Christian Friedrich is most likely out for the season with a stress fracture in his lower back. An MRI confirmed what his body was telling him, that pitching was painful for a reason. Friedrich told the DP:
Everytime I tried to throw downhill it would bite at me…I tried to get through the side session and I couldn’t.
Will Nieves cleared waivers and has decided to become a free agent on Saturday, as opposed to a minor-league assignment. He was disappointed, wanting to stay with the team, but would rather find someone that wants him in their lineup.
Jhoulys Chacin was hit pretty hard in his rehab start, giving up a grand slam to Kevin Kouzmanoff. Chacin gave up four runs on five hits in four innings. He did have two K’s and two BB’s in the first of two starts with the Drillers, before moving on to Colorado Springs.
OMG!To be a Rockies pitcher is a curse.The organization should start taking accident insurance out on a kid as soon as we sign him.
No kidding, Gary. Weird injuries too. We all expect the blown out elbows and shoulders, but we’ve had the only guy to break his neck getting hit by a line drive, two guys (Cook and now Chacin) with weird nerve impingement things, Friedrich with a stress fracture in his back, “loose bodies” in Nicasio’s knee … what’s next?
Edgmer Escalona and Matt McBride called up; Friedrich and Cuddyer to the 15 day DL. Escalona we know about. I’m interested to see McBride get some playing time. 27 years old, former catcher, presumably not good enough defensively for more than emergency use there. Here’s what I’d like to see: if Helton is going to stick around (and come back next year), and if he’s not going to slide into the Giambi role, they’ve at least got to sit him against lefties. He has historically handled lefties pretty well — about 100 points of OPS lower than vs. righties over his career. But now that the baseline OPS level is lower, his hitting against lefties is just plain unacceptable against them. We know he still plays good defense, and I think he’s got something left in the tank. But we desperately need to find a platoon partner with some pop. The Cuddyer at 1B vs. lefties, Helton at 1B/Cuddyer in RF vs. righties is what they’ve been looking at, but that means you play Colvin (or an Andrew Brown) vs. lefties. I’m not sure McBride is the guy, but there’s no harm in getting him out there at 1B a lot (and against all lefty starters) for now.