In March the sun rises in Arizona just before 7:00 a.m. It varies slightly from team to team but, for decades spring training work has generally been expected to start around that time. Just last month the Arizona Diamondbacks social team showed off their players arriving to camp in darkness:
This schedule is widely disliked among those affiliated with teams, from players and on field staff to front office members. It’s not hard to understand why:
- With work starting as the sun is coming up, everyone needs to be waking up significantly before dawn to get ready and travel to the complex.
- As soon as the regular seasons starts, most games are played in the evening. This leads to a yearly sleep schedule whiplash right as game results start counting.
- Teams are in full control over the start time of their home games. It’s easy to envision being frustrated at being asked to go through this yearly shift change when your boss could just decide not to require it.
This year, the Rockies are attempting to be ahead of
the curve… by showing up later.
Schaeffer’s Camp
This year, Warren Schaeffer is giving later start times a try in his first spring training as a big league manager.
“We’re pushing the guys’ morning schedule back and giving them time to get ready for the day, and not having to wake up at 5 a.m.”
There isn’t an obvious conclusion to be made as to immediate performance effects, however, Brenton Doyle made it clear that he believed the schedule change is a net positive:
“I’m glad things have changed, and the schedule is much better than in the past. ‘Schaeff’ has given us time to get warmed up and get ready, so that when we do go on that field, it doesn’t feel rushed.“
Sleep & athletes
While the exact impact on baseball performance specifically hasn’t publicly been quantified with a meaningfully large dataset (though some smaller studies have been done), the overall benefits of sleep on generic athletic performance are non-controversial.
When you get more sleep, your mind has better reaction times and increased memory retention while your body is better able to recover from the strain of physical exertion.
The point isn’t that every baseball player should adopt Yusei Kikuchi’s 12-14 hour pre-game day sleep schedule, just that a consistent good nights rest is obviously a good thing.
Why the Rockies, why now?
This has always seemed like a fixable problem but year after year teams have continued to stick to the same existing schedule. The 2026 Rockies just happen to have had all the correct ingredients in place to both motivate the change.
- Warren Schaeffer is a young manager in his first spring training. He isn’t beholden to the way things have been done and is looking at the process of getting his team ready for the season with a fresh set of eyes.
- This is a relatively young team filled with many players that may not have had a chance to develop personal routines to prepare for the schedule shift that comes with the regular season.
- This is a new front office that has openly talked all offseason about wanting to experiment and try new things. They are looking to find every unique edge they can.
This change won’t make the Rockies good this year. Most folks outside the organization will likely have forgotten the Rockies ran camp this way by May. That, however, is an important contributing factor as to why the Rockies are perfect to give this a try.
If a team with actual expectations of winning tried this first they’d risk a slow start being blamed on having not “put in the work” in spring training. Sports talk radio would be up in arms and jobs could become less secure than if they’d lost without first rocking the boat.
This is just one specific example of how the extreme lack of expectations for the 2026 Rockies will allow the new leadership team to take small experimental risks. They do not need to worry about hardly anyone outside the team even noticing while they search for unique advantages.
Like a shot of espresso, Italy jolts Team USA | MLB.com
A rundown about how team Italy, after a great start from Michael Lorenzen, bested team USA last night. The thrilling win briefly put team USA in danger of failing to advance to the quarterfinals of the WBC.
Strike 2: Who’s on First for the Rockies? | Mile High Sports
Mark Knudson chronicles the Rockies history of opening day starters at first base. He posits that the battle this spring is one that the franchise has previously been able to avoid for a long time.
Feltner experiments in-game as he battles for rotation spot | MLB.com
Thomas Harding catches up with Ryan Feltner about his outlook and plans this spring. Feltner goes into the various changes he is experimenting with even while his spot in the rotation remains up in the air.
Please keep in mind our Purple Row Community Guidelines when you’re commenting. Thanks!
