For this Isotope slugger, Mondays are for the fish

Jun. 10—Aaron Schunk spends six days a week locked in on being a professional baseball player — thinking about hitting, fielding and doing whatever he can to keep climbing up the Colorado Rockies farm system.

But on Mondays, the 25-year-old Albuquerque Isotopes third baseman takes a different approach.

He finds some water to go stand in and he tries to think like a fish.

"I picked up fly fishing in 2020 when I was at the (Colorado Rockies alternative) training site," said Schunk. "Now, on our off days, I try to get out and find some find some water somewhere. Pretty much most of my Mondays are spent somewhere in the middle of a river, a lake or a stream trying to trying to find some trout."

Schunk, who went 0-for-5 in Saturday night's 9-3 home loss to the visiting Sugar Land Space Cowboys, is having his best statistical season in the professional ranks since he was a second-round draft pick out of the University of Georgia in the 2019 MLB Draft.

This season, Schunk is hitting .331 with 10 home runs and 37 RBIs in 47 games. He entered Saturday's game ranked third in the Pacific Coast League in slugging (.625), fifth in batting average (.341) and was tied for seventh in extra-base hits (27). He is also ranked as the Rockies' No. 28 prospect by MLB Pipeline.

But none of that is on his mind on the ideal Monday, the league-wide day off.

"For me, part of it is it's an escape from six days in a row of thinking about baseball and being hyper-focused on that," Schunk said of his fly fishing hobby, which he admits is helped by being just a couple hours away from some of the best fly fishing spots in the world in Northern New Mexico.

"What I tell a lot of people is instead of thinking like a person on our off day or thinking like a baseball player, I get to think like a fish for a day. Sometimes that's the best thing for me."

Schunk was a two-way star at Georgia — a closer and star third baseman who won the 2019 John Olerud finalist for best two-way college player in the country. But he hasn't pitched since the Bulldogs lost that season in the NCAA Regionals.

His professional career got off to a challenging start — as it did for everyone drafted around the time COVID shut down the sport (and many others) for an extended period of time in 2020.

Instead of getting to play in the minors that first full season after college, he was at the Rockies' training facility. Then he hit just .224 in 2021 at High-A Spokane — a season that challenged him on the field and off.

"I feel like I've had a pretty good mindset my whole my whole career, but I had a little bit of a tough year in 2021 after COVID," Schunk said. "I think that year taught me a lot about myself and about how to approach each day and handle adversity."

He came on strong at the end of 2022 at Double-A Hartford and continued that work in the offseason, setting up the stellar first half to 2023.

"I made some swing changes and some adjustments and focused on some pitch recognition and pitch decision stuff the last two offseasons," Schunk said. "I feel like the stuff I've been working on has been paying off."

SCHUNKY MONKEY: Not many walk-up songs for pro baseball players were released a decade before the player was born. But the PA system at Isotopes Park blares the 1987 Beastie Boys hit "Brass Monkey" for each Schunk at-bat with fans often bopping their heads or singing along to the opening lyrics of "Brass monkey! That funky monkey!"

"As a baseball player, you rarely get called by first name," Schunk said. "Everyone either calls you your number or a nickname. Mine was always Schunky and my dad was calling me Schunky Monkey at a young age."

But, does he even know who the Beastie Boys are otherwise?

"I know every word to 'Paul Revere'. The 'License to Ill' album is one of my favorite albums," said Schunk, who became a fan with his dad. "I just I think they're a bunch of funky white dudes rapping with a pretty cool guitar line. So, it's just a cool, unique group and I've always liked them."

'TOPES SUNDAY: Sugar Land at Albuquerque, Isotopes Park, 6:05 p.m., 610 AM/95.9 FM

PROMOTION: Pride Night

PROBABLES: Space Cowboys RHP Shawn Dubin (0-1, 6.86) vs. Isotopes RHP Noah Davis (0-0, 3.24)

SATURDAY: Former Alamogordo resident Quincy Hamilton hit his fourth home run in just his third Triple-A game since being called up this week for the Space Cowboys, who won their fourth in a row 9-3 at Isotopes Park. Jorge Alfaro hit a two-run homer in his Isotopes debut. He was added to the roster just hours before first pitch. Of 10 Albuquerque hits, Alfaro's blast was the only one that went for extra bases.

(Click here for box score, here for Pacific Coast League standings.)