I've made statement on this board lately that the Rockies aren't real contenders, but rather pretenders.  

Here's why: We are still in 4th place in our own division. The more teams we have to crawl over, there is actually a multiplier of games we have to make up (they have to lose, we have to win).  We are also behind Atlanta and Chicago, and tied with Phillies in the Wild Card.

 National League Wild Card
                      W       L     GB    Left
 San Diego Padres     51     41     --     70
 Atlanta Braves     50     44     2.0     68
 Chicago Cubs             48     44     3.0     70
 Arizona Diamondbacks     49     46     3.5     67
 Philadelphia Phillies     47     46     4.5     69
 Colorado Rockies     47     46     4.5     69

Throw in LA Dodgers, and Milwaukee we have 3 spots for 8 teams.  That's a lot of bodies to climb over.  We also haven't shown a lot of life in tough series especially on the road against good teams (we just lost a series against the Brewers).  

Now if we can sweep/or just win the series with the Nationals (having won the series w/ the Pirates..Come on sweep!) we return home, and with San Diego and LA in town, we do have a chance.  But our record against the NL West so far this year doesn't give me reason to believe it will be different.  We stink it up again, we are out of it. We win those series, we may have a chance and be contenders THEN.

Next reason I don't think we are contenders, is the lack of pitching.  I realize this a chicken-egg position. We just don't have the starting pitching to match up with LA, San Diego, Chicago, or even Atlanta.  I also don't see any starters available for a trade price the Rockies could pay that would improve our rotation.  

So when all is said and done, I think we will just be on the outside of the real playoff race. Thus pretenders, and not contenders.

And I hope I'm really wrong.

I do believe that trading for another pitcher would be a folly.  Just trying to play my little game of who's out there v. who's worth it, there's not a bleeding thing.  Would I love having Snell, Capuano, or something like that to come in?  Of course, but the cost is prohibitive.  

Personally, I do believe that if Fuentes comes back strong, using him as a set-up man for Corpas strengthens our bullpen immeasurably.  Also, if we bring up Rami here in a bit, we could be looking at one hell of a pen, so I don't see paying for help being a whole heck of a lot better then promoting from within.