Doyle

SHEPHERDSTOWN — Arizona in early March. It’s not broiling hot. It’s not a despotic sun or enervating heat to wither your spirit and resolve.

It’s the Cactus League and 15 Major League Baseball teams try to ready for the 162-game Major League season without much fanfare or scrutiny.

One of those 15 teams is Colorado, a franchise trying to make some progress in the National League standings and find more wins while doing it.

The Rockies, a team without any history of charging through a season seeking a playoff berth, much less a World Series to look back on and smile about.

Colorado has no real feel as to what it means to be the Los Angeles Dodgers, San Francisco Giants or even the upstarts of the 2023 season — the Arizona Diamondbacks.

How can Colorado show even marginal improvement over their 2023 season, where they easily passed the 100-loss milestone (millstone)?

It seems it will take hugely improved starting pitching. Without the starters showing noticeable improvement, it won’t much matter about the overall run production, offense or individual player statistics.

One of those individual players is Brenton Doyle, a bona fide defensive wizard who gave the shrinking Rockies a gold glove season in centerfield in 2023.

Doyle came from Shepherd University as a fourth-round draft selection in 2019.

He progressed through the minor leagues in almost an idyllic upward spiral before reaching the Major Leagues last season.

And then “idyllic” turned too sharply in a southerly direction as Doyle faced Major League pitching on a regular basis.

He struck out too often. In 399 official at-bats, he fanned 151 times. Everybody offered their advice. He altered his batting stance, moving his hands to different pre-swing locations.

He stood a little more upright at the plate.

No doubt, advice about hitting and making more contact will be constantly sent his way in Spring Training and during the whole of the 2024 regular season.

He is such a reliable and rarely-make-a-mistake centerfielder that the Rockies will go far into the night to keep him in the lineup.

Last season, his last few weeks were encouraging as his batting average rose, his on-base percentage did the same and he showed telltale signs of improvement as he learned the lessons of Major League baseball for the first time.

Now 26 years old, Doyle finished with a .203 batting average, 10 homers, 16 doubles, 48 RBIs, 48 runs scored and 22 stolen bases in 27 steal attempts. His near-flawless fielding in cavernous Coors Field with its many angles, nooks and variables showed him with 373 putouts, 10 assists and a seldom-seen .997 fielding percentage.

He committed one error.

It’s spring training. And the living is supposed to be easy and at least somewhat relaxed in the calm of the Arizona desert.

But it’s not for Brenton Doyle, whose learning curve will be judged completely on how he accommodates all the hitting advice he receives from any and everybody.