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Contreras, Colon look good in '09 mound debuts

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Both [Jose] Contreras and veteran pitcher Bartolo Colon made their 2009 debuts off the mound before the Cactus League game with Seattle, with each impressive in their own way in the bullpen session. Contreras, who is more than three months ahead of schedule after rupturing his left Achilles tendon, was the one opening up more eyes from the simple standpoint of what he was doing. Not only was he throwing all of his pitches, but on several occasions dropped his arm angle down and threw sidearm to test the injury. His fastball had pop on it, leaving pitching coach Don Cooper saying, "The way he looked [Monday], ‘Hey, we could plug him tomorrow.’ But we’re not going to do that.’’