Pat Saunders of the Denver Post is reporting the Colorado Rockies have reached an “Agreement-in-Principle” with left-hander Jeff Francis, and that Francis is likely to start Saturday afternoon against Dan Haren and the Angels, explaining Rockies’ management’s cagey approach to earlier questions about the middle game of the LAAo’A series.
Francis, 31, originally signed with Colorado in 2002 out of North Delta Senior Second HS in North Delta, British Columbia. He won 17 games for the Rockies in the 2007 season that ended with a World Series appearance. Francis lost the 2009 season to shoulder surgery, and was 4-10 with a 5.01 ERA in 2010. The Rockies declined to re-sign Francis after that season and the Canadian opted for a one-year deal with the Kansas City Royals, where he went 6-16/4.82 in 2011. This Spring Francis went to Spring Training on a minor league deal with Cincinnati and was assigned to triple-A Louisville, where he was 3-6/3.72 when after a June 1 opt-out date he asked for his release from the Reds.
Francis will be filling-in Saturday for Juan Nicasio, who strained his left knee in last-week’s start against the Dodgers and landed on the DL.
Welcome Back! Decent pick up on the cheap to get us through the rest of the season, hopefully, without killing the bullpen.
I have tickets to this game. I’ll give him a standing O for returning and giving his best — I hope he can recapture some Rockies’ magic. It’s apparent we could use some in our starters outside of White and Friedrich.
Oh Boy!! Francine is back!!! I can’t be positive about this.
Well I hope lightening strikes twice. Seems like we are grasping at straws here, hoping for a miracle. Anyone know if Mr. Cook is hanging out in Colorado, might as well see what he can do??
Why not. His era is only like 20+ something and I think that is only for 1 game. :>)
Aaron Cook is on the DL with the Red Sox. His ERA is horrible because Bobby Valentine is a m***n. Cook was spiked blocking home plate in the second inning and Valentine sent him back out for the third inning. After being removed Clayton Mortensen painted him up really good by allowing all of the inherited runners to score. After being removed from the game, Cook got 10 stitches for the gash he received when he was spiked.
http://www.cbssports.com/mlb/blog/eye-on-baseball/18971592/aaron-cook-gets-spiked-stays-in-game
From the sabermetric experts: Francis FIP in 2011 with the Royals was actually a decent 4.15 (or around that). And that was against the AL lineups. For those who doesn’t know, FIP is the ERA taking into account ball park factors to make a comparison of apple to an apple.
He’s been pitching deep into the games in the Reds’ AAA league. Plus he is familiar with Coors Field and the coaching staff. So I have more hope in Francis than I do with Guthrie and Moscoso.
Nice to see Jeff back. After his arm trouble he’s kind of a 30 something version Jamie Moyer. And I don’t mean the Jamie of 1995; I mean the Jamie of 2012 in a 31 year old body. But its more fun to watch than the in-house alternatives. Too bad I’m out of town and I’ll miss it.
As others have stated, it’s likely Francis is a better bet right now than some of the Rockies’ other starters. Let’s hope he surpasses the limited expectations most have for him.
One other note—rather than obsessing over Payton Manning every time he attends a Rox game, the Denver media should pay more attention to another former Tennessee teammate of Helton’s.
That would be the winningest pitcher in baseball, R.A. Dickey of the Mets, who improved to 9-1 and improved his scoreless innings streak to 24 while beating the Nats this afternoon.
Dickey was a hard-throwing All-America pitcher for the Vols who reinvented himself as a knuckleballer after years of mediocrity in MLBB and Triple-A.
I don’t understand why Moyer didn’t try to pick up the knuckler.It would probably be the same speed as his breaking ball,but unpredictibility of it might be enough to get him thru the lineup a third time.Plus he could pitch till he’s 60!
Alex. RA Dickey is a great story. But the reason why the Denver media obsesses over P Manning and why most Denver fans obsesses over Manning is two-fold. One this is DENVER and Dickey’s team isn’t even the most popular baseball team in NY. And two Denver is a football town first.
the sky IS falling
It’s probably not the second coming of 2007, but it seems that Francis has a reasonable shot of pitching better than Moscoso or any of the other currently available options. Plus he might be a good mentor to some of the young guys now that Moyer is gone.
The sad truth might be that Francis is one of Genius Dan’s better pitching moves this year.
Hey, they are taking out a lease on 4th place, having been smacked by Arizona 2 outta 3. What do they have to lose?
BTW, does anyone know where Bryn Smith and David Nied are these days? (just kidding)
I hope out of the 5 guys currently in the rotation it is a tryout for the 4th and 5th spots in the rotation for 2013. That is the slot that these guys belong.
Pooter, I hope that you’re right. In a perfect world, Pomeranz, DLR, and Chacin would have the first three spots in the rotation and be healthy and pitch pretty well.
ROOT/Jenny just said Apodaca is hoping Jeff Francis’ game preparation will rub off on the other pitchers. Right. Just like Moyer’s experience rubbed off.
I was at the game and Francis looked just like Moyer: A BP pitcher. So maybe their prep is the same. The both need a screen in front of them for protection.
It’s not that I have anything against Francis (or his preparation) – it’s more of the same naive attitude from this organization that bringing in one guy is going to be the silver bullet that solves all of their problems.