Purple Row Rockies Madness: No. 1 Pedro Astacio vs. No. 3 Jorge De La Rosa

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 to determine the best player in franchise history. We sorted them into four regions 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.

After completion of the semifinal matchups, Third Place of the Rockies Madness tournament will be decided in a battle between two pitchers: No. 1 Pedro Astacio, winner of the Mile High Region, and No. 3 Jorge De La Rosa, winner of the Humidor Region.

Pedro Astacio, Starting Pitcher

1997-2001

Rockies Career Summary

Pedro Astacio joined the Rockies in 1997 when he was traded for Eric Young. He won five of his first consecutive decisions in a Rockies uniform, including a career-high 12 strikeouts in eight scoreless innings against the Atlanta Braves. His best season came in 1999, where he finished 17-11 with a 5.04 ERA over 232 innings. Many of the records Astacio set in 1999 weren’t broken until Ubaldo Jiménez’s incredible 2010 season. He is among Rockies career leaders in almost every traditional pitching category ranking fourth in strikeouts per nine innings pitched (8.148) and third in strikeouts (749).

How He Got Here

Astacio was able to easily move past No. 8 seed Curt Leskanic with 77% of votes in the First Round. In the Sweet 16, Astacio edge out No. 4 Adam Ottavino by ten votes to move on to the Mile High Regional Final. He then defeated No. 3 Brian Fuentes, taking 55% of votes to win the Mile High Region. In the Final Four, Astacio battled Hall of Famer Larry Walker and lost in a big way, garnering only 5 votes.

Jorge De La Rosa, Starting Pitcher

2008-2016

Rockies Career Summary

Jorge De La Rosa’s tenure in Colorado began in 2008, the first year of what would become a nine-year body of work sending him to the mound for exactly 200 starts in a Rockies uniform (second only to Aaron Cook with 206). His time with the Rockies ended after 2016, when he signed with the Arizona Diamondbacks for 2017 and made 65 appearances, all in relief. He pitched for both the Diamondbacks and the Chicago Cubs in 2018, and despite signing again with Colorado in 2019, he suffered an oblique injury and hasn’t appeared in an MLB game since his 2018 work with the Cubs. DLR is the Rockies all-time leader in wins with 83 and strikeouts with 985 (over 200 more than second place Ubaldo Jiménez).

How He Got Here

In the First Round of Rockies Madness, Jorge faced off against current Rockies starter Germán Márquez (No. 6), winning with a healthy 61% of votes. DLR then waltzed into the Regional Final with an easy victory over No. 2 see Aaron Cook. In the Humidor Regional final, DLR pulled off the upset against No. 1 seed Ubaldo Jiménez by 6 votes. Once he got to the Final Four, however, DLR had a tough semifinal matchup — taking on Todd Helton and going down in a lopsided loss, winning a mere 4% of the vote.

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