11:39am: The Rockies were telling teams yesterday that "they're waiting until Friday to assess where they are in the standings before they decide if they're still buyers," according to ESPN's Jayson Stark.
10:25am: The Rockies are now eight games out in the NL West and 5.5 back in the wild card. Talking to Dave Krieger of the Denver Post, Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd explained that the club has been struggling across the board, and trades can't fix everything. O'Dowd also talked about the expectation that plenty of players will be available in August:
"There's really not a ton of players on the market right now in the impactful category. There's one in particular I think if we're not able to acquire by the 31st probably wouldn't be there. The rest we've come across I don't think the 31st is necessarily a firm deadline."
O'Dowd appears to be referring to Jorge Cantu as the one target who will be traded by Saturday. Cantu is actually having a pretty bad year though; he's in the same offensive range as B.J. Upton, Jhonny Peralta, Howie Kendrick, and Jeff Francoeur. The Rockies might miss out on Cantu, as the Giants are said to be stepping up their pursuit.
O'Dowd talked about the bullpen market, saying he doesn't think it's possible to acquire a reliever who's pitching well right now. He also touched on the chances of the Rockies selling:
"I don't think we're going to be a seller unless it's something that fits with us strategically short term and long term. I still think we could even add if the right player was there for us, but it's got to be the right player. If we can rearrange some furniture a little bit in the process of doing that, we certainly would look at that."
Krieger thinks that means O'Dowd is willing to tinker with the team's offense. I wonder if an Aaron Cook trade fits with O'Dowd's strategy, as Jhoulys Chacin could replace him adequately right away. Joel Sherman of the New York Post wrote yesterday that the Rockies are quietly shopping Cook.
if youre 8 games back in the division and 5.5 in the wild card and not going to pull off any trades whether they are buy or sell…then you are a fool
In the NL West you’re a fool to give up unless you’re the Dbacks.
Well, you’re a fool if you trade just to trade because when you do that you’re asking to be burned. The Rockies have a very tough situation because the players they have committed to are underachieving. You don’t necessarily want to sell low because next year they might have a bounce back year. The key to it all is exactly what O’Dowd said, “long term and short term”. This team is not really in contention for 2010 anymore, but they can’t dump good players for prospects because 2011 is a realistic chance to be in contention again since their core is pretty good.
IMO the smartest option IF they sell is trade for prospects KNOWING that at the end of the season you’ll package those same guys for a BIG name. You don’t want to overpay for a 1 and 1/2 rental when this year is a waste anyway.