"What, you think, in this age of sabermetrics and Internet overkill, you've heard just about every crazy number or quirky fact that Major League Baseball could possibly produce?

Try this one on for size: The Rockies have a starting pitcher and starting catcher who call Rhode Island home. Rhode Island? Yes, Rhode Island, the state that's smaller than the Rockies' new spring training facility.

Chris Iannetta and Jason Hammel live about 20 minutes away from each other in the Ocean State and worked out together this offseason.

"Our relationship has really gone to a new level," Hammel said. "It's almost like a marriage. We've learned what buttons to push when we're kind of feeling down."

Hammel pushed a lot of Iannetta's buttons last season, a year that ranked as the most disappointing in his career. He began the season in a catching tandem with Miguel Olivo, only to land in Triple-A after stumbling out of the gate in April. By season's end, he hit .197 in 188 at-bats.

Ladies and gentlemen, we give you the Rockies' starting catcher in 2011. No fine print, no strings attached, no doubt about it. Olivo is gone, having been traded to Toronto, and Yorvit Torrealba, who split time with Iannetta before last season, passed on the Rockies' two-year offer to sign with Texas.

So it is that Iannetta owns the job, with no safety net below.

"It's good," said Hammel, who won 10 games in 2010, joining Ubaldo Jimenez as the Rockies' lone double-digit winners. "He prides himself on his job. He's very, very hard core. He can do it and he wants to do it. I think you're going to see a big difference this year.""