Colorado Rockies: There is a need to reshuffle the lineup

When the Colorado Rockies’ Daniel Murphy returned from the injured list on April 24, manager Bud Black made a few changes to his everyday lineup card.

For the Colorado Rockies to have a left-right-left batting order through the first five hitters, Bud Black moved Trevor Story from cleanup to the 2-hole and dropped Nolan Arenado down a spot to replace Story. The idea behind the move was to add extra pressure on the opposing team’s management to mix and match the bullpen in the later innings of games.

On paper, the idea seams like a great baseball move. However, as we all know, baseball is not played on paper. On the field, the idea has lacked execution. While Charlie Blackmon and Arenado have held up their fair share of the bargain, Story, Murphy and David Dahl have all mightily struggled since Daniel Murphy‘s return to the lineup.

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The Rockies are 6-6 in the 12 games since Murphy rejoined the club but the stats for those three have left a lot more to be desired. Since April 24, the trio are a combined 30-for-133 (.226) with six home runs, 21 RBI and 28 runs scored. Of the three, the worst has come from Murphy, who is 8-for-40 (.200) in that stretch and is in the midst of a 1-for-17 slump.

It could be time for a shake up in the lineup. The Rockies cannot continue to solely rely on Arenado to win games, especially with how bad the pitching has been as of late. The need for the heart of the order to contribute more to the offense and plate more runs has become an even bigger necessity.

Whether it is moving Story back to cleanup behind Arenado or moving Murphy down in the order and moving someone like Raimel Tapia into 2-hole, something needs to change to get more production from this offense.

If that means Bud Black has to ditch his left-right-left batting lineup in order to jumpstart the offense, then so be it. The Rockies have to find a way to score more runs as they wait for the pitching staff to turn things around.