Colorado Rockies: A look back on Dan O’Dowd’s 1st round draft picks

A few weeks ago, we discussed some of the good (and not so good) trades from the Dan O’Dowd era in Colorado Rockies general manager history. He was the Rockies general manager from September 1999 through the end of the 2014 season. In a similar way, today, we will look at some of the 1st round draft picks that O’Dowd had during his tenure.

We are about a week and a half out of the 2018 MLB Amateur Draft which will start on Monday June 4 and be televised on MLB Network. So today, we will take a look at some of the drafts of the longest tenured general manager in Colorado Rockies history, Dan O’Dowd. O’Dowd was the general manager for part of 16 of the Rockies 26 seasons.

Throughout those 16 seasons, O’Dowd (as you would expect from any general manager who served in that role for that length of time) had some big hits and big misses. We will discuss both the player that was drafted and some players taken later in the draft that saw some success at the major league level to determine whether or not the picks were successful for the Rockies, somebody else, or not anybody at all.

Without further ado, let’s dive into O’Dowd’s first draft as the Rockies general manager.

In 2000, it was O’Dowd’s first draft as the general manager of the Rockies. His first, first round draft pick was not one to write home about.

For the Rockies that year, they had the 7th overall pick. They decided to go with Matt Harrington with that pick.

Who? What? Exactly.

He was a right-handed pitcher coming out of high school, Palmdale High School in Palmdale, California to be exact. The righty would not even sign with the Rockies as he and his agent wanted $4.95 million to sign, which was more than 25 percent higher than what Josh Hamilton, who was the 1st overall pick in 1999, received.

The Rockies went as high as the $4.9 million but had stipulations. According to ESPN, the offer was no longer a bonus but instead a salary to be spread out over eight years, plus Harrington had to forgo three years of arbitration on their offer. They never came close to a deal and later, Harrington’s agent, Tommy Tanzer, accused the Rockies of backing out of a pre-draft agreement that would have given Harrington the $4.95 million signing bonus.

Harrington would later fire (and sue) Tanzer. He also would be drafted four more times by other teams and never signed. Again, according to ESPN, as of 2009, he was working at the tire department in Costco for $11.50 an hour.

Notable 1st round picks after Harrington in the draft

All stats are entering Wednesday, May 22nd. If the player has played in the majors in 2018 or on the disabled list, they are indicated by an asterisk (*)

Chase Utley*: second baseman, 15th overall pick, 16 year MLB career, 65.7 WAR, 1891 career games, 259 home runs, 1,025 RBI, .276/.359/.467 slash line, 5-time All-Star, 4-time Silver Slugger Award winner, ranked in MVP voting five times

Adam Wainwright*: right-handed pitcher, 29th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 38.1 WAR, 147-87 career record, 3.30 ERA, 121 ERA+, two-time NL wins leader, two-time NL starts leader, one-time NL leader in complete games, two-time NL shutout leader, two-time NL innings leader, three-time All Star, ranked in NL Cy Young Award voting four times (all in the top three), ranked in MVP voting four times, two-time Gold Glove Award winner

There were other notable major leaguers in the draft after Harrington. They include Grady Sizemore, Cliff Lee, Yadier Molina*, Brandon Webb, Edwin Encarnacion*, Mike Napoli*, Jose Bautista*, Jason Bay, Ian Kinsler* (who didn’t sign), Adam LaRoche, Brian Wilson, and Russell Martin*.

In 2001, the Rockies would have had the 18th overall pick but since they signed free agent Mike Hampton to a contract, they had to sacrifice that pick to the New York Mets.

However, they also had the 44th overall pick, which was the last pick of the first round. They got the pick as a result of not signing Matt Harrington in the 2000 draft. O’Dowd chose to go with infielder Jayson Nix. He played 466 games in parts of seven seasons with eight teams. Only 22 games of those games were for the Rockies (all in 2008). In his career, his WAR was 1.9.

Notable 2nd round picks in 2001

In the second round of the draft, there were some successful major leaguers.

J.J. Hardy: shortstop, 56th pick overall, 13 year MLB career, 28.4 WAR, two-time All Star, one-time Silver Slugger Winner, three-time Gold Glove winner

Dan Haren: right-handed pitcher, 72nd overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 35.0 WAR, three-time All Star, ranked in Cy Young Award voting twice, 153-131 record, 3.75 ERA, 109 ERA+

Other picks in later rounds include Ryan Howard, C.J. Wilson, *Jim Johnson, Edwin Jackson, *Rich Hill, Kevin Youkilis, Dan Uggla, Stephen Drew (who didn’t sign), Geovany Soto, and Jason Bartlett.

Dan O’Dowd and the Rockies had the ninth overall pick in the 2002 draft. They decided to go with a left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis. In his 11 year career, he had a 72-82 record with a 4.97 ERA (93 ERA+) and a 9.6 WAR.

While not great, his career year was in 2007 and was big reason why the Rockies made the World Series. He had an ERA of 2.13 in the NLDS and NLCS but he did not pitch well in the World Series.

Notable 1st round picks after Francis

There were plenty of first round picks after Francis that were successful in the major leagues.

Scott Kazmir: left-handed pitcher, 15th overall pick, 12 year MLB career, 22.8 WAR, 108-96 record, 4.01 ERA, 104 ERA+, three-time All Star

Nick Swisher: first baseman/outfielder, 16th overall pick, 12 year MLB career, 22.0 WAR, 245 home runs, 803 RBI, .249/.351/.447 slash line, one-time All Star.

Cole Hamels*: left-handed pitcher, 17th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 54.3 WAR, 150-106 record, 3.37 ERA, 124 ERA+, four-time All-Star, ranked four times in Cy Young Award voting, 2008 NLCS MVP, 2008 World Series MVP

Denard Span*: outfielder, 20th overall pick, 11 year MLB career, 25.2 WAR, .282/.348/.396 slash line, ranked in MVP voting once

Matt Cain: right-handed pitcher, 25th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 29.1 WAR, 104-118 record, 3.68 ERA, 108 ERA+, three-time All Star, ranked in NL Cy Young Award voting three times

Other notable draft picks in the second round or after include Joey Votto*, Jon Lester*, Brian McCann*, and Curtis Granderson*.

In 2003, Dan O’Dowd and the Rockies had 10th overall pick in the amateur draft. With that pick, they decided to draft third baseman Ian Stewart. He spent parts of seven seasons in the major leagues and played in 511 games, with 432 of them being with the Rockies.

However, he only had two seasons in which he played in more than 100 games. In his career, he had a slash line of .229/.315/.415 and his WAR was 3.0.

There were some players after that saw some success in the big leagues that followed Ian Stewart in the first round of the draft.

Aaron Hill: infielder, 13th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 23.7 WAR, 162 home runs, 695 RBI, .266/.323/.417, 96 OPS+, one-time All Star, ranked in MVP voting twice, two-time Silver Slugger Award winner

Chad Billingsley: right-handed pitcher, 24th overall pick, nine year MLB career, 83-64 record, 3.72 ERA, 108 ERA+, one-time All Star

Adam Jones*: outfielder (drafted as a shortstop and pitcher), 37th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 31.9 WAR, 259 home runs, 839 RBI, .277/.317/.460 slash line, 108 OPS+, five-time All Star, four-time Gold Glove Award winner, one-time Silver Slugger Award winners

Other players that were in the draft but were in later rounds were Andre Ethier, Jonathan Papelbon, Michael Bourn, Matt Kemp*, Tyler Clippard*, Ian Kennedy*, and Ian Kinsler*.

In 2004, the Colorado Rockies had the 9th overall pick in the draft. They decided to draft infielder Chris Nelson with that pick. He spent parts of five seasons in the major leagues as he played in 282 games, 212 of them with the Rockies. He only played in more than 64 games in a season once and in his career, he had a WAR of -2.4.

Here are some of the notable first round draft picks after Nelson.

Neil Walker*: second baseman (drafted as a catcher), 11th overall pick, 10 year MLB career, 20.2 WAR, 131 home runs, 535 RBI, .270/.340/.432, 112 OPS+, one-time Silver Slugger Award winner

Jered Weaver: right-handed pitcher, 12th overall pick, 12 year MLB career, 34.4 WAR, 150-98 record, 3.63 ERA, 111 ERA+, three-time All Star, ranked in AL Cy Young Award voting three times (including a second and third place), ranked in AL MVP voting once

Billy Butler: 1st baseman/outfielder, 14th overall pick, 10 year MLB career, 11.6 WAR, .290/.354/.441 slash line, 116 OPS+

Stephen Drew: infielder, 15th overall pick, 15th overall pick, 12 year MLB career, 17.1 WAR, 123 home runs, 524 RBI, .252/.318/.423, 94 OPS+, ranked in MVP voting once

Gio Gonzalez*: left-handed pitcher, 38th overall pick, 11 year MLB career, 27.1 WAR, 122-88 record, 3.60 ERA, 113 ERA+, two-time All Star, ranked in NL Cy Young Award voting twice, ranked in MVP voting once.

Huston Street: right-handed pitcher, 40th overall pick, 13 year MLB career, 2.95 ERA, 141 ERA+, 324 career saves, two time All Star, ranked in MVP voting twice, 2005 AL Rookie of the Year Award winner

There are a lot of successful MLB players who were in later rounds of the draft including Yovani Gallardo*, Hunter Pence*, Dustin Pedroia*, Jason Vargas*, current Rockie Wade Davis*, (much to the chagrin of Rockies fans) current Rockie Ian Desmond* (cue the boos), J.A. Happ*, current Rockie Chris Iannetta*, current Rockie Jake McGee* (lots of future Rockies), former Rockies Dexter Fowler* and Mark Reynolds*, Lorenzo Cain*, Mark Trumbo*, David Price*, current Rockie Mike Dunn*, Todd Frazier* (who the Rockies drafted but didn’t sign), Jake Arrieta* (who didn’t sign), and Chris Davis* (who didn’t sign).

In 2005, Dan O’Dowd and the Rockies, arguably, had their best first round draft pick. They decided to draft a shortstop from California State-Long Beach by the name of Troy Tulowitzki.

The Rockies also had the 32nd overall pick as compensation for losing Vinny Castilla to free agency. The decided to draft Chaz Roe with that pick. He has spent parts of six seasons in the majors as a reliever (125 games) but none of them were with the Rockies.

For Tulowitzki has been hampered by injuries for most of his MLB career but he still he has a career WAR of 44.1 in 12 seasons. He has 224 career home runs, 779 RBI, a .290/.361/.495 slash line, an OPS+ of 118, ranked in MVP voting six times, a two-time recipient of the Gold Glove Award as well as a two-time recipient of the Silver Slugger Award, and a five-time All Star.

However, there were also some pretty good future MLB players in the first round of draft as well.

Andrew McCutchen*: outfielder, 11th overall pick, 10 MLB seasons, 206 home runs, 744 RBI, .289/.378/.484, 135 OPS+, five time All Star, four time Silver Slugger Award winner, one time Gold Glove Award winner, ranked four times in NL MVP voting including winning it in 2013

Jacoby Ellsbury*: outfielder, 23rd overall pick, 11 MLB seasons, 104 home runs, 512 RBI, .284/.362/.417, 103 OPS+, one time All Star, one time Gold Glove Award winner, one time Silver Slugger Award winner, ranked in MVP voting twice including coming in second in 2011.

Other notable players that came in the draft include Brett Gardner*, Michael Brantley*, and Jake Arrieta* (but he didn’t sign).

The only player that really rivals Tulo, though, is Andrew McCutchen. That’s why, last night, we put this poll out there on Twitter.

Overwhelmingly, you voted for Player A, which was Troy Tulowitzki. Player B was Andrew McCutchen.

In 2006, Dan O’Dowd and the Colorado Rockies made a big mistake in their first round draft pick. They had the second overall pick and they chose Greg Reynolds. In parts of three seasons, he went 6-11 with a 7.01 ERA (64 ERA+).

Just take a look at some of the other first round picks that followed him.

Evan Longoria*: third baseman, 3rd overall pick, 11 MLB seasons, 50.4 WAR, 269 home runs, 915 RBI, .269/.339/.482, 125 OPS+, three time All Star, ranked in MVP voting six times, three time Gold Glove Award winner, one time Silver Slugger Award winner, 2008 AL Rookie of the Year Award winner

Andrew Miller*: left-handed pitcher, 6th overall pick, 13 MLB seasons, 8.6 WAR (12.5 WAR since 2012), 3.96 ERA (2.04 since 2012), two time All Star, ranked in Cy Young voting twice

Clayton Kershaw*: I think you already know how great Kershaw is but let’s put it in perspective. 11 seasons, 145-68 and these following stats are the best among active pitchers who qualify in innings: 2.37 ERA, 160 ERA+, 2.62 FIP, 15 shutouts, 1.005 WHIP, 6.7 hits allowed per nine innings,and 0.6 home runs allowed per nine innings. He has won one Gold Glove award, a seven-time All Star, ranked in NL Cy Young voting seven times including winning it 3 times and being in the top five all seven times, and ranked in NL MVP voting six times including winning it in 2014.

Tim Lincecum: 10 year career, four-time All Star, 2-time Cy Young Award winner, ranked in Cy Young voting twice more.

Max Scherzer*: five time All Star, three time Cy Young Award winner, ranked in the top five in Cy Young twice more

Ian Kennedy*: 12 year MLB career, ranked in Cy Young and MVP voting once

Chris Perez: 7 MLB seasons, 133 saves, two-time All Star

Others in later rounds include Justin Masterson, Zach Britton*, Chris Davis*, Jeff Samardzija*, Chris Archer*, Mark Melancon*, Josh Reddick*, J.D. Martinez* (but he didn’t sign), and Paul Goldschmidt* (but he didn’t sign).

In 2007, the Rockies had another dud for their first round draft pick. They chose Casey Weathers for their pick, which was the 8th overall pick. He never made it to the major leagues but before the 2012 season, he proved to be a trade piece for O’Dowd as he and Ian Stewart got the Rockies DJ LeMahieu and Tyler Colvin.

There were a lot of first rounders that were much more successful than Weathers.

Madison Bumgarner: 10th overall pick, four time All Star, ranked in NL Cy Young Award voting five times (including three times in the top six), 2014 NLCS MVP, 2014 World Series MVP, 2.11 ERA in 16 appearances in the postseason.

Jason Heyward: one time All Star, five time Gold Glove Award winner, ranked in NL MVP voting three times

Rick Porcello: 2016 AL Cy Young Award Winner

Todd Frazier (who they drafted in 2004 but didn’t sign): two-time All Star

Josh Donaldson: three-time All Star, two-time Silver Slugger Award winner, ranked in AL MVP voting five times (including winning it in 2015)

Other notable players in later rounds of the draft include Giancarlo Stanton, Corey Kluber, Jordan Zimmermann, Freddie Freeman, former Rockie Jonathan Lucroy, Danny Duffy, Jake Arrieta, Anthony Rizzo, Greg Holland, Brandon Belt, Chris Sale (who was drafted by the Rockies but he did not sign), and Craig Kimbrel.

The Rockies had the 25th overall pick in 2008 after getting to the World Series in 2007 and they decided to draft left-hander Christian Friedrich with that. He has a 10-28 record in parts of 4 seasons in the majors, 3 of which were with the Rockies, with a 5.37 ERA.

The draft ended up being one that was not that great as only three players from the first round have a career WAR of 15.0 or higher. They are Buster Posey (39.8 WAR), Eric Hosmer (15.6 WAR), and Brett Lawrie (15.1 WAR).

There are three notable MLB players who followed Friedrich in the first round.

Gerrit Cole: 28th overall pick, one time All Star, came in 4th in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 2015 as well as ranking in NL MVP voting in 2015

Lance Lynn: 2012 National League All Star

And, of course, the Rockies GOAT Jordan Lyles (sorry, I had to)

There were a lot of successful MLB players that came in the later rounds of the draft including current Rockies Charlie Blackmon and Bryan Shaw, Brad Hand, Tyson Ross, former Rockie Tyler Chatwood, Craig Kimbrel, Brandon Crawford, Dee Gordon, Jason Kipnis, Josh Harrison, Kolten Wong, current Rockie Chris Rusin, and George Springer.

2010 is the year where some of the picks have the jury out on them. However, the jury is not out on the Rockies first round picks in 2010 as they came up empty on two picks in the first round of the 2010 draft. With the 26th pick overall, they chose Kyle Parker, who went on to have a -1.6 WAR career in 64 games with the Rockies between two seasons. The 47th overall pick was Peter Tago, who never got above Double-A.

Notable first rounders after Parker include:

Aaron Sanchez: 34th overall pick, 2016 All Star, came in 7th in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2016

Noah Syndergaard: parts of four seasons (only one of more than 24 starts), 2016 All Star, 8th in NL Cy Young Award voting, 19th in NL MVP voting in 2016

Other picks later in the draft include Chad Bettis (in the 2nd round by the Rockies), Addison Reed, JT Realmuto, James Paxton, Corey Dickerson (who the Rockies drafted for the second straight year but signed him this time), Jacob deGrom, Robbie Ray, Cody Allen, Evan Gattis, Aaron Judge (but he didn’t sign), and Kevin Kiermaier.

The Rockies draft picks started to become a bit more successful starting in the 2011 season. In 2011, they had two first round picks, the 20th overall and the 45th overall (the second of which was compensation for losing reliever Octavio Dotel via free agency).

The Rockies chose left-handed pitcher Tyler Anderson and shortstop Trevor Story for those two spots and, obviously, both are key pieces for the Rockies now as Anderson is one of the Rockies starters and Story is the Rockies shortstop.

Some of the other players following Anderson in the first round include:

Joe Panik: 29th overall, 2015 MLB All Star

Jackie Bradley Jr.: 40th overall, 2016 All Star

Michael Fulmer: 44th overall pick, 2016 AL Rookie of the Year, 10th in the AL Cy Young Award voting in 2016, 2017 All Star

Others that came in later rounds include Mookie Betts (who, by WAR, is the most successful player in the draft at 28.1. He also has two All Star appearances, ranked in MVP voting twice including a second place finish in 2016, one Silver Slugger Award, and two Gold Glove Awards) , Ken Giles, Travis Shaw, Cody Allen (for the second time, both by the Cleveland Indians).

In 2012, the Rockies also had two picks in the first round of the draft. They had the 10th overall pick and the 46th overall pick.

With the 10th overall pick, the Rockies took outfielder David Dahl out of high school. For the 46th pick, they decided to go with right-handed pitcher Eddie Butler from Radford University. The jury is still out on Dahl as he has played less than 90 games at the major league level. He obviously has a bright future and in the near future, he could have a chance to really prove himself as he could become one of the Rockies everyday outfielders. Eddie Butler has moved on from the Rockies and he did not work out for the Rockies.

Notable players after Dahl in the first round include:

Addison Russell: 11th overall pick, 2016 All Star, came in 19th in the NL MVP voting in 2016

Corey Seager: 18th overall pick, two time All Star, two time Silver Slugger Award winner, 2016 NL Rookie of the Year Award winner, ranked in NL MVP voting twice (including a third place finish in 2016).

Marcus Stroman: 22nd overall pick, came in 8th in 2017 AL Cy Young Award vote, one time Gold Glove Award winner

Lance McCullers Jr.: 41st overall pick, 2017 All Star

After the first round, there really haven’t been many successful players yet in the majors.

In 2013, Dan O’Dowd and the Rockies only had one first round draft pick. However, it was a much higher draft pick than most before as they had the 3rd overall pick. They decided to draft a right-handed pitcher from the University of Oklahoma by the name of Jon Gray.

By WAR of players in the first round of the draft, Gray is the fourth highest at 5.5. Ahead of him are Chicago Cubs third baseman and outfielder Kris Bryant, who went just ahead of Gray and the Rockies with the second overall pick and has a WAR of 21.8, Aaron Judge, who went 32nd overall with a 9.9 WAR, and Sean Manaea, who went 34th overall and has a WAR of 6.5.

Obviously, the jury is still out on Jon Gray as well but considering that he is the Rockies ace and they went to the playoffs last year and, as of the publication of this article, are in first place in the NL West, he’s doing fairly well especially considering that he is only 26 years old.

Other notable players in the first round include infielder Tim Anderson, reliever Corey Knebel, current Rockie Ryan McMahon (who’s currently in Triple-A Albuquerque), and Dodgers first baseman and outfielder Cody Bellinger.

The 2014 draft was the final draft for Dan O’Dowd as general manager of the Rockies and, like most of the first round picks thus far, it was a mixed bag.

They had two picks in the first round, the 8th overall pick and the 35th overall pick. For the 8th overall pick, they decided to go with a local kid by the name of Kyle Freeland.

Freeland is only in his second season at the major league level so it remains to be seen on whether or not he will pan out but so far, he has done well and he has been a key cog in the Rockies starting rotation in both 2017 and 2018.

The other pick was a second baseman by the name of Forrest Wall. Wall is still in the Rockies organization as he is playing at Advanced-A Lancaster and playing well. He is only 22 years old so he still has plenty of time to develop. Also, he was injured for most of last season as he only played in 22 games before being out for the rest of the season. He is hitting .315/.397/.473 in Lancaster in 2018 so far so he could prove that he is ready for Double-A Hartford.

Some of the other notable players after Freeland in draft include:

Michael Conforto: 10th overall pick, 2017 All Star

Trea Turner: 13th overall pick, came 2nd in NL Rookie of the Year voting in 2016

Brandon Finnegan: 17th overall pick, best known for having the rare accomplishment of pitching in the College World Series and in the World Series in the same year (2014).

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Obviously, with a tenure as long as O’Dowd’s was with the Colorado Rockies, you’re going to make some mistakes. Also, hindsight is always 20/20. Some of the most successful picks that O’Dowd had (and the Rockies, in general) had were not in the first round at all.

If you look at the top players in Rockies history (by WAR in a Rockies uniform), many of them were not drafted in the first round and/or not drafted by the Rockies.

1. Todd Helton, 61.2 WAR, 8th overall pick in the 1995 draft by the Rockies
2. Larry Walker, 48.3 WAR, international free agent signing in 1985 (because Canadians were not eligible for the MLB draft at the time)
3. Troy Tulowitzki, 39.4 WAR, 7th overall pick in the 2005 draft by the Rockies (as we discussed earlier)
4. Nolan Arenado, 29.1 WAR, 59th overall pick (2nd round) in the 2009 draft by the Rockies
5. Carlos Gonzalez, 22.7 WAR, international free agent signing in 2002 by the Arizona Diamondbacks
6. Matt Holliday, 18.5 WAR, 210th pick overall (7th round) in the 1998 draft by the Rockies
7. Ubaldo Jimenez, 18.4 WAR, international free agent signing in 2002 by the Rockies
8. Vinny Castilla, 17.5 WAR, contract purchased by the Atlanta Braves from the Mexican League in 1990
9. Aaron Cook, 17.1 WAR, 70th overall pick (2nd round) in the 1997 draft by the Rockies
10. DJ LeMahieu, 15.9 WAR, 79th overall pick (2nd round) in the 2009 draft by the Chicago Cubs
11. Charlie Blackmon, 15.3 WAR, 72nd overall pick (2nd round) in the 2008 draft by the Rockies
12. Jhoulys Chacin, 14.9 WAR, international free agent signing in 2004 by the Rockies

Next: A look back at some of the trades from the Dan O'Dowd era

As you can see, the first round is not the be all, end all of drafting. However, if you (or Dan O’Dowd himself) could go back in time to change some of those picks, the Rockies would look like a lot different team.