Colorado Rockies: It’s time to shake things up

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Right now at AAA Albuquerque, outfielder Raimel Tapia is hitting .306 with 6 home runs, 30 RBI’s and 7 stolen bases.

Tapia has seen big league playing time and done well over a small sample size.  He hit .288 in 70 games with the Rockies last season with 2 home runs, 16 RBI’s and 12 doubles.

He might just provide the spark the Rockies are looking for and could hit leadoff with the Colorado experimenting with hitting Charlie Blackmon in a traditional RBI spot.

Right now, the Rockies’ outfield might look best with Blackmon flanked by some combination of Dahl, Cuevas, and Tapia.

That doesn’t mean we have to leave out Gerardo Parra, who has quietly put together a pretty good season, hitting .284 with 3 homers, 11 RBI’s, and 5 stolen bases.

Against righties, he is even better, hitting .302 with 2 of his home runs and 8 of his RBI’s.

Parra has some experience at first base (1.000 fielding percentage over 25 games) and while I’m not thrilled about the idea of putting him over there, drastic times call for drastic measures.

Considering Ian Desmond‘s batting average is considerably better (but still not all that great) against lefties (.226) than righties (.156), maybe the Rockies should think about employing some sort of quasi-platoon at first base to give Desmond an occasional day off against a right-hander and let some of the young outfielders get more playing time by sliding Parra to first base.

Maybe this won’t work, but the Rockies need to do something before they miss out on perhaps their best chance to win the division in their 25-year history.

Next: A look back at some of the 1st round draft picks from the Dan O'Dowd era

The Rockies need to take a look at the Atlanta Braves and realize that if they are going to make the playoffs, it’s going to be because their young guys stepped up and came through. Now they just need to give them a chance.