Michael Cuddyer might bat second for Colorado Rockies

Chris Humphreys-USA TODAY Sports

To be fair, the Colorado Rockies have not shied away from unconventional strategies in the recent past.

They just usually come up with terrible ideas (i.e. having Bill Geivett in the clubhouse, the paired pitching system that wasn’t paired pitching, and so on).

Manager Walt Weiss spoke with Troy Renck of the Denver Post this week, and it sounds like he plans to buck convention in a good way this time around. Weiss indicated that he is strongly considering the possibility of batting Michael Cuddyer in the second spot in the lineup rather than defaulting to an inferior option like DJ LeMahieu or Josh Rutledge.

He explained his thinking as follows:

It is very likely. It reminds me of when we had Ellis there…I talked to him about it this winter. I like the idea of having such a powerful hitter there when the lineup turns over. Cuddy is a proven run producer.”

This writer has been hemming and hawing that the Rockies should bat Carlos Gonzalez second for quite some time now, subscribing to the notion that the team’s best hitter should bat there. But slotting Cuddyer into that spot instead of CarGo makes some sense: Cuddy isn’t nearly as strikeout happy, and while he will not be able to repeat his .331 average from 2013 (and the gaudy .382 BABIP that went along with it), that ability to make contact in that spot matters.

Regardless, this would be a serious step in the right direction for the Rockies. I’ve said it before and I will probably say it many more times between now and the season: this organization needs to be willing to make bold moves. They need to be willing to leave behind the “we’ve always done it this way” methods of their colleagues and seek an edge with different strategies.

Batting Cuddy second in the lineup would be a good start.