Tyler Chatwood's Success Has His Confidence Sky High
DENVER (CBS4) - Colorado Rockies starting pitcher Tyler Chatwood is enjoying a good season so far, posting a 4-1 record and an earned run average of just over 2. He stopped by Xfinity Monday Live! on a rare day off to talk about his success so far.
The Rockies just took two out of three from the San Francisco Giants over the weekend and now have a long stretch of playing other National League West teams. They will host the Los Angeles Dodgers, visit the Arizona Diamondbacks, San Diego Padres, and then travel to take on the Dodgers once again in Los Angeles before the All Star break.
"We've got a pretty long stretch of NL West opponents, so it's a pretty tough schedule going through it," Chatwood said.
He said with his success so far this season his confidence is high.
"I feel good out there with everything I'm doing, so I've got to keep it rolling."
This year's starting pitching staff is arguably the best the Rockies have ever had, and CBS4's Gary Miller asked Chatwood what makes things different this year.
"I think we've always had good pitchers; last year we had a little bit of a rough patch. But I think everybody's got more confidence this year ... I like the direction we're headed in."
Chatwood was the No. 1 draft choice of the Los Angeles Angels a couple of years ago and was traded to the Rockies after just one season. Miller asked Chatfield if he had some reticence about coming to a place that's known to be tough for pitchers.
"I heard the stories about it, but you know just seeing it first hand, if you make your pitches, you're going to get outs, just like you do anywhere else," he said. "I think once you get over that fear you just go out there make pitches like you do on the road -- it helps out a lot."
Through the years it's been said that it's tough for pitchers to get a breaking ball to do what they want at Coors Field and that pitchers are more tired after pitching at altitude, and Chatwood agrees to some degree.
"The breaking ball is a little tougher. The curveball is probably the toughest pitch to throw up in altitude just because the harder you want to throw it, the less it's going to do," he said. "But change-up, slider pretty much do the same thing, so there's adjustments you have to make, but overall you can still make pitches."
Chatwood's next start is slated for Wednesday at Coors Field against the Dodgers. First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m.
- By Matthew J. Buettner, CBSDenver.com
Watch more of the video with Tyler Chatwood in the Xfinity Monday Live! section.
