Rockies: Camp tour | 
Outlook | Cactus/Grapefruit League stops
TUCSON, Ariz. – Five things to know about the Colorado Rockies:
1. The Rockies don't have a lot of big decisions this spring, but they do need to make sure Jeff Francis is ready to contribute after right shoulder surgery that cost him the entire 2009 season. Francis, a 17-game winner for the Rockies in 2007, pitched in the Instructional League last fall. "I wasn't very good," he said. "But I was able to pitch without pain." Francis allowed four runs in four innings in his first Cactus League start, but afterwards he told the Denver Post that he was "100 percent confident I'll be ready for the start of the season."
2. Troy Tulowitzki is a .283 career hitter, but the last two seasons he has hit .152 and .200 in April (he'd be a .299 career hitter if the season began May 1). Tulowitzki's slow starts have coincided with the Rockies' slow starts, but he said he hasn't made changes to his spring routine. "At the end of the year, the numbers are there," Tulowitzki said. That was certainly true in 2009, when he was hitting .216 as late as June 6, but finished with a .296 average, 32 home runs, 92 RBI and enough support to rank fifth in National League MVP voting.
3. The Rockies like their team, and they like the personality of the team. And that's one reason that general manager Dan O'Dowd made only minor alterations over the winter. The most significant position player who is gone is Garrett Atkins (in effect replaced by Melvin Mora), and the most significant pitcher who is gone is Jason Marquis (in effect replaced by Francis).
4. While the Rockies have played in the postseason two of the last three years, with a trip to the World Series in 2007, Colorado has never won a division title. The only other franchise with no first-place finishes is the Marlins, who were the Rockies' expansion brethren in 1993 (and who have won two World Series).
5. The Rockies have never trained anywhere but Tucson, but this is their final spring at Hi Corbett Field. Next year, they'll move to Scottsdale, where they'll share a new facility with the Diamondbacks. Most Rockies people seem to like Tucson, but they won't miss all the two-hour bus trips to play teams in the Phoenix area. And the Rockies' minor league staff will be thrilled to have someone other than the Diamondbacks to play in their spring training games. Will Tucson miss the Rockies? That's harder to say. Attendance hasn't been great in recent years, but 2011 will be the first year since 1946 that Tucson will be without spring training (the Indians trained at Hi Corbett from 1947-92).
