Last month, a day after watching Ubaldo Jimenez beat the Giants 11-1, Giants starter Randy Johnson offered the following, unsolicited comment: “That Jimenez kid has got some of the most electric stuff I’ve seen. He’s got a chance to be a great pitcher.”
Told about the impromptu praise from baseball’s latest 300-game winner, Jimenez was flattered.
“That means a lot, coming from one of the greatest pitchers ever,” said Jimenez, who starts today against Tampa Bay. “That’s where I want to get to; to be a pitcher like him or Pedro Martinez.”
Jimenez seems headed in the right direction, evolving from flamethrower to pitcher. His last two starts offer proof. In St. Louis he pitched eight innings of four-hit baseball, striking out nine and walking one. He wasn’t nearly as sharp last Friday against the Mariners, giving up four runs in the first four innings and walking four. But he hung on and pitched a complete game that required 127 pitches.
“I believe he is beginning to find his niche, but I also believe there is another step on the ladder that he aspires to take,” manager Jim Tracy said. “And that is to become an out-in-front, bona fide ace — slash stopper — in the Rockies organization.”
Tracy points to an adjustment Jimenez made in St. Louis when the pitcher sensed the Cardinals keying on his fastball.
“In midstream, he started using his breaking ball to set up his fastball,” Tracy said. “It’s normally the other way around. What I saw in that game was great beyond a young pitcher’s years.”
Yorvit’s return.
Catcher Yorvit Torrealba is going to use the rest of this homestand to get back in shape. After Sunday’s game against the Pirates, the Rockies will determine if he’s ready for a five-day minor-league rehab assignment.
“Basically, with the very, very difficult situation he was dealing with, he was completely dormant for almost two weeks,” Tracy said. “He told me that yesterday, running around out here, he felt like it was almost like the first day of spring training, baseball-wise.”
Torrealba has not played since June 1. He discovered the next day that his son had been kidnapped in his native Venezuela. His son was rescued, unharmed.
Footnotes.
Rockies reliever Taylor Buchholz underwent Tommy John surgery on his right elbow Wednesday. The Rockies called the procedure a success, although doctors did find a bone fragment impinging on the elbow ligament. The bone fragment was given to Buchholz as a souvenir. By Patrick Saunders, The Denver Post
