Purple Row Rockies Madness: No. 1 Pedro Astacio vs. No. 4 Adam Ottavino

Due to the cancellation of the NCAA Men’s and Women’s Basketball Tournaments, Purple Row is hosting our own Rockies Madness Tournament this year. We selected the 36 best players in Rockies history in order to figure out who the best player is in franchise history. We sorted them into four regions in order to force the most interesting matchups: Infielders, Outfielders, Mile High (for relievers and starting pitchers who began their career before the humidor), and Humidor (for starters who began their career after the humidor). All stats are from Baseball-Reference.

Today is the Sweet 16 in the Mile High Region: No. 1 Pedro Astacio vs. No. 4 Adam Ottavino

Pedro Astacio, Starting Pitcher

1997-2001

Notes

• In 2010, Astacio posted the most wins of his career with a 17-11 record and a 5.04 ERA in 232 innings spread out over 34 starts. His WHIP was 1.435.

• Astacio leads the Rockies all-time list with 14 complete games. His 53 wins are sixth best in team history and his 8.148 strikeouts per nine innings is fourth best in Rockies history.

• Astacio had the 5^th best WAR (5.9) among NL pitchers in 1999 and the best fielding percentage (1.000) for NL pitchers in 1998 and 2000.

• Astacio was voted onto the Rockies all-time 25-man roster, which was voted on my fans and announced to celebrate the 25^th year of the existence of the team in 2018.

Adam Ottavino, Relief Pitcher

2012-2018

Notes

• In May 2015, Ottavino had Tommy John surgery and then came back in 2016 better than ever, despite only pitching 27 innings, he posted a .991 WHIP and 2.67 ERA.

• According to FanGraphs, Ottavino’s gnarly sliders can be placed in three different categories: verticle, slurve, and horizontal. Click the link above for examples and stats for each.

• Ottavino was a first-round draft pick by the Cardinals in 2006 before the Rockies picked him up off waivers in 2012.

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