It's funny sometimes how these things get started, but there certainly has been some talk recently about the Colorado Rockies dumping some of their best players for prospects.
With the non-waiver trade deadline a mere three weeks away, "rumors" have been floating around that closer Brian Fuentes, catcher Yorvit Torrealba, and outfielder Matt Holliday all on the shopping block.
But I ask why? Why would the Rockies even think about doing such a thing? Yes, Colorado has the third-worst record in the National League -- only slightly better than San Diego and Washington, and fifth-worst in the majors. Yes, their minus-67 runs scored-runs given up differential is third-worst in the majors. But the Rockies play in what has turned out to be a severly underplaying NL West, where as the start of play Thursday no team had a winning record.
The Rockies enter the day, despite a 39-53 record, just 6.5 games back of Arizona and the L.A. Dodgers for first place, and we haven't even hit the All-Star break yet. Not to mention after a horrible road trip two weeks back led to an eight-game losing streak, Colorado turned things around by winning seven of its last nine, including two of three so far in a four-game stint at Milwaukee -- one of the NL's better teams.
Sure, only one team will come out of the NL West this year. Forget about the wildcard. It won't be this year. But the Rockies, if they can ever get healthy, have as good a chance as anybody -- with maybe the exception of the San Diego Padres -- of winning the NL West.
So why give up on any of these players? Fuentes has proven to be, for the most part, rock-solid this year out of the bullpen, reclaiming his closer role from Manny Corpas -- the same role he lost last summer. Holliday is one of the team's two All-Stars -- the other is Aaron Cook -- and Torrealba, while maybe expendable because of the play of Chris Iannetta behind the plate, costs too much. His $3 million contract is already proving to be too much for someone like the Florida Marlins, who've inquired about his services in a deal.
If only the Rockies could stay healthy, we could see how good this team really can be, like we did last September and October. But with staff ace Jeff Francis, gold glove first baseman Todd Helton, last year's rookie of the year runner-up Troy Tulowitzki and reserve outfielder Ryan Spilborghs on the DL, we can only scratch the surface as to how good this team can be.
But don't we deserve to find out with 70 games left to play instead of imploding the team and waiting until next year?
I would think so because anything can happen this year in the wild NL West.
Keywords: Colorado Rockies
