It’s almost the end of July and Kyle Freeland’s baseball season is just getting started.
Freeland’s opening day was Friday, when he took the mound for Grand Junction of the rookie-level Pioneer League. He made his first start of the season. The left-handed pitcher and first-round pick of the Rockies in the 2014 draft missed most of the first four months of the season because of shoulder problems and surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow.
On the eve of his first start, he was eager to get back to work.
“I’m looking at it as a way of getting my arm strength back and getting mentally prepared to pitch in a game,” said Freeland, who came out of the University of Evansville by way of Denver’s Thomas Jefferson High School. “I’m hopeful of getting as many starts as I can in what’s left of the season, but also being careful and watching the pitch count. I’m just taking it start by start.”
Freeland was thinking he would be limited to 40 or 45 pitches in the few starts he makes.
After compiling a 3-0 record last season with Grand Junction and Single-A Asheville, Freeland’s problems started with shoulder fatigue at the beginning of spring training. The elbow surgery and recovery time in extended spring training in Scottsdale, Ariz., followed.
“This is the first time I’ve faced adversity like this,” Freeland said. “It has been a learning experience.”
Zach Wilson, the Rockies’ director of player development, believed Grand Junction was the best fit for Freeland to begin his 2015 season. He played there last year and worked with pitching coach Ryan Kibler.
“We’re taking it one start at a time and him getting back to feeling good about his arm and ready to pitch again,” Wilson said. “This assignment gives him a chance to get his feet back underneath him and get back to full pitching status hopefully before the season is over.”
Meanwhile, David Dahl, whose season was interrupted by surgery to remove his spleen after a collision with a teammate in the outfield, is heating up on his return to the Double-A New Britain Rock Cats.
Going into Friday, the center fielder had three multihit games in his past six games, including one three-hit game.
Time has all but run out on pitcher Tyler Anderson’s return to the mound this season. The 25-year-old left-hander and first-round draft pick in 2011 hasn’t thrown a baseball this year because of an elbow injury he suffered near the end of last season.
Irv Moss: 303-954-1296, imoss@ denverpost.com or twitter.com/ irvmoss
