Ubaldo Jimenez is flat out sick

[sfosfan]

With the Orioles having an off day yesterday, I watched Lincecum vs. Jimenez. First time all year I've seen a game Jimenez pitched, and right now he's the most incredible pitcher I have ever seen. I was reminded of Dwight Gooden 1n 1985 when I saw him at Candlestick, or Pedro Martinez in 1999 (I think that was the year). Lincecum is another one, but he hasn't put together a streak like the one Ubaldo is on - nobody has. Two different streaks of 20+ scoreless innings already, and today is June 1! If you get a chance, drive over to DC to Philly when the Rockies are town to see this guy pitch - it will be one for the record books and you can say you saw Ubaldo in person years later.

Now that I got that part out of the way, where the heck did this guy come from? I can't recall EVER hearing about him before this season, and with his stuff I'm a little miffed. I also didn't realize that Tim Lincecum is actually 5 months younger than Ubaldo. With Strasburg about to come up with the Nats, does the NL have somewhat of a lock on the young pitching talent? David Price for Tampa is one who I'd put in a similar category, but I'm a loss to name another young kid (who starts) in the AL as good as those mentioned in the NL. I'm not following that much now as I'm not doing fantasy baseball, but it sure seems to be a start of a trend for the NL.

Go O's!

sfosfan

[TGO]

Jimenez has been a top flight prospect for a while but walks were a problem, as were HRs in his first season (2007). He actually started 3 games in the 2007 playoffs as a rookie at the age of 23, that's how highly regarded he was by the Rockies. He was the #2 starter of the NLCS and World Series.

[Hank Scorpio]

He's on my fantasy team.

[Slappy]

The Rox already played in D.C. this year. It will be interesting to see how he does in interleague play, some of the success has to be because of the NL. Like Halladay, he was always good, but never this dominating in Toronto.