The 100 Greatest Colorado Rockies: 60 Ian Stewart

We continue our look at the top 100 Colorado Rockies of all time in this article. Here, we look at No. 60 on our list, Ian Stewart.

Ian Stewart was supposed to be the best third baseman in a Rockies uniform since Vinny Castilla. He maybe didn’t have the hype the Nolan Arenado received but there was a lot of a lot of expectation for Stewart to hold down the hot corner for some time in Denver. Instead he became a piece in one of the best trades the Rockies ever made. What happened? It all seemed to happen so quickly.

Stewart debuted for the Rockies in August of 2007 after he was selected to the All-Star Futures Game. He hit a grand slam for his first major league home run where he was started for Garrett Atkins because of defensive errors. This seemed the beginning of the end for Atkins at third. There was just too much potential. Stewart and Tulowitzki looked like they would hold down the left side of the infield for many years.

That happened to be Stewart’s only home run in 2007 and he hit .209 in his first two months in the majors. Stewart did not make an appearance in the Rockies 2007 postseason run. Stewart played half the games at third base in 2008 while Atkins started playing a lot of first base while Todd Helton was injured.

Atkins was offered another year with Colorado but struggled and Stewart took over the starting third base job where he played 147 games in 2009 with 25 homers. He did struggle to hit for average though batting .228 and he had 138 strikeouts in 425 at bats. Numbers that would foreshadow the rest of his career.

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In the 2009 NLDS, Stewart played sparingly only drawing a walk in the entire series. Stewart played better at the plate in 2010 and didn’t look like he was going anywhere as he hit .256 and cut his strikeouts down 110. That’s why 2011 was so surprising.

The bottom fell out underneath Stewart. He hit 100 points lower at .156 and he only played in 48 games while hitting zero home runs. Stewart’s signature power evaporated.

Even with his poor performance he was still considered by many the best value in the trade that sent him to the Chicago Cubs for Tyler Colvin and the Rockies best second baseman of all time, DJ LaMahieu.

While Colvin and LeMahieu weren’t terrible in Chicago, they both looked dispensable, especially for Stewart’s raw power. It turned out to be a rare bad trade for Theo Epstein. The new Cubs GM didn’t know LeMahieu very well. Stewart didn’t fair much better with the Cubs, playing in 55 games batting .201 with five home runs.

He was gone in the offseason and didn’t play again until 2014 with the Angels. He was invited on a minor-league contract with the Nationals in 2015 but never played for the team.

Tyler Colvin had a very good 2012 although struggled in 2013 and all LeMahieu has done is pick up a plethora of metallic hardware.

Next: Colorado Rockies: Young Candidate Emerging for Fifth Starter Role?

While it didn’t end it triumphant fashion for Stewart, his raw power and potential made him one of the most exciting prospects in Rockies history. His 3.5 WAR with the club further makes him one of the best third baseman in Rockies history.

Check out the previous story about number 61 Mike DeJean here.

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