Strike 1: Finally.
Even after they lost the final game of a three-game first-half-ending series in Cincinnati (to fall to 22-74 on the season), the Colorado Rockies actually won.
Okay, they didn’t actually win the draft lottery, but they may as well have. Even after having the worst record in the majors last season, the ping pong balls didn’t fall their way, again. After last season’s last place finish they still ended up with just the fourth pick in this year’s draft.
But when the draft finally rolled around this past weekend, Lady Luck actually dropped in for a visit. Somehow, someway, the most talented player in the draft fell to the Rockies. And now, it’s a Holiday at 20th and Blake.
Infielder Ethan Holliday, who most experts thought to be the best player available in this year’s Major League Baseball draft, wasn’t the first pick. Instead, he fell to the fourth slot, where his hometown (sort of) Rockies were waiting with open arms.
Ethan is the youngest son of former Rockies great Matt Holliday, and he spent his earliest days running around on Coors Field as a toddler before home games. He was born in 2007, the year of “Rocktober,” which has to mean something in the cosmic universe, right?
Critics of the pick – and there will be some of those – will cry out that the Rockies needed pitching. They’re right, but they’re also very very wrong.
The definition of insanity? The absolute worst thing that could have happened to the Rockies would have been if they’d drafted yet another young pitcher. Not that they don’t need quality arms, because of course they do. But the organization’s track record when it comes to drafting and developing young pitchers is abysmal. Not just bad, but awful. Terrible. Horrid.
Just look at the list from just this century. They’ve been particularly awful drafting first-round high school pitchers: Matt Harrington, Chaz Roe, Tyler Matzek, Mike Nikorak, Peter Tago and Riley Pint. These picks were all busts. (Matzek finally made it big several years after leaving the Rockies when he became a World Series star for the Atlanta Braves.) Add in college pitchers like Greg Reynolds, Christian Friedrich, Eddie Butler and Robert Tyler and the list of failures gets way too lengthy. Guys like Rex Brothers and Tyler Anderson had some decent moments, and the jury is still out on Ryan Rollison, Gabriel Hughes and Chase Dollander of course. But overall, Colorado has been far better off letting other teams draft pitchers. Since the turn of the century, just three Rockies draft picks – each a product of college programs – have made a positive impact on the fortunes of the Rockies. The exceptions that prove the rule? Jeff Francis, Jon Gray and Kyle Freeland.
That’s it.
Let other teams draft, sign and develop young pitchers and then go out and make trades to acquire them.
That way they could be dealing from a position of strength. While Rockies track record with position players may not be all that great, it is much better that they’ve done with pitchers. So drafting another highly touted infielder who hits with power and who adds even more positional depth – which can enable future dealings – is the far better way to go.
And getting a guy that will be excited to be here, and will someday bring his immense talent back to Coors Field? That’s nothing but a positive.
Finally, a big win during a season of endless losing.
