Colorado Rockies' Batting Practice Adjustments Yield Success Away from Home

The Colorado Rockies are starting to show progress with batting on the road in part to their new baatting practices.

Jun 17, 2025; Washington, District of Columbia, USA; Colorado Rockies third baseman Ryan McMahon (24) hits a solo home run against the Washington Nationals during the seventh inning at Nationals Park. / Geoff Burke-Imagn Images

The definition of insanity is doing something over and over again expecting the same results. Clearly the Colorado Rockies got the message.

Colorado couldn’t keep going the way they were without changing something or they’d end up on the wrong side of MLB history. The month of June is proving that when something isn’t working, and you change it, the results can yield progress. 

MLB.com reporter Thomas Harding wrote about the changes the Rockies have made to their batting practice routine away from home.

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Hitting away from Coors Field has been a known struggle every season, but their new approach can be best exemplified in the improvement of Hunter Goodman.

The catcher/outfielder has hit 11 of his 14 home runs this season away from home. He's also a better hitter for average away from Coors Field (.297) than at home (.269). He's also red-hot in June, batting .333 with seven home runs and 13 RBI.

With interim manager Warren Schaeffer, who took over on May 11, and two new hitting coaches, the Rockies set about trying to improve the team's overall slash on the road. Per Harding, that meant reworking the goal of pre-game batting practice, which can tend to be rote exercises that get players warmed up.

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Before the firing of manager Bud Black, and early in Schaeffer's tenure, that approach was not working. Harding presented the difference in raw numbers. The Rockies had a slash of .195/.253/.314 for their first 34 road games and averaged only 2.5 runs per game. 

But in their last seven road games? Colorado has produced a slash of .263/.330/.498 and has scored 5.3 runs per game.

So what changed? Nik Wilson was one of two hitting coaches that was promoted from the minor leagues after the Rockies reorganized its staff. in a conversation with Harding, he revealed the rather simple, but groundbreaking approach, Colorado has taken during batting practice.

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“Ultimately, with practice in general, you’re trying to create an environment that’s more difficult than the game,” Wilson said. “Baseball is traditionally terrible at that.”

The sample is small, but it's big enough to provide confidence that it's working. The Rockies are 7-4 on the road in June with a clean sweep of the Miami Marlins along with a season-best four game win streak away from home.

The Rockies are at home until Friday, when they'll test their newfound confidence on the road against the Milwaukee Brewers.

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