SAN DIEGO -- With CC Sabathia and Rich Harden long since off the board, there was one difference-maker remaining this week before Thursday's trade deadline -- unless you believe in fairy tales and Manny Ramirez rumors.
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| 'I took the for sale sign out of my front yard,' Chad Tracy joked after realizing he's not, er, moving. (Getty Images) |
Plan B for one club that spent time on the phone with the Braves?
"It might not be anything," Arizona general manager Josh Byrnes said Tuesday afternoon. "We believe in our club. The two trades we've made (acquiring reliever Jon Rauch and first baseman Tony Clark) have helped us.
"We're always busy on the phones, but if I had to guess, we won't make a deal."
So expect the pillow fight in the NL West to, uh, rage on. With feather pillows, not even foam.
Arizona started Tuesday evening one game ahead of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL West, six games in front of Colorado and with infielder Chad Tracy still on the roster.
"I took the for sale sign out of my front yard," Tracy joked.
Tracy watched all sorts of speculation regarding himself on television Monday night, when the Diamondbacks supposedly were close to a deal that would have sent Tracy and a pitching prospect to Atlanta for Teixeira.
The trade that wasn't made instantly would have turned Arizona into a prohibitive favorite in a tapioca pudding-soft NL West.
Teixeira's bat in the lineup combined with the one-two pitching punch of Brandon Webb and Dan Haren? With Randy Johnson finding his groove?
The Dodgers could not match that. Nor could the Rockies, which is why, suddenly back in the division "race" despite entering Tuesday nine games under .500, Colorado is aggressively searching for starting pitching. The Rockies talked with Oakland this week about Justin Duchscherer, according to sources, and they discussed Jarrod Washburn with Seattle.
The Seattle talks were said to stall when the Mariners asked for two high-level prospects in return for Washburn.
