Former Rocky Mike Lansing On Team's Chances, Todd Helton

DENVER (CBS4) - Troy Tulowitzki started at shortstop and batted eighth for the National League All-Stars Tuesday night. He got one hit out of two chances at the plate.

Tulowitzki happened to be the Rockies' lone All-Star, and they're going to need him to play like one if they want to make the playoffs.

Rockies general manager Dan O'Dowd says his team needs to be more mentally tough. Former Rockies second baseman Mike Lansing knows exactly what he means. He was the guest on Xfinity Monday Live! and said O'Dowd, in a way, was calling out the players.

"But I think it's not anything that these guys don't know and understand. There's different ways to look at mental toughness. I think what he's referring to is whether guys are hurt or not; let's play through that; can we have guys that are going to play through it?" Lansing said. "Do we have guys who are going to throw away two at-bats because they are 0-3 or 0-4? Well that fifth at-bat may be the most important of the game."

Lansing said that's what "mental toughness" means to him and with the exception of a few, he's not sure if the Rockies have those type of players on the team.

"Those guys who can suck it up when they are having a bad day and they know one more at-bat could change the game and could hinge on it; forget about you're other at-bats and go about your business and help the team in that way," Lansing said. "It doesn't seem like they've got enough guys who can do that right now."

The success of a baseball team is most often based on the success of the team's super stars. The Rockies' Big 3 are Tulowitzki, Carlos Gonzales and Ubaldo Jimenez. Tulowitzki and Gonzales have seemed to been coming around lately after they both had a horrible month of May. And Jimenez, as bad as he's been, is showing signs of hope.

"I think that's more encouraging, his last start in Washington, because I think there were some issues with his delivery," Lansing said. "Obviously I'm not a pitcher and never claimed to be and I don't understand all that. But he's coming back and he's not hurt and that's a good thing."

Lansing said if Jimenez can get back to where he was during the first half of last year and reel off seven, eight, nine, or possibly 10 wins after the break it could help a lot.

"But as far as the other two guys go, for the most part, everybody had a bad month, and you can't have that," he said. "Everybody can be up and down a little bit, but you don't want everybody doing it at the same time."

If somebody asked a baseball purist if Todd Helton belongs in the Hall of Fame, they might scoff at it, but Lansing thinks that's ridiculous.

"I don't know how you can scoff at it. He's play 15 years or whatever it is right now … it's hard to play in this league that long and put up 2,000 hits, 2,500 hits, all the doubles that he has, all the RBIs," he said. "If you really look at it, he's got some good numbers. He's got numbers, I think, that compare to a lot of first basemen in the Hall."

Many fans try to use Coors Field as a crutch and say Helton's numbers wouldn't have been as good if he had played somewhere else.

"And that's the thing I think is a bunch of malarkey. I think that's just ridiculous."