This story was excerpted from Thomas Harding's Rockies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Catcher Elias Díaz has learned all about self-imposed pressure, and he is willing to teach.

Early in the season, Díaz struggled with the bat and even saw his throwing -- his key attribute -- go haywire. While he will come nowhere near his 18 home runs last season -- he entered the weekend with nine -- he has improved to a .231 batting average (after hitting .246 last season) and has helped starting pitchers Kyle Freeland and Germán Márquez work through rough early patches.

• What to expect from Ezequiel Tovar

Díaz, 31, knows his pain began with joy, when he signed a three-year, $14.5 million contract extension after last season. He pressed to live up to the contract, until he figured that relaxing might bring more success.

Now he hopes to be a sounding board as other players grow.

“I want to especially help the young guys,” said Díaz, beside whom the Rockies placed Ezequiel Tovar’s locker. “Yonathan Daza, he’s going to be ready for arbitration after next year. Or Elehuris Montero, sometimes he tries to do too much -- ‘I need to hit a homer or a double because I want to play every day.’ I try to help by saying, ‘Do what you have to do, but don’t do too much. If you try to do too much, things are not going to go well.'”