I haven't been completely tuned out from Rockies baseball this past week -- I've checked the scores and the standings -- but it has been difficult to conceive of an angle about which to write. I saw where Sports Illustrated bashed Willy Taveras's OBP in print in their magazine, in a blurb about perhaps promoting Dexter Fowler. I don't know about Fowler, yet. Promoting guys too rapidly has brought Colorado mostly heartbreak in the recent past. Besides, I think Clint Barmes has one more comeback in him as a centerfielder.

The team that's benefited most from the Dodgers' surprise acquisition of Manny Ramirez might be the Diamondbacks. They're being encouraged to treat the NL West race at least a little seriously. The Rockies didn't immediately plunge out of the picture in the days after the trade deadline, but nor have they moved any closer and the less season there is left the harder it is to gloss over the double-digit games under .500 and the various gaping wounds in the pitching rotation.

The trade deadline didn't bury the Rockies all at once, but it did again illustrate on how different of a level they are operating than their immediate competition. The Diamondbacks made a deal in the offseason for Dan Haren; the Dodgers reached out and got Ramirez. The Rockies added Luis Vizcaino and Valerio de los Santos. And this week, Livan Hernandez.

Brian Fuentes likely won't make it through waivers but could possibly be traded to a team that claims him. Colorado has probably blown their chance to land a big difference-making prospect this season, but there's still the offseason. Had it not been for 2007 -- and forgetting '07 is a pretty hard feat to manage -- the franchise might still be appearing to make progress, however slow. It would be a good thing if the longest-lasting effect of last year was to shorten everyone's patience going forward, within the organization and without.