Off-day fodder: Why isn't Dex playing?

It's not a cardinal rule of baseball. There's nothing that says that a player cannot lose his starting job because of an injury (aside, obviously, from the time when he's actually injured.) There are plenty of players in all sports who have gotten hurt, then come back only to find that another player had played so well in his absence that he's no longer a starter. (Tom Brady, anyone?)

With that said, it's difficult to understand the Rockies' logic behind benching Dexter Fowler since he returned from the disabled list. While Dex's playing time isn't at Omar Quintanilla levels, he's only made three starts in the month of September. I understand the desire to play the hot bats, especially in a playoff run, but it's hard to suggest that Fowler hasn't been hot. While he's hitting just .250 in September, he hit .361 -- with a .623 SLG -- in August. That September BA is based on just 16 official at bats, as well.

As if the logic needed more clouding, the bats the Rockies have been playing in place of Fowler aren't exactly tearing the cover off the ball. Seth Smith is hitting well right now, but Carlos Gonzalez has been so-so lately -- he's hitting .247 in September after, like Fowler, killing the ball in August. And Brad Hawpe is struggling. He's hitting a paltry .154 for the month. After an All-Star first half, Hawpe's clearly come down quite a lot since the break, and it wouldn't surprise me at all to see him traded during the offseason.

Which brings me back to Fowler. Carlos Gonzalez is young and has a ton of potential, but Smith is older than you might think (he'll be 27 later this month.) While he's had a good year, this is realistically about as good as we can expect him to be as he's already close to his peak. Hawpe is now 30, and players of his type -- power hitters with bad gloves and below-average speed -- fall off more quickly than you might think. It's very possible that Hawpe's second half is the start of a trend, not just a mere slump, and it's also possible that he won't be in a Rockies uniform next year. Dex oozes potential, and he needs to get playing time. So why not play him some more?