According to Troy Renck, Dan O'Dowd says the Rox will pick up the tab and swallow "certain contracts in order to field the strongest club." To be specific, since they were talking about the pitching staff, those contracts would be Josh Fogg's, Tom Martin's, Byung Hyun Kim's, and Taylor Buchholz's. I'm doubting LaTroy Hawkins is included in the group, but it would be nice.
The Rockies, as Garrett Atkins points out in the article, have at least at this point, pretty much used up their "freebies" as far as losses are concerned. As Tracy Ringolsby notes, they need to get back into the hunt for the division lead quickly on this homestand and the ensuing road trip. Winning twelve of these next sixteen games should be the goal for the Rox. Winning at home against the Snakes and Giants but losing on the road against the same two teams the next week will leave us in the same spot three weeks from now, and we can't have that happen when we're on the bottom to begin with.
In addition, we may already be in a position where we should be hoping for help from the Cardinals and Reds with those two teams' trips to LA and San Diego this weekend. This is not a good position to be in. The Padres and Dodgers get to play NL Central opponents over the coming three weeks while the rest of the NL West does a round robin versus each other; coming out at the bottom of this scrum should be a recipe for disaster as far as our hopes for the rest of the season are concerned.