Clint Barmes
Full Name: Clint Harold Barmes
Born: March 6,1979
Place: Vincennes, Indiana
Position: SS-2B
Height: 6-1 Weight: 190
Bats: R Throws: R
High School: - College: Indiana State University
Drafted: Selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round (287th overall) of the 2000 amateur entry draft. (June-Reg phase)
Clint Barmes regressed offensively in 2006. His hitting deteriorated so horribly that his future is now in doubt as a Colorado Rockie.. especially so since super-mega prospect, Troy Tulowitzki, is hot on Barmes' heels. His average dropped from a very acceptable .289 in 2005 to a extremely unacceptable .220 in 2006. He has over 900 AB's in the big league's now and this kind of poor mechanics and approach at the plate shouldn't be there unless he just doesn't have the ability to hit big league pitching.
It is possible that Barmey went through a kind of 'sophomore jinx' and the word is that this is what the front office believes what happened. If so, then the 2007 spring season in Camp Tucson is the most important period of time for Clint.
The good thing is that his defense has improved so much that Clint Hurdle kept writting Barmes' number in the lineup for just that reason. His range isn't super but when he gets to a ball he generally makes the play.
Don't look for him to be moved over to second or into the outfield as some have suggested. It's possible that his future in the league will be as a utility player, but it won't be that as a Rockie because they already have numerous players in that role already.
YEAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG
2003 12 25 2 8 2 0 0 2 10 0 10 0 0 .357 .400 .320
2004 20 71 14 20 3 1 2 10 31 3 10 0 1 .320 .437 .282
2005 81 350 55 101 19 1 10 46 152 16 36 6 4 .330 .434 .289
2006 131 478 57 105 26 4 7 56 160 22 72 5 4 .264 .335 .220
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 244 924 128 234 50 6 19 114 353 41 128 11 9 .295 .382 .253
2006 salary $335,000. One-year contract. Incentives: None.
-------------
2006
In the minds of the Rockie front office, Clint Barmes has caught them by surprise. According to their wisdom, Barmes was going to be never more than a utility player at the major league level. Now this projection may still come to be true but as it stands now, Barmes is the shortstop for the Rockies now and into the foreseeable future.
Rox Head has watched this player with interest. This writer likes the grit and raw desire Barmes displays. If you watch him from a purely talent point of view, then you'll come away with the impression that he isn't a major league shortstop. He doesn't do any of the things consistently you'd like to see at that position. When used as leadoff hitter last year, Barmes hit just .255 with a .294 on-base percentage in 247 at-bats, which is not good enough. He also struggled defensively, tying for second among National League shortstops with 17 errors, despite playing just 80 games. He doesn't always field the ball cleanly and many times he fails set himself up well to throw. He turns the double play at second like a big clunky beer league shortstop. Yet despite all this, he generally gets the job done. He may not look like a major league shortstop but he has those other intangibles you like to see in a player who is a winner.
"He's fun to watch," Hurdle told the media. "He's an interesting kid. How can you not love him? How can you not love to watch him play? The passion he brings and the energy. He's like that young puppy. One minute there's pee in the corner, and the next minute he's licking your face."
This writer is going to make a leap here and say that Barmes could be to the Rockies what Derek Jeter is to the Yankees. Jeter will never be compared with the great fielding shortstops in baseball or even the best hitting shortstops, but everyone who has watched him play for the past 9 years knows how great a leader he is. Whether or not Barmes is eventually moved to second base shouldn't matter in terms of how he plays the game and how he sparks the team.
The one problem projecting Barmes as the future long term answer at shortstop is the fact that the Rockies have drafted shortstops in the first round the past two years. Troy Tulowitzki will be playing in AA in 2006 and Chris Nelson will be in High A. Both are considered excellent Major league prospects.
Born: March 6,1979
Place: Vincennes, Indiana
Position: SS-2B
Height: 6-1 Weight: 190
Bats: R Throws: R
High School: - College: Indiana State University
Drafted: Selected by the Colorado Rockies in the 10th round (287th overall) of the 2000 amateur entry draft. (June-Reg phase)
Clint Barmes regressed offensively in 2006. His hitting deteriorated so horribly that his future is now in doubt as a Colorado Rockie.. especially so since super-mega prospect, Troy Tulowitzki, is hot on Barmes' heels. His average dropped from a very acceptable .289 in 2005 to a extremely unacceptable .220 in 2006. He has over 900 AB's in the big league's now and this kind of poor mechanics and approach at the plate shouldn't be there unless he just doesn't have the ability to hit big league pitching.
It is possible that Barmey went through a kind of 'sophomore jinx' and the word is that this is what the front office believes what happened. If so, then the 2007 spring season in Camp Tucson is the most important period of time for Clint.
The good thing is that his defense has improved so much that Clint Hurdle kept writting Barmes' number in the lineup for just that reason. His range isn't super but when he gets to a ball he generally makes the play.
Don't look for him to be moved over to second or into the outfield as some have suggested. It's possible that his future in the league will be as a utility player, but it won't be that as a Rockie because they already have numerous players in that role already.
YEAR G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG AVG
2003 12 25 2 8 2 0 0 2 10 0 10 0 0 .357 .400 .320
2004 20 71 14 20 3 1 2 10 31 3 10 0 1 .320 .437 .282
2005 81 350 55 101 19 1 10 46 152 16 36 6 4 .330 .434 .289
2006 131 478 57 105 26 4 7 56 160 22 72 5 4 .264 .335 .220
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Career 244 924 128 234 50 6 19 114 353 41 128 11 9 .295 .382 .253
2006 salary $335,000. One-year contract. Incentives: None.
-------------
2006
In the minds of the Rockie front office, Clint Barmes has caught them by surprise. According to their wisdom, Barmes was going to be never more than a utility player at the major league level. Now this projection may still come to be true but as it stands now, Barmes is the shortstop for the Rockies now and into the foreseeable future.
Rox Head has watched this player with interest. This writer likes the grit and raw desire Barmes displays. If you watch him from a purely talent point of view, then you'll come away with the impression that he isn't a major league shortstop. He doesn't do any of the things consistently you'd like to see at that position. When used as leadoff hitter last year, Barmes hit just .255 with a .294 on-base percentage in 247 at-bats, which is not good enough. He also struggled defensively, tying for second among National League shortstops with 17 errors, despite playing just 80 games. He doesn't always field the ball cleanly and many times he fails set himself up well to throw. He turns the double play at second like a big clunky beer league shortstop. Yet despite all this, he generally gets the job done. He may not look like a major league shortstop but he has those other intangibles you like to see in a player who is a winner.
"He's fun to watch," Hurdle told the media. "He's an interesting kid. How can you not love him? How can you not love to watch him play? The passion he brings and the energy. He's like that young puppy. One minute there's pee in the corner, and the next minute he's licking your face."
This writer is going to make a leap here and say that Barmes could be to the Rockies what Derek Jeter is to the Yankees. Jeter will never be compared with the great fielding shortstops in baseball or even the best hitting shortstops, but everyone who has watched him play for the past 9 years knows how great a leader he is. Whether or not Barmes is eventually moved to second base shouldn't matter in terms of how he plays the game and how he sparks the team.
The one problem projecting Barmes as the future long term answer at shortstop is the fact that the Rockies have drafted shortstops in the first round the past two years. Troy Tulowitzki will be playing in AA in 2006 and Chris Nelson will be in High A. Both are considered excellent Major league prospects.
Clint Barmes Bio's:
More Bio's:
In the News
12/12/06.. addition.. Post
"Teams just want us to give Clint away. We think he can still help us," general manager Dan O'Dowd said. "He's not the first player to go through a sophomore slump."
9/3/06.. addition.. MLB.com
Barmes' playing time should continue to decrease as the Rockies prepare Tulowitzki for a possibly larger role come Spring Training. Barmes batted .174 during the month of August and his season average sits at .225. When asked whether there was an injury affecting the shortstop, Hurdle replied that he did not know, but that the league sometimes makes an adjustment to the player.
8/29/06.. addition.. SI.com
NL's 25 biggest busts
22. Clint Barmes, SS, Rockies. He hasn't been the same since tripping while carting around deer meat early last season. (That was his story, wasn't it?) Last year Barmes flirted with .400 early; in '06 he's just a little better than half that (.226). A solid defender, but it's only a matter of time before top prospect Troy Tulowitzki, a dynamic hitter, replaces him.
8/10/06.. addition.. MLB.com
Clint Barmes has 14 errors in 101 games, as opposed to 17 in 80 games last year in a season shortened by a collarbone injury. A change in his approach to positioning, born of the design of his home field while playing for Escogido, and a few other fields in the Dominican, has fostered the improvement.
The infield dirt path was especially wide. So to keep from having the ball slow down before it reached him, thus giving fast runners time to reach first base, Barmes began playing closer to the hitter. He discovered he still was quick enough to reach the ball, and he had more time to make throws.
Barmes continued playing shallow when he rejoined the Rockies. "That's where I learned," Barmes said of his discovery during the winter. "I felt like I didn't have to rush, ever.
7/23/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"Slowly and quietly, Barmes is resurging offensively," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "His flat-out defensive play has been spectacular."
6/22/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"I really think he's lost confidence in his bunting game," Hurdle said before the game. "I know he bunted more last year for hits. So we'll get him up there (in the number two spot in the order) and he's going to bunt some more when he's up there, see if he can get a little lucky."
6/4/06.. addition.. Post
"Today we told Barmes that he's our shortstop," Hurdle said after the Rockies' 13-0 loss to the Florida Marlins at Coors Field. "We told him to go play the game. He's shown improvement, so keep it up."
5/14/06.. Hurdle speaking about Barmes' struggle at the plate
"We've seen some good at-bats here and there, then we saw some soft contact," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "He's not where we believe he can be or where he needs to be yet. We have confidence he'll get there.
"He makes a lot of outs on pitches that he really doesn't have a lot of reason to swing at. But that's part of his growth and one of the challenges he has in front of him as an offensive player." MLB.com
5/5/06.. addition.. RoxHead
Hurdle finally decided to move Clint Barmes down in the order. It was not a very hard choice since he had gone 2-for-22 in his last five games to drop his average to .245. With the middle of the order hitting so well, having a slumping Barmes in there was killing potential scoring oportunities. It would have been more acceptable if he worked the pitchers few more walks but he wasn't even doing that.
Look for Barmes to be moving around a lot in the order as he goes hot and cold.
4/16/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"I needed to stay behind the ball a lot better," Barmes explained of the adjustment he's made to slow down his aggressive approach at the plate. "From the beginning of the season up until now I've been battling with staying back, because I've been wanting to go get everything. All my body, everything's going towards the pitch instead of staying back and trusting my hands.
3/1/06.. addition.. Post
Clint Barmes, an aggressive hitter, acknowledges he needs to make some adjustmentsat the plate.
"I need to walk more, but then they tell me that every year," Barmes said. "With two strikes, it's hard for me to take borderline pitches because I don't like striking out. So sometimes I'm too aggressive, but that's the way I have always hit. I'm trying to get better and work in my zone and my counts."
2/01/06.. addition.. MLB.com
The difference in Barmes' numbers pre- and post-injury can be best attributed to patience and the lack thereof. So while Barmes is doing the physical work that any player does in the offseason, his biggest offseason project is "staying back and using my hands."
"Clint Barmes went down and played for three months in the Dominican so that shows you the kind of quality kid he is," Colorado general manager Dan O'Dowd said in a recent MLB Radio interview. "So I have no doubt. Not only will he come back, he'll be better than he was last year because the kid's intangibles are off the chart."
12/15/05... addition.. Baseball Weekly
Shortstop rankings:
24. Clint Barmes, Rockies: The unheralded 26-year-old was batting .329 with eight homers and 34 RBI on June5 when he dislocated his shoulder. When he returned in September, he batted just .216 for the remainder of the season. Barmes' 17 errors in 80 games at shortstop drops him further down this list than his stats might otherwise indicate.
12/01/05... MLB.com
Shortstop Clint Barmes' eventful 2005 has ended with him batting .233 with a home run and eight RBIs for Escogido in the Dominican Republic. Barmes had 18 strikeouts against three walks, and was charged with more errors than a team would like to see from its shortstop.
10/26/05...addition (from MLB.com)
Shortstop Clint Barmes did it again. On Opening Day 2006, Barmes hit a two-run homer to beat the Padres at Coors Field. Recently, on Opening Day of the winter ball season in the Dominican Republic, Barmes hit a two-run game-ending homer to give Escogido a victory over Licey. Barmes struggled at the end of the Major League season after missing 68 games with a broken left collarbone, and he is playing winter ball to regain his swing.
"Teams just want us to give Clint away. We think he can still help us," general manager Dan O'Dowd said. "He's not the first player to go through a sophomore slump."
9/3/06.. addition.. MLB.com
Barmes' playing time should continue to decrease as the Rockies prepare Tulowitzki for a possibly larger role come Spring Training. Barmes batted .174 during the month of August and his season average sits at .225. When asked whether there was an injury affecting the shortstop, Hurdle replied that he did not know, but that the league sometimes makes an adjustment to the player.
8/29/06.. addition.. SI.com
NL's 25 biggest busts
22. Clint Barmes, SS, Rockies. He hasn't been the same since tripping while carting around deer meat early last season. (That was his story, wasn't it?) Last year Barmes flirted with .400 early; in '06 he's just a little better than half that (.226). A solid defender, but it's only a matter of time before top prospect Troy Tulowitzki, a dynamic hitter, replaces him.
8/10/06.. addition.. MLB.com
Clint Barmes has 14 errors in 101 games, as opposed to 17 in 80 games last year in a season shortened by a collarbone injury. A change in his approach to positioning, born of the design of his home field while playing for Escogido, and a few other fields in the Dominican, has fostered the improvement.
The infield dirt path was especially wide. So to keep from having the ball slow down before it reached him, thus giving fast runners time to reach first base, Barmes began playing closer to the hitter. He discovered he still was quick enough to reach the ball, and he had more time to make throws.
Barmes continued playing shallow when he rejoined the Rockies. "That's where I learned," Barmes said of his discovery during the winter. "I felt like I didn't have to rush, ever.
7/23/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"Slowly and quietly, Barmes is resurging offensively," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "His flat-out defensive play has been spectacular."
6/22/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"I really think he's lost confidence in his bunting game," Hurdle said before the game. "I know he bunted more last year for hits. So we'll get him up there (in the number two spot in the order) and he's going to bunt some more when he's up there, see if he can get a little lucky."
6/4/06.. addition.. Post
"Today we told Barmes that he's our shortstop," Hurdle said after the Rockies' 13-0 loss to the Florida Marlins at Coors Field. "We told him to go play the game. He's shown improvement, so keep it up."
5/14/06.. Hurdle speaking about Barmes' struggle at the plate
"We've seen some good at-bats here and there, then we saw some soft contact," Rockies manager Clint Hurdle said. "He's not where we believe he can be or where he needs to be yet. We have confidence he'll get there.
"He makes a lot of outs on pitches that he really doesn't have a lot of reason to swing at. But that's part of his growth and one of the challenges he has in front of him as an offensive player." MLB.com
5/5/06.. addition.. RoxHead
Hurdle finally decided to move Clint Barmes down in the order. It was not a very hard choice since he had gone 2-for-22 in his last five games to drop his average to .245. With the middle of the order hitting so well, having a slumping Barmes in there was killing potential scoring oportunities. It would have been more acceptable if he worked the pitchers few more walks but he wasn't even doing that.
Look for Barmes to be moving around a lot in the order as he goes hot and cold.
4/16/06.. addition.. MLB.com
"I needed to stay behind the ball a lot better," Barmes explained of the adjustment he's made to slow down his aggressive approach at the plate. "From the beginning of the season up until now I've been battling with staying back, because I've been wanting to go get everything. All my body, everything's going towards the pitch instead of staying back and trusting my hands.
3/1/06.. addition.. Post
Clint Barmes, an aggressive hitter, acknowledges he needs to make some adjustmentsat the plate.
"I need to walk more, but then they tell me that every year," Barmes said. "With two strikes, it's hard for me to take borderline pitches because I don't like striking out. So sometimes I'm too aggressive, but that's the way I have always hit. I'm trying to get better and work in my zone and my counts."
2/01/06.. addition.. MLB.com
The difference in Barmes' numbers pre- and post-injury can be best attributed to patience and the lack thereof. So while Barmes is doing the physical work that any player does in the offseason, his biggest offseason project is "staying back and using my hands."
"Clint Barmes went down and played for three months in the Dominican so that shows you the kind of quality kid he is," Colorado general manager Dan O'Dowd said in a recent MLB Radio interview. "So I have no doubt. Not only will he come back, he'll be better than he was last year because the kid's intangibles are off the chart."
12/15/05... addition.. Baseball Weekly
Shortstop rankings:
24. Clint Barmes, Rockies: The unheralded 26-year-old was batting .329 with eight homers and 34 RBI on June5 when he dislocated his shoulder. When he returned in September, he batted just .216 for the remainder of the season. Barmes' 17 errors in 80 games at shortstop drops him further down this list than his stats might otherwise indicate.
12/01/05... MLB.com
Shortstop Clint Barmes' eventful 2005 has ended with him batting .233 with a home run and eight RBIs for Escogido in the Dominican Republic. Barmes had 18 strikeouts against three walks, and was charged with more errors than a team would like to see from its shortstop.
10/26/05...addition (from MLB.com)
Shortstop Clint Barmes did it again. On Opening Day 2006, Barmes hit a two-run homer to beat the Padres at Coors Field. Recently, on Opening Day of the winter ball season in the Dominican Republic, Barmes hit a two-run game-ending homer to give Escogido a victory over Licey. Barmes struggled at the end of the Major League season after missing 68 games with a broken left collarbone, and he is playing winter ball to regain his swing.