will no longer be about him being the best-ever center field in Rockies history.”
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