The Rockies' main focus heading into next Saturday's trade deadline will be on acquiring bullpen help, according to Troy Renck of the Denver Post. We heard a few days ago that the Rockies were eyeing starting pitching and corner infielders along with relievers, but Renck indicates that their bullpen is the top priority at the moment.
According to Renck, Blue Jays relievers like Kevin Gregg and Scott Downs interest the Rockies, with SI.com's Jon Heyman tweeting of Colorado's interest in Gregg as well. Renck also expects the Rox to check in on the availability of Pirates' setup men Evan Meek and Joel Hanrahan, but wonders if the price for Pittsburgh's and Toronto's relievers could be too high.
Check out our list of potentially available relievers here.
johnsilver
By the time the trade deadline gets here on 7/31, Jays fans are going to be demanding Buster Posey for Downs…
Wouldn’t say Gregg exactly had smooth sailing all along in a Fish uniform. Many of us were glad to ship him of to the Cubbies and let Lindstrom get a chance to close. Gregg had a nasty habit of giving up those 2 and 3 run HR’s in the 9th inning, seems Cubbie fans got fed up with it also.
Encarnacion's Parrot
Why demand for Posey? We have enough catchers and 1B in the system. We’ll ask for Heyward, please.
Joshua
I don’t see why the Jays shouldn’t command a lot for Downs. You’re talking about one of the best and most consistent lefty setup guys in the game (and not a LOOGY) who also happens to be a Type A. So if you trade for him, you’re getting him for 2 months + 2 draft picks (one of which will be top 40 at minimum, the other potentially as high as 16). Seems to me that’s worth asking for a pretty penny. And NO I wasn’t pretending the Posey crack was serious and defending a request of a player of that caliber.
johnsilver
I knew you took my Posey crack as it was meant Joshua.
The point was that it seems in every rumor that comes up here the teams being mentioned absolute top prospects I have noticed names keep coming up time after time and that I feel is way over board for even a successful reliever of any kind.
Let me put it like this.. A few days ago read here that Toronto initially mentioned both Casey Kelly, or Jose Iglesias for Downs.. if the Jays had papelbon, i would not give them either Kelly or Iglesias for Papelbon and he will be a Type A almost certainly also after 2011, though cost more next year with arbitration.
Sniderlover
Not sure how Iglesias is unreasonable. He’s not a bluechipper but he is a good prospect. Kelly on the other hand… would get shot down pretty quickly. But I’m not sure how much Jays really even need Islesias and with Hech in the system and Escobar looking like our future shortstop for years to come.
I proposed Downs for Kalish which I thought was fair but got shot down pretty quickly…
Joshua
I didn’t think you would assume that, I just know the nature of message boards so I had to cover myself before somebody misinterpreted it.
If they’re asking for Casey Kelly, that’s a bit silly since they wouldn’t even trade him for Roy Halladay (apparently). But I see no issue with asking for a top prospect or a couple of good ones.
ukJaysfan
I think ultimately we need to take the trade rumours with the grain of salt. We’re talking about usually 3rd hand reports here.
Take for example our fictional ‘Downs for Posey’ deal. I would argue that rival teams (and journalists) are willing to fabricate or exaggerate these rumours to insinuate that the cost for Downs is an elite top prospect. This scares off potential suitors, and thus keeps the cost of a desirable commodity (Downs) lower.
I love reading the rumours…it’s like gossip mags for baseball fans. And we all know that sometimes there is a kernel of truth in a gossip mag, but you usually have to sift through 1000 tones of manure to find it.
HerbertAnchovy
What do Jays fans have to do with it? Last time I checked, GM’s made deals, not fans. Obviously fans are going to state what they would like in a perfect world.
jlbroxfan3
what would it take to get meek?
could matt miller and franklin morales work? if not who do we need to add