With its high elevation and unpredictable winds, Albuquerque has long been viewed as a place that makes hitters salivate and pitchers cringe. Both the Dodgers and the Isotopes’ previous parent club, the then-Florida Marlins, have tended to route top young pitchers around Albuquerque to spare earned-run averages and psyches.

Such is not the case this spring.

Albuquerque Isotopes pitching coach Glenn Dishman, right, observes Stephen Fife during practice Tuesday at Isotopes Park. Fife is the Opening Day pitcher for the ’Topes, who open the 2013 season today against the Iowa Cubs. (JIM THOMPSON/JOURNAL)

Armed with a pitching staff that includes seven members of the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, Isotopes manager Lorenzo Bundy will try to give Albuquerque a baseball makeover. In other words, Bundy will try to win with pitching, defense and speed.

“It’s a different kind of ball club,” said Bundy, who skippered the ‘Topes to a Pacific Coast League American South Division title last season.

“From an offensive standpoint, we don’t have a veteran Triple-A bopper to hit 30 home runs,” he added, “but we do have legs, and I’m talking good legs. Fans want to see aggressive base running and are always yelling, ‘Send him, Lo!’ Well, this year Lo’s gonna send ‘em.”

Albuquerque’s Opening Day roster is filled with speedsters, including infielders Dee Gordon, Elian Herrera, Alfredo Amezaga and outfielders Matt Angle, Alex Castellanos and Nick Buss.

Castellanos, who spent much of last season getting comfortable at second base, is looking forward to joining the Isotopes’ outfield relay team.

“It looks great in my eyes,” Castellanos said of Albuquerque’s revamped roster. “We’ve got a lot of guys with big league time and some really talented young guys. It should be fun.”

Asked about moving back to the outfield, Castellanos laughed.

“Every year it’s a new position,” he said. “I’ll just try to conquer the outfield and hope they don’t move me to catcher.”

While the Isotopes may not hit as many home runs as they have in previous seasons, Bundy is confident his club will be able to manufacture runs.

Bundy and Isotopes pitching coach Glenn Dishman also feel good about a pitching rotation fronted by starters Stephen Fife and Matt Magill. Closer Josh Wall, a PCL All-Star who finished the season with Los Angeles in 2012, anchors a deep bullpen.

Fife, Magill and Wall are on the Dodgers’ 40-man roster, as are Isotopes pitchers Steve Ames, Javy Guerra, Shawn Tolleson and Chris Withrow. It’s a ‘Topes staff laden with 12 right-handers and just one lefty (Geison Aguasviva), but Dishman isn’t about to complain.

“It’s exciting to have some studs,” Dishman said. “In the past, the Dodgers didn’t always feel comfortable sending prospects here. Now we’ve got some of the best arms in the organization.”

The difference is the humidor, a massive safe-like construction located near the visitors locker room. Hundreds of cases of baseballs are kept locked within its 72-degree, 50 percent humidity environment. Conditioned, softer balls will be removed and delivered to game umpires as needed.

Humidors have been used to soften baseballs in other high-altitude cities, including Denver and Colorado Springs. Pitching statistics have generally improved in those ballparks, but Bundy is taking a wait-and-see approach to Albuquerque’s humidor experiment.

“It may take three or four years before we really know how much difference (the humidor) makes,” Bundy said. “If it takes away some of the cheap home runs we get in this ballpark, that’s great.

“But I’m sticking with my own theory of pitching in Albuquerque: No ground ball has ever left the ballpark.”
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal