Colorado Rockies: Ranking the 40-Man Roster: 36-31

Number 33

Chad Qualls: Right Handed Pitcher Points: 189 Highest Rank: 26 Lowest: 37

Qualls is a unique case, and that uniqueness is reflected in the variance of his rankings from our panel. No player in this section of the countdown received a rank higher than his 26, but multiple voters also had him outside of their top 35.

The entire list so far has been young guys with most of their careers still in front of them. Qualls is decidedly not that. He turns 39 in August, and if he makes the big league roster, it will be his 14th big league season.

Qualls’ 13th big-league season was not one he’ll look back on fondly. He was hit extremely hard in the first half of the year, then missed over three weeks and dropped 16 pounds as he dealt with a nasty stomach illness.

The end result was an ugly 5.23 ERA in just 32.3 innings. However, examining Qualls’ season more carefully shows that wasn’t a terrible year all-around, so much as it was just a terrible start. Qualls had a 5.84 ERA in the first half of the season, then posted a very 3.38 respectable mark in the second half.

Now obviously, you can’t just say the bad part of the season doesn’t count, and Qualls didn’t pitch much nearly as much in the second half. But there’s reason to believe Qualls simply started poorly, and would have had much better numbers if he hadn’t missed the better part of a month.

In his 13-year MLB journey, Qualls has had multiple seasons where it looked like he was done, only to bounce back with a strong season the next year. There may not be much left in the tank, but the Rockies may just be able to squeeze one last good season out of Qualls.