The good news is that Ringolsby article I linked to in my first post says that we're trying to sign Garrett Atkins to a similar arbitration avoiding deal that we signed Francis to. Atkins' amazing 2006 has cemented his place as a legit part of our core, and at this point he seems to be the best batter of the original "Gen-R" group of position players, better than even Matt Holliday. If Ian Stewart proves as good a hitter as Garrett is proving to be great. We'll figure out a way to keep both. There's a chance that Jeff Baker could be that kind of hitter as well, let's keep our fingers crossed for a big 2007 from him.
The bad news is that the Soriano deal with the Cubs makes free agent outfield corners an even less attractive thing to sign, and it looks more likely that the Rockies will be looking to move Holliday sometime before the 2008 trade deadline. There's a lot of baseball to be played between now and then, though, so go out and enjoy watching him, but just keep that in the back of your head.
There's also a Rosenthal rumor that the Rockies are "trolling" for underwhelming free agent starters like Randy Wolf, Kip Wells, and Jason Marquis. Of the three, I actually don't know which is less distasteful. They all have some ugly performance skeletons in their closets, but they also all have some reason to suspect they could be capable of a surprisingly decent year in 2007. It's a Monty Hall conundrum, I'll keep my fingers crossed we don't choose the donkey.