Rox take lead in 1st AB, never trail vs. Yanks - Bryan Hoch & Nick Suss / MLB.com

Last night marked yet another impressive showing for the Rockies offense against the Yankees (continuing their drubbing from last week). They've now blasted New York pitching for 27 runs this season, and haven't lost to the evil empire yet despite the pitching allowing an average of 5.67 runs in the three games.

All this has been part of a larger theme that's developed over the first 70 games of the season: The Rockies offense is exceeding expectations. Or at least they're exceeding mine. Seven members of this team have at least 150 plate appearances so far in 2016, and all of them also have at least 240 plate appearances. In other words, there are seven guys who we can identify as everyday staples in the lineup on this team. They are: Nolan Arenado (302 plate appearances), Trevor Story (300 plate appearances), Carlos Gonzalez (297 plate appearances), DJ LeMahieu (273 plate appearances), Charlie Blackmon (251 plate appearances), Gerardo Parra (249 plate appearances), and Mark Reynolds (240 plate appearances).

Other than Gerardo Parra, every single one of those regulars have stepped up their game to turn what should have been a solidly below average offense (by park adjusted metrics) into a lineup that ranks somewhere in the middle of the pack.

Nolan Arenado:

Career OPS: .839

2016 OPS: .957

It was reasonable to expect Arenado's OPS to be well above his career line heading into the season since he's improved at the plate during every year of his career, but this is crazy. Last year Arenado led the league in home runs and had an .898 OPS. Typically when you lead the league in home runs, you hit a ceiling offensively, but Arenado has instead not only put himself on pace to hit even more home runs than last year, but he's also dramatically improved his on base percentage, which was the biggest thing holding him back.

Career OPS: .874

2016 OPS: .918

This one is more mildly surprising than stunning after last season, but still remarkable when you consider where it looked like CarGo's status as an offensive player was headed 13 months ago. This isn't 2010 CarGo, but it's still really impressive.

DJ LeMahieu:

Career OPS: .721

2016 OPS: .880

For my money, this has been the most wild transformation in the entire lineup. Last year, DJ LeMahieu had a career year at the plate, posting a .746 OPS with 30 extra base hits. This year, he already has 27 extra base hits on June 22. It's very possible he exceeds his extra base hit count from last season in less than half the plate appearances.

Trevor Story:

Career MINOR LEAGUE OPS: .817

2016 OPS: .874

While it's not the first time a player is putting up better offensive numbers in the majors than in the minors, it's certainly a rare feat, especially when you consider that Story had an .828 OPS in hitter friendly Albuquerque last season.

Charlie Blackmon:

Career OPS: .783

2016 OPS: .857

Blackmon is going to turn 30 in a couple of weeks, and after posting OPS scores of .803, .775 and .797 the last three years, it seemed like we had a completed player. However, like several other names on this roster, he's taken his game at the plate one step higher.

Mark Reynolds:

Career OPS: .777

2016 OPS: .805

In some ways comparing Reynolds' 2016 OPS to his career OPS isn't fair because he's playing this season in Coors, but when you take into account that his OPS the last three seasons has been .699, .681 and .713, he certainly qualifies as yet another guy who's exceeding expectations.

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So where does this leave? Well, in a pretty complicated place. Let's consider the following points:

1) The Rockies are buried in the division, ten games behind the Giants. However, they are still sitting just 3.5 games out of the second Wild Card.

2) Even with all of this production from so many regulars, the Rockies are a team that's floating around .500, not above it. While this is certainly better than expected, it's not enough to make them a contender once the second Wild Card spot inevitably climbs double digit games over .500.

3) It's reasonable to question if the Rockies can continue to be THIS good offensively since we have numerous guys overachieving. While some of these transformations look real, I'm not sure they're ALL real. The other issue is that other then a very short stint on the DL for Blackmon, the hitters exceeding expectations in this lineup have all stayed very healthy. Hopefully that continues, but as we head into the final 92 games of the season, it's worth noting that the Rockies lineup can't really be any healthier than it's been so far.

I bring all of this up because I think it leaves the front office at a very difficult crossroads. On one hand, this club is better than projected going into the season, and certainly better than I gave them credit for. Even if the offense regresses now, they already have 70 games in the bank near .500, and while they certainly could fall off (and probably will from their current pace), losing 90 or more games would now require an incredibly steep decline.

However, it's still very unlikely this team is a contender in 2016 (there are no prizes for being an 84 loss team instead of a 90 loss team), and there's a very serious argument to be made that the trade values of Carlos Gonzalez, DJ LeMahieu and Charlie Blackmon will never be higher than they are this summer.

So what do you do? The next six weeks could go a long way into determining where this team is headed in the future.

Rockies Mailbag: Will Carlos Gonzalez, Nolan Arenado be traded? - Patrick Saunders / Denver Post

Saunders offers an interesting idea in this piece suggesting that CarGo could be traded even if the Rockies stick around .500, with the chances of a trade going up significantly if the Rockies fall well below that mark.

Either way, something has to give in the next 12 months. The Rockies currently have two productive outfielders in CarGo and Blackmon, a guy you probably can't move for anything of value in Gerardo Parra, and two hot prospects in David Dahl and Raimel Tapia likely to be major league players by next summer. There simply isn't room in the outfield for all of them.

Colorado Rockies outright Tyler Matzek, move Adam Ottavino to Triple-A - Ryan Schoppe / Purple Row

The Rockies cleared a spot on their 40-man roster yesterday by outrighting Tyler Matzek. This doesn't mean he's leaving the organization. It just means he has a very long journey back and it's not worth having him take up space on the 40-man roster right now, especially since the club needs to create space for Adam Ottavino when he comes off the 60-day DL. These moves are likely related, but until that roster spot is officially filled, keep an eye out for some possible surprise.