Colorado Rockies: Top 50 Rockies of All-Time 30-21

We continue with our list of the Top 50 Colorado Rockies of All-Time today with Numbers 30-21.

Welcome back thrice, to my top-50 All-time Colorado Rockies list. This, like my top-10 best lineups, will be highly subjective as I reiterate this is my list.

I only looked at each player’s Rockies career, so even though some players may have gone on to/had a great career before arriving/after leaving LoDo. Only those that excelled while in purple and black were considered. For example, although Todd Zeile had a solid career and short stint in purple and black, he will not be making an appearance on this list.

This is the third installment of 10 as we count down to the best Colorado Rockie of all-time. All stats are per Baseball-Reference.com. I leaned heavily on Rockies Career WAR, dWAR and OPS+/ERA+. The biggest factor, though, was personal eye-test to differentiate those clustered close by numbers.

I truly enjoyed delving into the best of the team I hold closest to my heart.

I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did putting it together. As always please comment below or hit me up on any of my social media accounts linked in the article to let me know what you think of my list and let me know what your list looks like.

You can view:

40-31 here.

50-41 here.

30. Jeff Cirillo (Rockies Career WAR 7.9)

Even though Jeff’s best years came in Milwaukee and his stint was short in pinstripes, he was impactful enough to land just outside the top 15 in Rockies Career WAR. He’s the epitome of an over-achiever: no one great or even truly above-average tool. But he was good at most everything and made up for the rest with hustle and grit.

He was a Pete Rose-type hitter where he produced a high number of doubles and singles, but not much home run power. Now I’m not about to advocate for Cirillo to go into the Hall of Fame.

What I am saying is he was an underrated presence in some really good lineups, as he averaged almost a hit-per-game in his career (.98). That may not sound impressive, but the aforementioned hit king averaged 1.19.

Cirillo’s best year as a hitter came in his 2nd career All-Star appearance in 2000. He slashed .326/.392/.477 with 53 doubles and 115 RBI and above-average defense for a WAR of 3.4. Fun fact, he is a rare all-star that made the Mid-Summer Classic in both leagues and did it with 2 teams that are in the NL. (The first appearance was with Milwaukee when they were still in the AL during the 1997 season).

28. Adam Ottavino (Rockies Career WAR 9.2)

Otto is a shining example of what can be done by a talented former 1st-round flamethrower when unleashed in short stints.

He was for the Rox and continues to be for the Yanks an absolutely dominant reliever with a Bugs Bunny slider. The only other pitcher I have ever seen throw a better slider was Randy Johnson, yes, that Randy Johnson. I believe with a bigger market in New York he will start getting the recognition he deserves.

His best year in Denver came in his last (2018), when he pitched to the tune of a sparkling 2.45 ERA, won 6 games, 6 saves (finishing 16 total), while striking out an insane 112 batters in just 77.2 IP for a ridiculous 13 K/9 and 195 ERA+ for the playoff-bound Rockies.

27. Brian Fuentes (Rockies Career WAR 9.8)

Brian was the first multi-time All-Star Closer in club history. For a 4-year period, no one on the front range worried about how a close game with a lead would end with Fuentes on the mound.

A closer more from an era before him, a hard-throwing lefty with a quirky delivery that had many multiple-inning saves. As well as used to hold close deficits or in non-save/high-leverage situations. He never pitched less than 62 innings in a full season, while spending all but 2 years as the unquestioned closer.

His best season in Colorado came in his 2005 All-Star season where he racked up 31 saves and 91 strikeouts with a 2.91 ERA in 74.1 IP for a 165 ERA+.

26. Clint Barmes (Rockies Career WAR 9.3)

Though he was never the superstar on any team he was on, Barmes always seemed to be in the middle of a game-changing play like the one pictured above.

He came up a SS but was blocked positionally by a player much higher on this list, Barmes turned himself into a top-tier utility guy, then every-day second baseman. He was much more about an all-around game than with a slick glove than an over-bearing hitter. He never accumulated a negative WAR in a full season.

He was also invaluable as an injury replacement for the oft-injured teammate we mentioned above. He was steady enough, for long enough, to be the 3rd-highest ranked second-baseman these rankings.

25. Jason Jennings (Rockies Career WAR 10.4)

Jason has the all-time best big-league debut for a Rockies pitcher, and arguably any Rockie of all-time. This is the box score from that debut:

9.0 IP, 5 H, 8 SO, 4 BB, 0 ER, W.

What makes this even better is it was done on the road in New York. He never truly lived up to the hype that debut created (seriously though, it’s asinine to expect anyone to keep that up over the long haul when they are not a Clayton Kershaw/Max Scherzer type).

He was, however, a workhorse, mid-rotation starter who outside of his rookie year and one injury-plagued year late in his Rockies career, never pitched less than 181 innings and stands 4th all-time on the Rockies wins list with 58.

His best year came in 2006 when he won 9 games, struck out 142 and an ERA of 3.72 in 185.1 IP for an ERA+ of 130 and 5 WAR. That’s All-Star level play and what gave the Houston Astros enough confidence to cough up prospects such as 6’8″ righty Jason Hirsh that off-season to get him.

24. Jeff Francis (Rockies Career WAR 10.4)

Jeff and the previous player on this list are tied for 10th all-time in Rockies Career Pitcher WAR. He was also the Ace on the 2007 World-Series team.

That was also his best season when he won 17 games, struck-out 165 with a 4.22 ERA in 215.1 IP for an ERA+ of 114 and WAR of 3.9 finishing 9th in Cy-Young voting.

He never really materialized into that true “ace” but was a solid presence at the top of the rotation for some really young teams that his veteran and battle-tested presence was an invaluable asset.

23. Pedro Astacio (Rockies Career WAR 10.8)

If you haven’t noticed yet, this installment is extremely pitcher heavy.

Pedro was the first truly successful pitcher in Denver and gave hope that they could roster a competent rotation. He’s also a prime reason the humidor was installed at Coors Field. He started off strong winning no less than 12 games from ’98-’00.

This stretched culminated in his best year of 1999 where he won 17 games, struck-out 212, with a 5.04 ERA(Gave up 38 homers, hence the beginning of the idea of the humidor, imagine how many more wins and lower that ERA would have been). This accumulated a 115 ERA+ and 5.9 Pitcher WAR.

When he retired in 2006, he was the all-time Rockies win leader and still sits 6th on that list with 53.

22. Jon Gray (Rockies Career WAR 11)

Jon has only been pitching in the big leagues for 5 seasons now. But he is already in the top-7 for every major pitching statistic from wins to Career Pitcher WAR.

That is insane production in such a short time frame. So many have wanted to right off Jon already in his young career like so many other homegrown pitchers in their past he had his struggles. Though he bounced back in a big way in 2019 posting a career year winning 12 games, striking out 150 in 150 IP with an ERA of 3.84 on a very bad team with a historically bad bullpen.

With a better roster, he pitched well enough that he would likely have garnered some Cy Young votes. Jon showed again why he was the 3rd overall pick in the 2013 draft.

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21. German Marquez (Rockies Career WAR 11.3)

German and Jon Gray are the prototypes of what this regime wants in it’s starting pitchers.

Hard-throwing strikeout artists with a nasty secondary pitch with ridiculous movement. The idea is if the batter can’t make contact, it negates the effects of Coors Field. This, in my opinion, stemmed from the successes of another starter of this type higher on this list.

Like Jon Gray he is in the top-6 of every major career pitching stat except wins where he ranks 9 with 38 in a year less of experience. His career year came in 2018 when he won 14 games, struck out a Rockies-record 230 batters with a 3.77 ERA in 196 IP for an ERA+ of 125 and WAR of 4.4. German has Cy Young ability and raw stuff.

Look for a bounce-back in 2020 after an average 2019 on a really bad team.

I will be back soon with the next installment in the list. Let me know your thoughts so far in the comments section below or on social media.