DENVER -- Rockies bullpen coach Darryl Scott used the pandemic shutdown to connect over a project with his 24-year-old son, Ryan, who was supposed to coach in the Mariners' Minor League system. And the project helped Scott stay close to his extended family of Rockies pitchers and catchers.

"I did a little DIY research, and my son and I built a mound, put it in my truck and would go around to parks and just let guys get off the slope a little bit," Scott said.

If Colorado's pitching is an asset during this 60-game season -- as effectively as when the Rockies went to the postseason in 2017 and '18 -- those involved can point to where they took advantage of ingenuity, technology and their own desire to not let COVID-19 stop them.

Here's how the Rockies worked smart and worked hard before Summer Camp opened this month:

• Most of the pitchers and catcher Tony Wolters (and bullpen catcher Aaron Muñoz) live in the Scottsdale-Phoenix area -- partly because the Rockies encourage players to spend offseasons there as Minor Leaguers, partly because of weather and available facilities year-round.

• Scott has worked for the club since 2011, has deep relationships with every pitcher who comes through the system, and supervises offseason throwing from Scottsdale. So the shutdown was unusual, but his availability was not.

• Pitching coach Steve Foster lives in Mosinee, Wis., but he was always a Zoom meeting away. That factor helped pitchers such as Chi Chi González of Boca Raton, Fla., and Scott Oberg of Sewell, N.J., stay connected.

• The sheer force of Wolters' will was no small factor.

Right-hander Jon Gray moved this winter from Denver to a Scottsdale subdivision, into a house just minutes from Wolters.

"Every time I saw Tony, he was like, 'You need anything? If you need me to help you do something with your house, let me know,'" Gray said. "He's that kind of guy. He was very invested in us."

With much of the activity occurring in an area that has been a hotbed for infections from the novel coronavirus, the Rockies had to be as smart as they were united. Wolters said there were "8-10 pitchers" in the area. Under normal conditions, Wolters would have caught them all, but that's not possible while following safe distancing guidelines.

"As a catcher, it's a servant position," Wolters said. "I'm pretty used to that. But at the same time, I was trying to keep myself healthy, too, trying to be very smart on who I could catch and keep my circle as small as possible."

• Notes: Dahl's core soreness; Oberg on pace

Lefty Kyle Freeland, who lives in Scottsdale but came back to his boyhood home of Denver at the end of April, was not in Wolters' group but never felt far away.

"We had a couple phone calls discussing when the season starts up again, my arsenal, attacking hitters, and how we wanted to change our perspective of how to attack teams, game in and game out," Freeland said. "Those discussions should be constantly had, no matter if it's in the middle of offseason or you're in a quarantine setting like we were."

Still, as Foster put it, "It was an unusual set of circumstances."

An underrated but important part of Foster’s Zoom meetings was keeping minds from drifting, especially when there was no target date for a restart. Often there was a video lesson. González felt honored to be asked to lead a session.

"'Fostie' gave us a video of a racing horse that raced for like 13 years, and he was just a winner," González said. "But in one of his last races, he was in dead last but [still] ended up finishing.

"A little inspirational video to talk about that our starting staff, we want to be those horses. We might fall back, but we're going to finish ahead."

Strategy and inspiration are cool, but it's about the pitching. Freeland and righty Jeff Hoffman built their own mound and threw out of Hoffman's backyard in Arizona. But usually it was up to Scott to load his truck with his mound -- a two-piece construction of wood and outdoor turf -- and cart it to whomever, wherever.

Any trip to a park could give anyone in the Phoenix valley a surprisingly up-close look at Rockies pitching.

"German Márquez and Jairo Díaz were playing long-toss in this park, throwing from soccer goal to soccer goal," Scott said. "Some lady goes, 'I thought those were the neighborhood boys. Then I was like, 'I don't think the neighborhood boys can throw like that.'"