Colorado Rockies: A battle for the corner outfield spots

Would anyone besides Charlie Blackmon like to start in the outfield this year? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller??  Almost halfway through spring and Bud Black must be working on his best Ben Stein Ferris Bueller’s Day Off impressions.

Heading into Spring Training the Rockies’ outfield was practically set.  Charlie Blackmon, Ian Desmond, Gerardo Parra would start and David Dahl, Raimel Tapia, and Mike Tauchman battling for the one or two bench spots.

Since then, things haven’t exactly gone as planned. The hand injury to Parra has put his start of the season in jeopardy (but his outlook is looking better) and Desmond’s underwhelming performance has led me to wonder if there is a cause for concern.

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Obviously, the Rockies will exhaust all options before sitting Ian Desmond.  His contract is too large for him to not be in the lineup. He is also already making some key adjustments that will hopefully jump start him at the plate.

When Parra went down, I wrote how Tapia would get an opportunity to take control of the starting job in right.  With the most at bats on the team so far this spring, he hasn’t been able to take the control of the job as his numbers have slipped. As fun, exciting, and dangerous as he is on the base paths, the Rockies need better consistency out of him.

David Dahl is showing that he still has a ton of rust to shake off.  After missing all of last season with a rib injury, he is hitting 4-for-30. Dahl could easily use some time in the minors to start to year to get his timing back.

The bright spots in the outfield have been from Mike Tauchman and surprisingly Jordan Patterson.  Patterson’s chances of making the 25-man roster have been increasing not only because of his play at the plate but his versatility to play both the outfield and first base.  I’m a big fan of Tauchman for making the roster but only as a reserve.  He has even less major league experience than Tapia and like Tapia, needs to prove he can stay consistent against big league pitching.

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I’m predicting that Parra will make it back for opening day and Desmond will sort his issues out. But if things some of the issues aren’t resolved by then, the calls for Carlos Gonzalez to return by nostalgic fans will get much louder.