Colorado Rockies: Ranking the 40-Man Roster: 37-40

Number 39

Zach Jemiola: Starting Pitcher Points: 227 Highest Rank: 37 Lowest: 39

Jemiola was also a player drafted in 2012, but he was taken in the 9^th round from Great Oak High School in California. He is only 22 and spent the whole year in the Hartford starting rotation after being aggressively promoted through single A in 2015 starting 10 games for Asheville and 14 for the Modesto Nuts.

He pitched well enough to stick in the Yard Goats rotation in 2016 but was not outstanding. He threw 162 innings over 27 starts with an ERA of 4.39. His relative struggles were in part because he lacked a true out pitch, which kept his K/9 fairly low at 5.1, the lowest value in his minor league career. However, his control was fairly good, walking only two batters per nine innings.

The other good news with Jemiola is he was pitching against players on average 2.5 years older than him. I think he will start the year in Hartford again and it will be an important year for his progression. He has shown flashes of dominance, such as a seven-inning, two-hit gem for the Goats in August. He needs to build on outings like that.

Jemiola like Rayan Gonzalez is likely on the 40-man roster as an option for a worst case injury scenario at the major league level. There is too much high quality depth for the Rockies at starting pitcher (weird to say) for Jemiola to factor in unless he is dominates at the start of the year. I think he has one of the highest ceilings of the players being ranked in the bottom five, so his 2017 season is one to watch.