Colorado Rockies. Pitching. Not a happy combination, usually. But the Rockies have enjoyed good work from a few pitchers, at least for a season or two. And maybe those pitchers can tell us something about what it takes to succeed while pitching in the most extreme environment ever created in the major leagues.
Let's look at the non-statistical characteristics of six pitchers: the four with career Adjusted ERA+'s of at least 100 Armando Reynoso, John Thomson, Kevin Ritz, and Pedro Astacio along with Jason Jennings and Joe Kennedy (Jennings is fifth in career ERA+, and Kennedy's 2004 season, at least in terms of ERA, was easily the best-ever for a Rockies starter). For the sake of curiosity, I'll list the basic statistics only, covering their time with the Rockies.
Armando Reynoso (30-31, 4.65)
Scouting Report: "Like Higuera and Valenzuela, Reynoso has a vast pitching repertoire, throwing a half-dozen different pitches with just as many different deliveries. He has a good moving fastball, a screwball, forkball, slider, curve and change, and he'll vary the speed on all of them."
Source: The Scouting Report: 1994 (entry by Peter Pascarelli)