Warren Schaeffer has “all the confidence” in Chase Dollander after poor outing

The Colorado Rockies don’t have a whole lot going for them with their starting pitching rotation. When Chase Dollander was called up to the big leagues at the start of the season and got the win in his first outing, Rockies fans had plenty to look forward to as the 2023 first-round pick is one of the best pitching prospects to come through the Colorado system.

The right-hander out of Tennessee had a couple of good outings throughout his first nine starts in the majors as he got his feet wet, but his 10th start against the New York Mets on Sunday was a nightmare for Dollander. He surrendered eight hits (two home runs) and five earned runs in just three innings of action at Coors Field, throwing 78 pitches.

Sunday’s outing was the second straight start in which Dollander only lasted three innings, and the third overall. He has only gone six innings once this season, and part of it has to do with his command and his high pitch counts. He’s thrown at least 85 pitches in half of his starts this year.

Despite another bad outing from his young talent on the bump, Rockies Interim Manager Warren Schaeffer still believes in Dollander going forward.

“I think it all comes back to his command,” Schaeffer said of the 23-year-old after Sunday’s loss. “I think that he’s getting behind in counts, he’s then working extremely hard to get back into counts; he’s throwing a lot of pitches. I think that leads to going over the heart of the plate more often than he should, but, all the confidence in the world in Chase Dollander moving forward and being able to make adjustments.”

Dollander faced 18 batters on Sunday. Of those 18 batters, he immediately fell behind in the count, throwing a ball on the first pitch, just five times. He got seven of the batters to two strikes in the count, retiring four of them. The issue lied within the placement of his four-seam fastball late in at-bats, as six of the eight hits he conceded came on the heater. That’s where he was losing his command, as Schaeffer said, and paid the price consequently.

The loss dropped Dollander’s record to 2-6 this season. He has the third most strikeouts on the team with 42 (sixth-most strikeouts per nine innings), but also the most walks on the team (22). The only way for the young arm to continue to blossom is to have him go out there against the league’s top hitters, like he did on Sunday, and continue to learn how to beat the best.

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