“I think his speculation amounts to Trump being able to get 1237 votes on the first ballot, with a combination of 1100 delegated bound by state part rules, and the remainder made of delegates who are not bound to a candidate by state rules. The unbound delegates are NOT part of the delegate counting that preoccupies the press.”
You are exactly correct. I taught election law and party rules, for ten years in the state of Texas. Party rules for state parties and the national party are not rocket science nor are they hidden in some clandestine way to defeat Trump as he seems to think they are.
Party rules are on every state Republican Party website and the Republican National Committee rules are on their website. Below is the link to the Republican National Party rules and below that is the link to the Colorado State Republican Party rules. I link to Colorado due to the amount of vitriol from Trump and others toward that particular state party.
https://www.gop.com/rules-and-resolutions/
http://cologop.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/CRC-Bylaws-9-26-15.pdf
There is a disconnect within the Trump campaign on that point. Trump is peddling a political message of "voter disenfranchisement," which is generally taken as absence of caucus or primary. This message is a simple sound-bite message that easily resonates with the public. It's a political message, and a falsehood! But hey, it works. It probably helps his chances, hurts Cruz's chances, and it also undercuts the RNC/GOP. All of those ultimate goals are ones he holds, so he isn't cutting against his various missions.
Manafort, on the other hand, says there is no problem at all with the Colorado system or the Colorado rules. The issue as Manafort presents it is that the rules were not followed. That is a more complex claim, probably has multiple instances of alleged dirty trickery, not all following the same pattern. The reality doesn't fit into a political sound-bite message, but he (Manafort) or a person working under his direction will make the appropriate challenges, which will be dealt with either according to the rules, or according to the desired outcome - just like every other decision made in politics and in law.
I suspect Trump knows what the real issue is, and is deliberately making life difficult for Priebus and the power-brokers in the Colorado GOP. Put 'em on the defensive. Certain individual people will NEVER work in Trump's favor. He knows that, and he has to smoke them out before he isolates them from power, if he can.