Colorado Rockies pitcher rankings: Purple Row staff vote

If the Colorado Rockies are going to be successful in the next four or five years, it is going to be on the strength of their starting pitching.

It is a strange thought but hard to deny after the team traded their star shortstop for three young pitchers. This got us to thinking it might be a good idea to keep regular tabs on the pitchers in the organization who collectively have a chance to save it.

With the understanding that this can and will be updated as we reach certain milestones, here is a sort of "power rankings" for how the Purple Row staff views these pitchers in terms of likeliness to produce for the MLB team by the end of next season. What follows is a brief discussion on a few of the sticking points:

Drew Creasman:] JDLR, Jon Gray, Chad Bettis, Chris Rusin, Eddie Butler, Jeff Hoffman, Jordan Lyles, David Hale, Miguel Castro, Tyler Chatwood,Tyler Matzek, Yohan Flande, Tyler Anderson, Kyle Freeland. Pitchers who could contribute by the end of 2016. Anyone see any glaring omissions?

Nick Stephens:] Is this starters only?

DC:] Ya.

NS:] I really hope Flande still isn't an option by then.

Ryan Schoppe: Harrison Musgrave?

DC: Was wondering about him. Just don't have a feel for his ETA.

RS: Me either, but could be a dark horse

Bryan Kilpatrick: I wouldn't say 2016, though he and perhaps Flemer are potential 2017 depth options.

DC: I like Flemer. Does anyone have thoughts on the order of that list of pitchers above?

NS:] Like a ranking order?

DC: Yeah. I put them in general order of how I view their current value plus their likeliness to help the team next season. But I'm still trying to figure exactly what the rubric should be.

RS: So based on talent but with deduction based on their probable amount of innings next season?

NS: It's hard because I don't know when Hoffman will be up. I can't stick him in front of Butler just yet

Jordan Freemyer: I'd go Gray, Lyles, JDLR, Bettis, Butler, Rusin, Hoffman, Castro, Hale, Matzek, Chatwood, Freeland, Anderson

RS:I thought I like Lyles a lot, but putting him in front of JDLR wow.

DC:] Yeah, anyone who is super injured is going to be a bit further down a Power Rankings list.

JF: He hurt his toe, not his elbow.

DC:] Oh, for shizzle. But he hasn't seen the field in a while and won't for a while.

RS:] Yeah that's why I still like him, but even healthy he's not been better than JDLR

JF: JDLR has been sneaky bad this year

DC:] Still has like 5 of the 6 highest game scores this season. (I'm completely guessing. Is there a list of those by team somewhere?) I'm also iffy about putting a guy with TWO MLB starts at No. 1 on the list.

JF: ] Well, that kind of talent doesn't lie

NS:] It's early, but he's shown quite a bit in those ten innings.

DC: You don't have to sell me on Gray's talent!

RS: He's by far our most talented pitcher and he's a lock for the rotation.

DC:] I need to see at least a little something at Coors.

RS:] Only thing keeping him from the top for me was if we thought he wasn't starting the season in the rotation.

NS: 180 innings of 3.50 ERA ball from Gray in 2016 would make me happy.

DC: Oh, he'll be there.