27 year old Garrett Atkins exploded on the scene for the Rockies last season with an incredible season with the bat in his hands.  He played in 157 games last season and he hit .329 with 117 runs scored, 48 doubles, 29 homers, 120 RBIs and a .965 OPS.  Atkins didn’t play too well on defense as he didn’t show much range and made 19 errors in 157 games.  Atkins was about to be switched to first base if Todd Helton was traded and it could still happen.  No matter where Atkins plays, he will have another awesome season swinging the bat.

25 year old Jeff Baker will be Atkins’ back up this season.  He is the reason the Rockies were shopping Helton in the off season.  Baker played in 128 games in AAA last season and he hit .305 with 71 runs scored, 20 homers, 108 RBIs and a .877 OPS.  The Rockies then brought him up and he was awesome.  He played in 18 games and hit .368 with 5 homers, 21 RBIs and a 1.204 OPS!  Baker has been a 3B most of his career in the minors but he didn’t play any there last season for the Rockies.  He also will back up in the outfield corner spots and first base for the Rockies.  Look for him to be a very productive hitter no matter how much he plays this season for the Rockies.

28 year old Clint Barmes had an off year last season and now he will have to battle for the starting job.  He played in 131 games and hit only .220 with 7 homers, 56 RBIs and a .598 OPS.  Barmes showed very good range at shortstop but he made 18 errors.  He will need to make less errors and get his hitting stroke back to keep the starting job at SS for the Rockies.

23 year old Troy Tulowitzki will be the main competition for Barmes for the starting job at SS this season.  He played in 104 games in the minors and he hit .291 with 75 runs scored, 13 homers, 61 RBIs and a .843 OPS.  He came up late in the season for the Rockies and played in 25 games hitting .240 with a .609 OPS.  He showed great range at SS in 25 games for the Rockies and he only made 2 errors.  But, he has made 30 errors in 126 minor league games.  I still think Barmes is going to be the starting SS for the Rockies unless Tulowitzki has an awesome Spring.

25 year old lefty swinging Omar Quintanilla is the long shot to win the starting job for the Rockies.  He played in 82 AAA games last season and he hit .276 with 48 runs scored, 4 homers, 29 RBIs and a .745 OPS.  He played in 11 games for the Rockies last season and he hit .176 with a .508 OPS.  He played in 8 games at shortstop and he didn’t make an error while showing great range.

The Rockies signed soon to be 42 year old Steve Finley.  The lefty swinger will probably back up at all three positions in the outfield for the Rockies.  He played in 139 games last season for the Giants and hit .246 with 66 runs scored, 6 homers, 40 RBIs, 7 stolen bases and a .714 OPS.  Look for Finley to have a decent season swinging the bat with the Rockies and he still plays good defense as he only made 1 error all of last season.

The Rockies will have signed Mike DeJean to a minor league contract and invited him to camp.  He only pitched 1.2 innings for the Rockies before his season ended because of injury on April 8th last season.  He did prove that he could that he could handle pitching in Colorado as he had a 2-3 record with 18 holds and a 3.19 ERA in 38 games for the Rockies in 2005.

When the Rockies traded Eli Marrero to the Mets for 2B Kazuo Matsui it just looked like a very minor move.  The Rockies sent Matsui down to the minors where he hit .278 for Colorado Springs.  The Rockies then brought him up and stuck him in the starting line up and he went on to dominate.  He hit .345 with a .896 OPS over his last 113 at bats of the season.  He scored an impressive 22 runs and stole 8 bases!  The Rockies are going to give him the starting job this year and they hope he will hit like he did in September over the whole season.  He also showed a lot of range at second base on defense and he only made 2 errors there.

33 year old Jamey Carroll will back up Matsui this season and he’ll also play some at 3B and SS.  He had his best season of his career last year as he hit .300 with a .781 OPS!  He scored a soild 84 runs and had 10 steals as he often was batting near the top of the line up.  He only made 3 errors at 2B and he has outstanding range in the field there.  Carroll will get his fair share of at bats all over the diamond for the Rockies this season.