PHOENIX—Troy Tulowitzki may be the leading candidate for NL rookie of the year. He’s hardly the only Colorado Rockies newcomer to make a huge impact.
When the Rockies lost three-fifths of their starting rotation to injuries in a 16-day span at midseason, they turned to two pitching prospects from their Latin development program and rushed them to the majors.
Without 21-year-old lefty Franklin Morales and 23-year-old righty Ubaldo Jimenez, the Rockies wouldn’t be in this purple haze, set to play Arizona in the NL championship series starting Thursday night.
Jimenez (4-4, 4.28 ERA) held opponents to a .228 batting average and provided a big boost to the team with an electric four-pitch repertoire that features a 99 mph fastball.
And the bigger the game, the better he’s done.
Jimenez has allowed just one hit in each of his last two outings, both of them covering 6 1-3 innings. The first one was against Arizona on the final day of the season, when the Rockies forced a wild-card tiebreaker with San Diego, and his second one came Saturday when Colorado swept Philadelphia out of the playoffs.
“All year he’s been filthy, but he’s stepped it up in the last couple of weeks for sure,” pitcher Josh Fogg said. “Any time you can throw a baseball 100 mph and break off a 72 mph curveball and a 76 mph changeup and a slider that’s gotten better with time, it’s fun to watch. I’m a little jealous … but he’s been the best pitcher on our staff by far.”
Ace Jeff Francis won’t argue with that.
“I think both Ubaldo and Franklin have been awesome for us,” Francis said. “They’ve both got great stuff.”
Morales (3-2, 3.43) joined the rotation for the final six weeks of the season and tied the club record with 20 consecutive shutout innings. He got an early hook against the Phillies in Game 2 but he’ll be back on the mound when the NLCS returns to Denver this weekend.
Even their teammates are in awe of what these young kids are doing in pressure-packed appearances.
“It’s been awesome to watch Jimenez and Morales,” reliever Taylor Buchholz said. “They have electric arms and they make it look easy.”
The Rockies had to call on them when they lost starters Rodrigo Lopez, Jason Hirsh and Aaron Cook to the 60-day DL in a 2 1/2-week span in late July and early August, when the playoffs were the farthest thing from anyone’s mind in Denver.
“We were fortunate we had two extremely talented young men who have nerves of steel, great composure and great makeup who were able to come in at a moment’s notice and pitch as if they’d been here all their lives,” pitching coach Bob Apodaca said.
There might be a little luck involved here, but this was no accident. When general manager Dan O’Dowd came on board in 1999, his top priority was to bolster the Latin American development program, of which Jimenez, a Dominican, and Morales, a Venezuelan, are graduates.
Panamanian Manny Corpas is another. The hard-throwing 24-year-old righty came up last season and this year replaced three-time All-Star Brian Fuentes as the closer. He saved 20 of 21 games and all three of the wins over the Phillies in the playoffs.
What’s so impressive about Jimenez and Morales is that they don’t ever seem overwhelmed by the magnitude of the moment and aren’t afraid to throw any of their pitches in any tricky count.
“Both of them possess at least three pitches, some days four, that are above major league average,” Fogg said. “That’s rare when you see guys that can come up there and command those pitches like that.”
The Rockies got a glimpse of Jimenez in a September callup last season. Morales was more of a surprise, performing better so far at the major league level than he did as a talented but untamed prospect.
Apodaca said kudos go to the scouts who found them and the minor league coaches who helped them hone their skills “because both these kids had major, major mechanical issues just a year ago.”
He also credited catcher Yorvit Torrealba, who has kept both rookies from “just rearing back and having a contest to just see how hard they can throw.”
While everybody else marvels at their early success, both Jimenez and Morales shrug it off.
“I was sure of what I had,” Jimenez said.
So was Morales.
“Everybody’s surprised by what I can do, but it doesn’t surprise me,” he said, “because I’ve worked very hard to get here. And I plan to stay here for a long time.”
