Notes: Focusing on internal options
07/19/2006PITTSBURGH -- With baseball's July 31 trade deadline looming, the Rockies would seem to be buyers, considering they are in a pennant race in the National League West and are only five games out of first place.
"We really haven't worried about our division all year," Rockies general manager Daniel O'Dowd said. "We're just trying to focus on how we can get better. We've hit a rough stretch here, and there's no doubt about that. We've just got to focus on the fact that we've come a long way from last year. We still have to stay patient."
He cautioned that just because the Rockies are in a pennant race does not mean they are in trade mode.
"I don't think we are there at all," O'Dowd stated. "I think we'll focus on our internal options. We've only made four player moves based upon performance all year, leading up to some of those we made on Monday. And that's because our starters have been good and our bullpen hasn't gotten enough work. So, I don't think we'll do that. If there is something that ends up falling in our lap, we certainly will, but I don't think we're going to be actively out trying to force things to happen at this point."
Family business: Some families own a grocery store, others own a garage or auto dealership and that is the family business. But with the Holliday family, baseball is the family business.
Matt Holliday, 26, is an All-Star outfielder with the Rockies. His father Tom was the longtime baseball coach at Oklahoma State and then the pitching coach at the University of Texas. He recently became associate head coach at North Carolina State.
Matt's older brother, Josh, is the hitting coach at Georgia Tech and Uncle Dave is a scout for the Rockies.
"That's a funny way to put it -- family business," Matt said. "I've been around [baseball] a long time. It's a fun thing and it's something our whole family has in common."
Matt is excited about his father's new job. "I think it will be a good spot for him," he said. "He'll have a boss who he has known for a long time and is a good friend of our family, and I think they'll have a lot of fun together."
"I think when you get to a point in your career, this is one of those things when you sit around in your chair and you jump up and say, 'You're going to go do this,'" Tom Holliday said of his current coaching role. "I don't act on impulse very often. But this is a longtime friend that I've seen work his rear end off for 20 years, and in our business of college baseball, getting to the College World Series is a lot of people's goal and it's a dream.
"Having been there 16 times [with Oklahoma State and Texas] and this program hasn't been there, this may be my last drive, my last goal in this college baseball business. If North Carolina State can get there in the next couple of years, then maybe I'll go do something else. But at this point, I think I've earned the right to do what I want to do."
It will place Tom and Josh in the same conference as opponents.
"That's an accident," Tom said. "We'll play three games against each other. I know him and he knows me, and when we put our uniforms on we'll play the game properly and when it's over there is still going to be a hug and a kiss."
"They both will want to win," Matt said. "They're both competitive."
The elder Holliday is still feeling the exhilaration of watching his son play in the All-Star Game.
"The biggest rush I ever had was watching Matt in a big-league game," Tom said. "When he was called up, I had to find his mother an airline ticket because we were playing, too. She was able to fly in and see his first big-league game in St. Louis and I had to watch it on tape. That rookie year, every time I saw him on television I got big goose bumps.
"To watch him in the All-Star Game is like -- I don't even know if I can describe it and I probably still haven't been able to put a word to it. He's only 26, so I don't want to say it's a dream come true, because I know Matt better than that, and probably a World Series is something I want to see him play in. But the goose bumps were really big again and to sit there with my mother was special."
Helton sits: Manager Clint Hurdle inserted recent callup Ryan Shealy in the lineup at first base on Wednesday afternoon, giving veteran Todd Helton a day off.
"It's going to be a situational-type thing. [Helton] has played six straight days in the heat," Hurdle explained. "Give him a blow today, and a day off tomorrow -- it just makes sense. We'll just see how it develops, but I'm using Shealy more as a bat off the bench."
Source: http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/
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