TUCSON, Ariz.-
Matt Holliday has no chance of being the best cleanup hitter in the majors again this year, and he’s fine with that.
Holliday was bumped to the No. 5 spot in the batting order in favor of slugger Todd Helton in an experiment that Colorado Rockies manager Clint Hurdle hopes will light up his lineup while burning more bullpens.
“It’s just something I’ve thought about over the winter,” Hurdle said. “I want to find a way to put our best offense out on the field, our most dynamic offense, the offense in which our hitters can complement one another the best, provide more difficult matchups for the opposition, more decision-making for the manager and to test the bullpen depth for the other side.”
With their righties and lefties split up, the meat of the Rockies’ lineup now looks like this:
No. 3 Right-hander Garrett Atkins.
No. 4. Left-hander Helton.
No. 5 Right-hander Holliday.
No. 6 Left-hander Brad Hawpe.
“That’s a very challenging lineup,” Hurdle said.
Although Helton is a career .344 hitter from the cleanup spot, the danger in all this is messing with Holliday, who hit .334 with 34 homers and 82 RBIs from the No. 4 spot last year. Batting fifth, Holliday batted .286 with 6 homers and 19 RBIs.
Yet, he insisted Thursday that he’s cool with the change.
“No, there’s no difference to me,” Holliday said. “It’s the same thing: have the same good approach, go out, try to get a good pitch to hit and then hit it hard. Really, it’s no different.”
He said he hasn’t fretted once over his numbers possibly taking a hit.
“It’s not a big deal, really. It’s Clint’s job. If he thinks it’s going to create more difficult matchups for the opposing manager, I’m all for it,” Holliday said. “I hadn’t ever really thought about those sorts of things. It’s not my job. My job is to go up there and hit. His job is to think about all that other stuff.”
Helton shrugged off the changes, too.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re hitting seventh or eighth, it just matters who’s in front of you and who’s behind you,” he said. “With Matthew batting behind me, the big thing is there’s going to be runs to drive in, but getting on base is just as important, too, seeing as I got a guy behind me who can drive in runs.”
The changes are designed primarily to force opponents to burn more relievers in the late innings, so the Rockies won’t know how this is all working out until the season gets going.
Ostensibly, opponents would no longer be able to bring in their top left-handed reliever to face both Helton and Hawpe; they might even have to use three pitchers to get through the middle of the Rockies’ lineup.
It seems to make all the strategic sense, but until the games start to count, it’s anybody’s guess how this will actually play out, Helton said.
One thing everybody seems to agree on is that the big beneficiary could be Hawpe, who hit 22 home runs in his first full season in the big leagues last year.
“I do think it will benefit Hawpe, because if it’s in a tight situation, they’re going to bring in a lefty to face me and they’re not going to keep that lefty in to face Matt,” Helton said. “So, it will create some good opportunities for him.”
Added Holliday: “They have to make a decision whether they want to save their lefty for Hawpe or use him on Helton. I might get a chance to hit lefties. I don’t know. We’ll see how it plays out.”
Hawpe agrees he could prosper from the change, “but hopefully it benefits all of us. Hurdle’s intent was to help us win more games. Hopefully, that’s the case.”
Hurdle also is tinkering with the top of his lineup, putting switch-hitter Kazuo Matsui in the No. 2 spot behind newcomer Willy Taveras, who came over from Houston in the Jason Jennings trade.
“It opens a hole up for Matsui,” Hurdle said. “It gets a guy on base in front of him who can run. He might get a few more fastballs. We’ll see how that plays out. Or if they want to throw the breaking ball, we’ve got a guy at first who can go.”
