I remember when the Rockies had this season the staff ace was all over the place the first third of the season for no real explainable reason. The only consistancy he had was a tally in the team loss column every outing he had for the first couple months of the season. The top pitcher in the early months was a live latin arm that always had show good promise and was putting together the best season of his career when mid season he was striken with the injury bug and was out for the season.

The rotation was starting to wear thin – they already had a member slotted for the rotation fail in the early going and jettisonned from the franchise. The guy that replaced him was an acquisition from an offseason trade that was too old to be a true prospect anymore and while good enough to pitch at the MLB level wasn’t expected to ever be a top end guy. The best the Rockies could hope for him was to prevent the bullpen from getting burnt every fifth day.

The other two members of the rotation were starting to surprise, however. One was never thought of as anything better than a 5th starter guy, and in previous organizations had trouble even making his team’s rotation. In Colorado, however he managed a level of consistancy where he never overwhelmed anyone or was mistaken for a dominating pitcher, he rarely imploded to the point where he truely hurt the team. For a 5th starter he had the asset of at least eating up his innings and usually giving his offense a chance to win the game. The final guy had lots of promise but was still fairly young. He saw his staff ace struggling and the guy having the best season go down to injury and took it upon himself to be a leader.

He became a stopper and went on to establish himself as the new teams ace. He led the Rockies to the World Series and his name was Jeff Francis.

In 2007 the Rockies had Aaron Cook; In 2011 his mirror is Ubaldo Jimenez.
In 2007 the Rockies had Byung-Hyun Kim; In 2011 his mirror is Esmil Rogers.
In 2007 the Rockies had Josh Fogg; In 2011 his mirror is Jason Hammel.
In 2007 the Rockies had Jason Hirsh; In 2011 his mirror is Clayton Mortenson.
In 2007 the Rockies had Rodrigo Lopez; In 2011 his mirror is Jorge De La Rosa.
In 2007 the Rockies had Jeff Francis; In 2011 his mirror is Jhoulys Chacin.

After Lopez went down the Rockies had two prospects in the farm system worth taking a look at. There was the highly coveted Franklin Morales with a seemingly limitless ceiling and another prospect that had only more recently started showing signs of great potential – Ublado Jimenez.

In 2007 the Rockies had Ubaldo Jimenez; In 2011 his mirror is Juan Nicasio.
In 2007 the Rockies had Franklin Morales; In 2011 his mirror is Christian Friedrich.

If Mortenson goes down with injury later this year and Friedrich is called up to be HIS replacement this will REALLY feel like deja vu.

This does seem familiar.