Jeff 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.