Thursday Rockpile: Jeff Francis undergoes the knife, Juan Morillo undergoes the pressure
by Rox Girl on Feb 26, 2009 7:11 AM MST
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PrintJeff Francis underwent labrum surgery yesterday, and at least came out alive. Dr. Thomas Noonan was repsonsible for that part, and the coming months will tell how well he put back together our LHP. Francis shouldn't be expected to return this season, and if the Rockies are in a pennant race in September, I don't know if I want him to even if he's ahead of schedule. Testing out the shoulder in game action is all well and good, but let's hope the Rockies will have bigger fish to fry come the fall.
As nkrause reports in his FanPost, the article also mentions that Ryan Spilborghs has switched agencies from Mephistopheles to Scott Boras because the former wasn't quite evil enough. Spilborghs' actual prior agent was former Dodger GM Dan Evans. MHCSports' Bohanon, aka Franchise26, has more on what Spilly means to the Rockies this season in an excellent blog post.
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Juan Morillo's jam has little to do with baserunners:
Juan Morillo pitches under the "out of options" gun this Spring, and Thomas Harding's blog entry provides a glimpse into what's going through everybody's mind as they watch to see what he makes of it. Tracy Ringolsby goes more in depth on the subject in the recap to yesterday's game. A key point of Ringolsby's piece is a comparison that's made to former Angels prospect and current White Sox closer Bobby Jenks:
"For all the cemeteries of dead arms, you get one like that and he is the one people remember," Apodaca said of Jenks. "With arms like (Jenks and Morillo), you can't make the mistake. I'm sure the Angels exhausted every ounce of patience they could, but you do run out of time."
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Aaron Cook ready to lead rotation
Troy E. Renck sat and talked with the Rockies expected top starter. I have issues with the term "ace" used in conjunction with members of our rotation still, apparently Renck does as well, as he avoids using it altogether which I greatly appreciate. Nonetheless, Cook certainly should once again be a quality pitcher that will give the Rockies an opportunity to win most days he's out there.
Joe Koshansky, filling in for Todd Helton, showed well in his Spring debut. Helton says he's about a week behind in his conditioning, which is convenient this year given that the WBC will delay the start of the season by just that amount.
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More Dreaming on/for Iannetta
Just in case you haven't gotten your CDI fill yet, and really, who could? Sarah Trotto of AZStarnet.com has another piece about what an honor it is for Chris to play with Team USA in the WBC. Trotto also has some more on what Ubaldo Jimenez experienced in giving up Chris Young's blast in her recap to yesterday's game:
"Every time you're going to go out the first time, you're excited, but whatever happens was because I was missing pitches," he said.
We'll see how that improves as the Spring progresses. Jimenez has one more appearance with the Rockies before pitching for the Dominican Republic in the WBC.
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+1 for the Faust reference
Very aptly put.
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I think I prefer
the D-Backs strategy of keeping their starters out in Cactus League games against us. I’m not sure why we allow the D-Backs to see our pitchers as much as we do. I know Cook will throw 85% sinkers and everybody knows that, but the more they see the action the better chance it gives them, and also letting them get a look at Jimenez. Maybe it has something to do this new theory of playing our guys more during Spring Training, but I think I would prefer to cut back those innings against division rivals.
OTOH,
it also means that the guys on our roster who see your pitchers the most in ST will NOT be our starters…
We are truly in the presense of greatness here…-- unnamedDBacksfan
by DbacksSkins on Feb 26, 2009 11:37 AM MST up reply actions
Francis-RP?
What about, if ahead of schedule, Francis pitching out of the bullpen in September? It would be ideal if the Rockies were in contention, perhaps even David Price-like.
Also, I’d like to see Koshansky on the roster at the beginning of the season. The error aside, he could be a real knock in the crotch as a fill-in for Helton or a pinch hitter. I like his swing away approach instead of Baker’s swing & miss, swing & miss, watch strike three.
it's only ideal if he's pitching effectively, but usually there's a lag in recovery
Where the shoulder is healthy enough to pitch, but the mechanics, strength and feel need to get back. I have much higher hopes that Morales gets it together by the stretch run than I do for Francis. I’m actually looking at Deduno and Chacin as important options out of the pen at that time and will be keeping a close eye on Adam Bright and Xavier Cedeno as potential late season LHP options if they break out this year. I don’t think an 80% to 90% Francis is necessarily an improvement over some of these options at full strength.
Do we want to start Chacin's clock that early?
We have a deep pen.
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by Andrew Martin on Feb 26, 2009 9:51 AM MST up reply actions
If we're close enough and he's good enough, yes.
Sacrificing Chacin’s clock for a chance at another playoff run is a perfectly acceptable trade-off. If we’re talking September, it doesn’t really affect the clock that much anyway.
I guess I'm questioning the effectiveness
Of a AA/AAA starter being forced into the MLB pen. Both mentally and based on ability.
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by Andrew Martin on Feb 26, 2009 10:27 AM MST up reply actions
It worked for Chad Billingsley and several others.
David Price seems likely to follow that path this year. The hypothesis for the situation is that Chacin is ready for contending level MLB work first. If you’re arguing that he won’t be, I think that’s a separate issue. There’s obviously a curve of likelihood that he is ready to pitch at that level. All I’m saying is that if he’s at the front of that curve this year, the Rockies would definitely want him over a lot of their current options. If he’s not, the easy answer to that is don’t call him up.
Sandy Koufax pitched out of the bullpen too..
In 1955 the year the Dodgers won the World Series. Although Koufax did not pitch in the fall classic, he did pitch in 7 games out of the Pen with an ERA of 3.02 during the regular season. Between 55-58 Koufax pitched 33 games out of the bullpen before being released on the NL as a full-time starter. He did fairly well starting out in that fashion.
Keepin' warm by the hot stove season.
I'm just saying that out of concern
Not trying to say you’re wrong
I’d hate to have Chacin be the Reynolds of 2009
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by Andrew Martin on Feb 26, 2009 12:43 PM MST up reply actions
*Shudders* at that thought
http://twitter.com/blakebomber
by BlakeBomber on Feb 26, 2009 12:55 PM MST up reply actions
What's up with
the CBS fantasy baseball link on the main page below this article?
I would be wiling to say that a young Randy Johnson was also wildly effective, and I hope Ubaldo continues to get better and get more command like RJ did. I agree with the Franchise26 piece that Spilly setting the table this year is one of the keys to the Rockies success, even if he doesn’t score 850 runs by himself.
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