That was a great read. Really interesting.

He's very high on Christian Friedrich, who made his second major-league start last night, and did nothing to dissuade the believers: 7 IP, 6H, 1R, 10K, 1BB. It would be nice if Rockies fans had something to get excited about this season.

Friedrich's numbers from last night do look good, but I have to say that I was less than impressed upon watching the highlights. He was pitching way up in the zone and got two called strikeouts on curveballs at or above the belt, plus a few more on elevated fastballs. The other three or so strikeouts looked much better, coming on his vicious slider in or near the dirt. And his first start looked pretty similar. It just seems like a dangerous way to pitch; I foresee many home runs in his future.

They’re both big lefties who were first-round picks whose scouting reports boiled down to "hellacious curve and solid fastball," and they both pitch for the Rockies. In a lot of ways, Pomeranz is Friedrich 2.0, and that’s probably how most Rockies fans think of them.

I don't think anyone thinks of them this way. Actually, their early starts have sort of turned out the opposite of what we'd heard, given the velocities demonstrated so far...we thought Pomeranz had the better fastball and were unsure if Friedrich had the fastball to go with the curve. I think we'd heard more about Friedrich's curveball (his K rates through A+ ball were great; then he hurt his elbow in AA).

One nice thing about Friedrich is that he's been throwing strikes this year, unlike a lot of Rockies pitchers. He also made a very nice, athletic fielding play going to his left to pick up a drag bunt or something.