Rox Pile » Jeff Francis http://roxpile.com A Colorado Rockies Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More Tue, 07 Feb 2012 16:13:14 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Christian Friedrich — Rockies’ Prospect Spotlight http://roxpile.com/2011/02/11/christian-friedrich-rockies-prospect-spotlight/ http://roxpile.com/2011/02/11/christian-friedrich-rockies-prospect-spotlight/#comments Fri, 11 Feb 2011 23:23:17 +0000 Logan Burdine http://roxpile.com/?p=920 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.

Following Francis like a puppy dog. Photo Courtesy of David Zalubowski, AP

I like to think of Christian Friedrich as Jeff Francis 2.0. Like Francis, Friedrich is a tall, lanky left-hander with an easy yet deceptive delivery. He has a mid-nineties fastball, a big 12-6 curve and a sharp-breaking slider; each is a big league caliber pitch. Also, since being drafted by the Rockies, Friedrich has been working on a change-up, but it still needs perfecting. Even without an effective change, his repertoire gives him the ability to overwhelm hitters.

Christian is one of the Rockies’ most highly touted pitching prospects in recent memory. Baseball America rated him as a top five Rockies’ prospect in each of the last three seasons. In fact, you would be hard-pressed to find anyone that doesn’t consider him a top five prospect. If it weren’t for elbow trouble over the last couple of seasons, Friedrich probably would’ve already made his big league debut.
… [visit site to read more]

]]> http://roxpile.com/2011/02/11/christian-friedrich-rockies-prospect-spotlight/feed/ 0 Sad to See Francis Leave http://roxpile.com/2011/01/16/sad-to-see-francis-leave/ http://roxpile.com/2011/01/16/sad-to-see-francis-leave/#comments Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:39:53 +0000 Logan Burdine http://roxpile.com/?p=726 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 … [visit site to read more]

]]> http://roxpile.com/2011/01/16/sad-to-see-francis-leave/feed/ 0