Jeff Francis

Last week, the Rockies announced their minor league non-roster Spring Training invitees. While most of their top prospects aren’t quite ready for Big League spring training, some promising talents will be with the Rox in Scottsdale. The two best prospects to make the cut were Charlie Blackmon and Christian Friedrich. I’ve written a lot about Blackmon, probably because I have a special place in my heart for centerfielders, but I haven’t given Friedrich enough of my time. That changes now. I like to think of Christian Friedrich as Jeff Francis 2.0. Like Francis, Friedrich is a tall, lanky left-hander with [...]

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last couple of days, you know that Jeff Francis agreed to one year contract with the Kansas City Royals. The Rox – and their fans – would’ve welcomed Francis back with open arms, but they couldn’t guarantee him a spot in the starting rotation. With the Royals, Jeff will get a chance to start every fifth game and will reunite with long-time Rockies’ minor league pitching coach Bob McClure. Oh, and he’ll get a couple million to boot. In Kansas City, Jeff hopes to resurrect his career. He missed much of [...]

Earlier this week, I explained the basics of Major League Baseball’s free agency system. Because of the Rockies’ limitations, players like Cliff Lee and Carl Crawford are completely off management’s radar. The following is an evaluation of those players whose names have been associated with Colorado this off season – notice the emphasis on pitching.

The Colorado Rockies spent four weeks coming to terms with their arbitration-eligible players, signing players to long-term deals, filling out their bench and pursuing relievers to fill out their bullpen. Now it looks like they are done. With a team that has only a few question marks, the Rockies look like they should be in a pretty good position to go out and win enough games to be in the playoff race.  That, of course, is pure speculation for any team in February.  Injuries always factor in and guessing how well a player will play is always tough. Much of [...]

The Colorado Rockies signed journeyman starting pitcher Tim Redding on Wednesday.  It is clear that the Rockies fan base has grown because of the overall panic that has been associated with signings like this. Redding was signed to a Minor League contract with an invitation to big league camp.  He is by no means going to be this seasons version on Jason Marquis.  He is not going to push Jason Hammel or Jorge De La Rosa out of the rotation.  He is simply being brought in for depth. Many Rockies fans are scared that the righty, who was accused of [...]