There’s a big difference between the next generation of the Colorado Rockies playing at the major league level and playing well at the major league level. No one knows that more than Chris Forbes, the senior director of player development for the Rockies.

Now in his fourth season in his role (and 18th as a part of the Rockies organization), Forbes travels throughout Colorado’s minor league system to monitor future players, their skills and their growth.

While in Cleveland with the Rockies just before the trade deadline, I had the chance to sit down with Forbes for an exclusive one-on-one about key prospects and when they might be ready to play in Denver.

Denver Gazette: Let’s start with Colorado’s top prospect. What have you seen from Charlie Condon now that he is at Double-A, especially with a move to first base this season?

Chris Forbes: With Charlie, I talked to him early on about this. He came out to camp early, wanting to get his workouts going and I asked him, ‘What are your thoughts on playing first base in a game?’ He said, ‘Well, I’ve done that. I did it my sophomore year at Georgia.’ The next day, he told me his mom shipped out his first baseman’s glove. I laughed and told him, ‘You know, we have a glove for you here too.’

For him, it was about reintroducing the early work stuff at first base, and he’s taken to it extremely well. I think he likes being over there.

DG: Do you see Condon at first base in the future?

Forbes: Well, he had enough arm that showed up when he was at third. He looks like a routine play guy in the infield and he’s great in the corner outfield. I think this just adds another thing to his resume, knowing that he was going to be a corner guy. If he could also play corner outfield and first base, that kind of gives you a little more versatility when you look at the roster.

DG: What comes next for him?

Forbes: He still has a lot of work to do in adjusting to the Eastern League offensively. When he’s locked in and he’s doing a good job of finishing his at-bats early, you can see what his game is about. You see how he is trying to stay to the big part of the field with his swing. He’ll get in a little trouble, like a lot of young hitters, where they want to pull it and want to do too much with pitches. I say all the time, ‘There are singles pitches, you know?’ If you’re given a pitch you can hit, hit a single. There are pitches to do damage with, but you can’t try to create damage every time.

I think it’s all part of the learning, getting the at-bats caught up and getting him on the field.

DG: How do you make sure that you’re on the right timeline with prospects, rather than hurrying them to the big leagues?

Forbes: I exist in process. I don’t react. You never know when they’re truly ready, but, for me, it’s about being ready mentally and physically. When can prospects mentally handle coming up here and getting their brains beat in two or three nights in a row, then having a breakout game and then going back through that same vicious cycle? Mentally, if you can’t handle it, that’s when a 0-for-4 turns into a 0-for-16. That’s where you hope to see the growth where he can handle what’s going on there.

Look at Warming Bernabel. We’re trying to put him in a position where he can be successful right now, and that means not immediately putting him in the three hole in the lineup.

This (MLB) is the hardest level to acclimate to. There’s no league after this, right? This is it. These guys care about winning and performing, but I think you have to know about the mental aspect of things. I think that’s critical to finding out when guys are truly ready,

DG: When it comes to Condon and Bernabel and a few others in the minors, it feels like there are a lot of players who are at first base right now. Is depth a priority there?

Forbes: Both those guys are multi-position guys, but it just that was one of the areas where you started seeing, after (Michael) Toglia, that we were going to end up being a little lighter.

Wherever they are, players play, and that’s what you like seeing at the big-league levels. I think giving these players the opportunities to be their best version of whatever baseball player they can be while giving ourselves options as well is important.

DG: With Zac Veen, Chase Dollander and other prospects who have come to Denver and struggled, how do you get them ready to return with confidence?

Forbes: I think one of the biggest things about the struggle up here and going back down is now it’s not just me or the player development staff telling them how hard this level is. Now they’ve seen it, and now they recognize that. When they’re reading the two-dimensional report on tonight’s starter and it says he throws 94, now they know that 94 looks like 98 at the top of the zone.

I think the biggest gap there is between Triple-A and the big leagues. Once they’ve come up here and they’ve seen these pitchers and hitters, they’re able to have the awareness of, ‘Here’s what I need to do the big-league level to stay there.’ Understanding that is critical to staying in the big leagues.