Phillies at Rockies: Best Rockies Pitchers Ever

The Phillies have been blessed over the years with some pretty exceptional pitching. Starting with Grover Cleveland Alexander and going through Robin Roberts, Jim Bunning, Steve Carlton, Curt Schilling, Cole Hamels, Cliff Lee, Roy Halladay, Zack Wheeler, and now Cristopher Sanchez. The Rockies? Not so much. In their 33 seasons, only two pitchers have ever received votes for the Cy Young award and none have been 1st place votes.¹ Granted, we all know this is hardly their fault considering the thinner atmosphere in Denver that not only makes the ball travel farther but the pitches bite less. Still, it is such a missing part of the baseball experience for Rockies fans. Let’s look at the best pitching performances in Rockies history…

Friday, April 3 at 4:10p – Aaron Nola vs Michael Lorenzen (R)
Saturday, April 4 at 8:10p – Jesus Luzardo vs TBA
Sunday, April 5 at 3:10p – Taijuan Walker vs Tomoyuki Sugano (R)
Coors Field – Denver, Colorado

No-Hitters?

Yes, there has been a Rockies no-hitter. On April 17th, 2010, Ubaldo Jimenez kicked off his best season (and one of the two best pitching season in Rockies history) with a no-hitter against the Braves. He walked 6 and only struck out 7, but he accomplished the previously unthinkable for the Rockies. Before Ubaldo, the longest any Rockies pitcher had gone without giving up a hit was Jason Jennings in 2002 at only 6 2/3. The only problem was that it occurred at Turner Field rather than Coors.

The longest no-hitter bid at home for the Rockies occurred on July 9th, 2017 against the White Sox. Kyle Freeland took a no-no into the 9th but with 1 out, Melky Cabrera hit a liner just over the glove of Nolan Arenado at 3rd base and that was that.

Looking back at Rockies’ no-hitter history

Best Trades in Phillies History

Best Single Season

Not surprisingly, this comes down to Ubaldo Jimenez in 2010 versus Kyle Freeland in 2018. The tale of the tape is incredibly close:

	WAR	ERA	Wins	WHIP	SOs	BBs	ERA+	IP
Jimenez	7.5	2.88	19*	1.155*	214	92	161	221.2
Freeland	7.8*	2.85*	17	1.245	173	70	166*	202.1

* Best single season mark in Rockies history

That’s pretty damn close! How about we go to a tiebreaker? Probably the best way to figure this out is to look at the home and road splits, right? Let’s see how they pitched away from Coors Field:

	ERA	AVG	OBP	SLG	OPS	HRs
Jimenez Home	3.19	.237	.313	.348	.661	4
Freeland Home	2.40	.228	.298	.393	.691	11
Jimenez Away	2.63	.184	.286	.278	.564	6
Freeland Away	3.23	.251	.315	.328	.644	6

Well, that didn’t tell us anything! Somehow Kyle Freeland pitched better at Coors Field than he did on the road while Ubaldo Jimenez was damn near unhittable away from his friendly confines. No idea what to make of that. Can we call it a tie?

Best Careers

This one’s tough. Freeland came out of the blocks hot, but fell off big time in 2011 and has been an average pitcher ever since. He is the team’s all time leader in pitching WAR though with 19.7 over 10 seasons. Jimenez is 2nd on the WAR list with 18.9, but he accomplished that in just 5 seasons (4 + 2 halves). Unfortunately, the Rockies traded him when he was just 27 years old. His career was never the same after leaving Colorado. Freeland is on his way to taking every Rockies career record for counting stats including WAR (1), Starts (1), Innings (2nd), Ks (3rd), and Wins (4th). However, the per game metrics all favor Jimenez including a commanding lead in ERA (3.66 to 4.05 for 2nd place Jhoulys Chacin), WHIP (1.284 to 1.334 for 2nd place German Marquez), ERA+ (128 to 114 for 2nd place Tyler Chatwood), and FIP (3.58 to 3.91 for 2nd place Jon Gray). Freeland isn’t particularly close in any of these categories. What’s better a shorter period of dominance or longevity in the worst of pitching conditions? That sounds a lot like the Marlins vs Rockies debate I had last week.

Stats: Baseball Reference

Photo: Chris Schneider – Rocky Mountain News