“Embrace it,” said Jon Gray, the Rockies’ top draft choice in 2013, who was winless in nine carefully monitored starts late last season. “They like guys who are mentally tough, guys who don’t make excuses.”

Gray, 24, will have no innings limits this season, but he will probably start on the disabled list with an abdominal strain. When he returns, he will join a rotation with the veteran Jorge De La Rosa; Tyler Chatwood, who is coming off his second Tommy John operation; Jordan Lyles, who missed four months last season after surgery on his left big toe; and Chad Bettis, who was 8-6 with a 4.23 E.R.A. in 20 starts.

“There’s excuses out there for everybody, especially pitching in Coors,” Bettis said. “I pitched at Texas Tech, and in high school I pitched in New Mexico, where the wind’s howling out. It’s not about, ‘If I don’t have a good outing, what can I say to take this off of me?’ It’s all about learning what you can do better.”

For Bettis last season, that meant a streamlined delivery that allowed him to consistently throw fastballs down and away to right-handed hitters. He also improved his curveball — a pitch, Foster said, that can be quite effective in Denver if thrown with a high spin rate, a data point now widely available through TrackMan analysis. More problematic are sliders and cutters, which do not spin as rapidly as curveballs.

De La Rosa, the Rockies’ career leader in wins and strikeouts, offered a simple theory: “If you make quality pitches, you’re going to get outs anywhere.” But Foster said De La Rosa’s heavy reliance on a changeup/splitter hybrid was telling.