Luckily for catcher Wilin Rosario, Jose Tabata was a teammate in the Arizona Fall League. He’s a Pirates outfield prospect, who played at the Double- and Triple-A levels last season and who has had twice as many professional at-bats as Rosario.

Looking for solutions at the plate, Rosario incorporated a toe-tap used by Tabata, a mechanical change that turned around what at the outset was a frustrating experience in the fall league for Rosario, who will turn 21 on Feb. 23 and who was recently rated the Rockies No. 3 prospect by Baseball America.

There were two other catchers on the Scottsdale Scorpions, including Giants prospect Buster Posey, who as that organization’s priority player was going to play often. And Rosario, who vaulted from Rookie Casper, where he spent two seasons, to high Class A Modesto in 2009, was coming off a season that ended July 28 when he suffered an inflammed left wrist on a tag play at the plate.

Scottsdale hitting coach Dave Hajek, who is the hitting coach at Colorado’s Double-A Tulsa affiliate, said Rosario was “trying to get his rhythm back” when he got to the fall league and was “frankly a little bit overmatched.”

Rosario played in seven of Scottsdale’s first 20 games and caught in four of them and serving as the DH in the others. He went 5-for-25 (.200) with one home run, two RBI and two walks and 11 strikeouts.
Hajek said Rosario was “jumping at the ball, not seeing it, chasing bad pitches,” and after doing that for a few weeks and listening to Hajek suggest that Rosario watch Tabata’s approach, Hajek said Rosario decided to utilize a toe-tap like Tabata and told Hajek, “I just want to be softer on my front foot. I want to be quiet. I want to be under control.”

After working hard in the batting cage with this new approach, Rosario, a right-handed hitter, took it into a game hours later and hit two home runs, one to right-center. In Scottsdale’s final 12 games, Rosario played in eight games, caught four and was the DH in four. He went 12-for-31 (.387) in those eight games with two doubles, three homers and 10 RBI along with one walk and seven strikeouts. Rosario went 4-for-4 in his penultimate fall league game and had five RBI in his final game.

Rosario’s sprint enabled him to finish the fall league with a .304 average, a .344 on-base percentage and a .571 slugging percentage. He figures to play at Tulsa next season after spending 2009 at Modesto where he split catching duties with Lars Davis and in 58 games hit .266 with four homers and 33 RBI, a .297 on-base percentage and a .404 slugging percentage.

Roving hitting coordinator Jim Johnson, referring to the fall league, said, “I thought it was a real big step for Wilin. How many games did he play in Modesto? He’s a young ‘A’ ball player going into that league. I think he learned a lot, even though he didn’t play as much. When he played, he played very well and got hot hitting and that made a difference in his overall play.”

“Wilin’s problem is when he really wants to crank one or unload, he just gets out of control,” Johnson added. “But he’s learning now that he doesn’t have to do that. He just made a big step forward, and I think confidence-wise, he found out he can play with those guys (in the fall league).”

Rosario had 203 at-bats at Modesto, the first time he has played above the short-season level, giving him a total of 794 professional at-bats. He played in 2006 for the Rockies team in the Dominican Summer League in his native country, followed by two seasons at Casper, the first one bound to be challenging and ever more so as Rosario learned English and adjusted to American culture.

Not surprisingly considering his limited experience, Rosario has trouble recognizing breaking pitches. So he’ll chase ones that break outside beyond the strike zone and lay off ones coming toward him that break over the inner portion of the plate.

“I don’t think it’s going to be a problem down the road,” Johnson said. “He gets another 500, 750 at-bats under his belt, he’s going to be able to recognize the ones he can hit and the ones he can’t because he’s an excellent athlete.”

Rosario has an exceptionally strong arm, which he didn’t get to use that often in the fall league. His receiving skills lacked polish, but Rosario has worked hard in that area the last few years, particuarly with roving catching coordinator Marv Foley, who spent nearly a week with Rosario in the fall league.

Hajek said Scottsdale pitching coach Bob Milacki, who in 2009 was the pitching coach for Philadelphia’s low Class A Lakewood affiliate, and Scottsdale manager Jeff Banister, the Pirates’ field coordinator and a former catcher, liked Rosario’s energy on the field, how he called a game and were “excited” about his receiving.

“I think everyone was pleasantly surprised with his defense and calling a game,” Johnson said. “I mean he’s not Buster Posey yet but for his age and where he is, this guy has as many tools as Buster (the fifth overall pick in the 2008 draft out of Florida State who was called up by the Giants in September).

“The thing Buster does is he goes the opposite way so well and his power’s to the opposite field. Wilin can hit with power to right field. I saw him hit three (homers) in two days. One was to right field, with two strikes. That was pretty impressive.”

And for that, the toe-tapping Rosario could thank Tabata.