The Colorado Rockies have never been known for their pitching…but those who have found success in Denver are arguably worthy of even more praise and recognition than those who never have to think about altitude or enormous outfields.
So let’s recognize some! These are my Top 10 Colorado Rockies Starting Pitchers of All Time
Honorable Mention: Armando Reynoso
Reynoso will always be underrated because his time with the Rockies came before the humidor and in the mid-90s. But he pitched four consecutive seasons with a park-adjusted ERA+ above league average, something few Rox hurlers have done. You might want to get used to that stat, by the way.
- Jason Jennings
The 2002 NL Rookie of the Year never quite turned into what the Rockies, and you gotta figure Jennings, had hoped. An unforgettable debut and first season gave way to six seasons of…OK pitching.
It is only in hindsight and when getting past expectations that we realize that 156 games of above-league-average pitching – he put up a 103 ERA+ in Colorado – is more rare and impressive than we knew at the time.
- Jeff Francis
The only pitcher to ever open a World Series for the franchise, lefty Jeff Francis was the team’s best pitcher in their best year. He never put up especially gaudy numbers and wasn’t exactly a feared ace or strikeout artist. But he was at his best when it mattered most, placing ninth in Cy Young Voting in 2007 and earning a special place inside the hearts of Rockies fans everywhere.
- Pedro Astacio
Astacio couldn’t have picked a worse time to pitch at Coors Field. Before the humidor and still in the thick of the steroid era, his 5.43 ERA in 5 seasons with the Rox looks awfully uninspiring. But modern metrics show us a 102 ERA+ that came with consistency. Astacio was above league average in 4 of his 5 seasons in Denver and pitched over 190 innings 3 times making him one of the Rockies best workhorses ever.
- Jhoulys Chacin
Finishing his career in a second stint with the club as a re-imagined reliever, Jhoulys Chacin quietly built a fantastic resume for a Rockies team that nobody was paying attention to.
Lacking in too many standout performances or memorable moments, Chacin simply went about the job of pitching pretty well pretty often from 2010-2014 and carries a 113 ERA+ in 205 games pitched for Colorado.
He’s 6th all-time on the Rockies Pitcher WAR charts.
- Jon Gray
The best strikeout artist in franchise history, The Wolf of Blake Street handled Coors Field about as well as anyone.
Now a World Series champion, he didn’t have the most consistent career in Denver but he was the captain of the Rockies young rotation that made them relevant in 2017 and ‘18. In fact, he was arguably Colorado’s most important player in a surging second half in 2017 that saw them capture a wild card spot.
He somehow managed to be a substantially better pitcher at home than out on the road, proving perhaps the most important point of all, that Coors Field can be conquered.
- German Marquez
They call him Marquee for a reason. Marquez, still at just 28 years old, is a single win shy of third place in Rockies pitching WAR.
He has the second-best strikeout rate in club history, behind Gray, and made a very rare appearance for a Rockies starter in the 2021 All-Star Game.
Under team control through 2025, Marquez is likely to shatter a few Rockies pitching records and place himself perhaps at the very top a future version of this list.
- Aaron Cook
Underrated throughout his entire career and long after, the man his teammates called Cookie spent a decade in Colorado and threw only two below-average seasons.
He didn’t strike out a ton of guys, using his trademark sinker to induce weak contact and pitch famously quick games. His endurance in a place where almost no one has endured is what truly sets him apart. With 1,312.1 innings pitched, he has 171 more than anyone else in franchise history.
Incredibly unfortunate blood clot issues stopped him from running away with that distinction even further as it robbed him of a decent chunk of 2007 and may have even ultimately ended his career early.
Through that turmoil, Aaron Cook managed to be the most efficient and stable pitcher to ever suit up for the Rockies.
- Kyle Freeland
The hometown kid has clearly been comfortable in Denver. Other than his incredibly frustrating 2019 campaign, Freeland has been above the league average every year of his career and boasts a 112 ERA+ which is fourth best in franchise history.
He was nails for the Rockies down the stretch in 2018, out-dueling far more seasoned opponents in both the game that clinched the Rockies a postseason spot and, of course more famously, against Jon Lester and the Cubs in the NL Wild Card Game.
He is now second in team history in pitcher WAR.
- Jorge De La Rosa
The King of Coors Field, Jorge De La Rosa might be the most underrated player to ever play in Colorado.
He was good-to-great and even at times dominant in nine years with the Rockies. He ranks first in the franchise in wins and second in innings pitched and games started after Cook.
The most amazing thing about De La, though, is easily his sheer dominance of the most hitter-friendly park in the modern era.
The Mexican-born southpaw won 53 times and lost only 20 at Coors Field, a staggering winning percentage of 72.6 percent. Jon Gray is in second at 63 percent.
But there is no measuring what Jorge De La Rosa meant to multitudes of communities every time he took the mound and why he remains a fan favorite to anyone who saw him tame the beast better than anyone ever has.
- Ubaldo Jimenez
He didn’t last nearly as long as Cook or battle Coors Field nearly as well as De La Rosa or Gray, but Ubaldo Jimenez was so dominant during his time in Denver that he still belongs atop the mountain.
He ranks comfortably first in franchise history in pitcher WAR, ERA, hits per 9, home runs per 9, fielding independent pitching, fancy stats like Base Out Wins Saved, and shutouts.
He threw the only no-hitter in Rockies history as a part of the most dominant season in Rockies history. His first half of 2010 drew legitimate comparisons to Bob Gibson, posting a 0.78 ERA over his first 11 starts. He entered the All-Star break with a 2.20 ERA and started the game for the National League, the only Colorado pitcher to ever do so.
He ended that year with a 2.88 ERA, a 161 ERA+ and placed third in Cy Young voting.
All told, Jimenez pitched in 138 games across six seasons with the Rockies and posted an ERA+ of 128 which is a whopping fourteen points better than second place.
Ubaldo Jimenez at his peak was a true ace who inspired fear in the hearts of opponents in a way that no one else who has ever donned purple pinstripes has ever quite been able to match.
