Brandon Barnes makes the diving catch of the season (GIF)

With a deep home run off the bat of Drew Stubbs still fresh in my mind, I thought to myself: “It’s time to see more Stubbs and less Brandon Barnes in the Colorado Rockies’ outfield.”

Barnes had spent the whole night striking out, after all, and with the Rockies dealing with an injury-depleted lineup, it made sense in my mind to carve out more at-bats for the upside that Stubbs offers. He strikes out more, sure, but he can boom more than Barnes and maybe that’s what the Rockies need right now.

Defensively the two players are a wash. That finalized it for me, in my incomplete, gut-reaction sort of way. “There is really no reason for Brandon Barnes to start,” I thought. “As long as they need it, Stubbs should start and Barnes should come off the bench.”

So it was that I was running Rockies’ lineups through my head, and then in the top of the 9th inning of the Rockies’ 10-5 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals, Barnes did this.

Wow. The word you’re looking for is wow.

This does not necessarily persuade me that Barnes should ever be in the starting lineup, certainly not regularly, but it does emphasize why he has become such a popular player. That is something very appealing about how hard that guy works on the baseball field, from the inside the park home runs to great defensive plays like this one.

As I have said before, Barnes has won me over. I am a fan. I just hope that the Rockies continue to deploy him primarily as a bench player.

If nothing else, can we make sure that he never, ever, ever takes time away from Corey Dickerson? Please and thank you.

Seriously though. What a catch.