Tulo's 2011 Goals: Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, and Rat Tail like this one.

I was relieved this morning when I read that Ubaldo was having cuticle problems again. With the way he was throwing yesterday, I was starting to worry about arm trouble. Granted, his secondary stuff and his location were off, but a serious dip in velocity was the main culprit behind yesterday’s poor outing. The two home runs he gave up each came on inside fastballs. If he had his normal heat, neither Justin Upton or Miguel Montero would’ve been able to barrel up those inside pitches. Jimenez will bounce back in his next start — bet on it.

Jose Lopez made a very impressive debut. His home run was the hardest hit ball of the day. More importantly, he played an outstanding defensive game at second. I was hoping he would hit in Coors, but I never expected him to play defense like that. Why did the Mariners dump him for a marginal pitching prospect? Jim Tracy has a lot of weapons at his disposal.

Several Rockies busted out some great looks for Opening Day. First, there was Dexter Fowler and his high top fade, ala Kid from Kid and Play. Not only does it make him look fresh, the box fade adds at least three inches to Fowler’s height. Hopefully, he will keep it all season. I think they should cut out a hole on the top of his batting helmet.

Next, was Chris Iannetta and his outstanding fu manchu. I like this look for Chris. He has jettisoned the cleanly shaven, head case look of the past and has gone all rough and tumble on us. He’s like the Rockies’ version of Bull Hurley. (If you don’t get that reference, go watch Over the Top. NOW!)
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Clipped from: blogs.denverpost.com (share this clip)

“Basically I just took a step backwards to last year. All the stuff I did last year when things got in trouble. I tried to start throwing harder … a very, very rookie mistake. It wasn’t going the way I wanted, so from there I decided to try and overpower it with more aggressiveness and basically complicated the matter. A small step back, but I’m not going to get frustrated. It’s only one outing. … I’m not going to roll the snowball bigger.” — Jason Hammel

CarGo — Rockies’ ambassador of good will and welcoming new players.

Dexter Fowler hurt his quad last night. It sounds minor, but the situation should be monitored closely.
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