Colorado Rockies fantasy draft: Five different all-franchise teams

Noah Yingling’s team

Catcher – Charles Johnson

First Base – Todd Helton

Second Base – DJ LeMahieu

Third Base – Jeff Cirillo

Shortstop – Trevor Story

Left Field – Dante Bichette

Center Fielder – Juan Pierre

Right Field – Michael Cuddyer

Bench – Tony Wolters, Denny Hocking, Todd Zeile, John Vander Wal, Ron Gant

Starting Pitcher – Aaron Cook

Starting Pitcher – Jorge De La Rosa

Starting Pitcher – German Marquez

Starting Pitcher – Jason Jennings

Starting Pitcher – John Thomson

Reliever – Adam Ottavino

Reliever – Rafael Betancourt

Reliever – Jerry DiPoto

Reliever – Scott Oberg

Reliever – Jose Jimenez

Reliever – Darren Holmes

Reliever – Chuck McElroy

Reliever – Chris Rusin

With only being able to have two players at the top of each position, I took Todd Helton and DJ LeMahieu as my #1 picks. Admittedly, I don’t have a ton of power in my starting lineup but what the lineup lacks in power, they have in on-base abilities.

If you just consider their Rockies career, the lowest OBP comes from Charles Johnson, who had a .334 OBP as a Rockie. The average OBP for the starting eight is .361, which is very. Helton, Story, and Bichette have the most power on the team and would likely be the 3,4, and 5 hitters (or 4, 5, 6) if it was an actual lineup with Pierre and LeMahieu at the top. Pierre and Story would be the fastest players on the team and LeMahieu, Helton, and Story would be the best defenders.

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For my bench, I was looking for a mixture of versatility, contact, power, and pinch-hitting ability. Wolters can catch and play the middle infield spots. Zeile mainly plays third but could play first and be a third catcher in a pinch and he would provide some power.

Vander Wal is one of the best pinch-hitters of all-time and MLB Network’s Prime 9 agreed with me as they ranked him as one of the “prime 9” pinch-hitters in baseball history in 2011. He can play first base and the outfield spots.

Gant was best known for his time with the Braves but he was a good power bat. In a pinch, he can also play in the infield, as he did early in his career. Hocking is not a good hitter and an average fielder but he played every single position but pitcher and catcher in his career (at least 153 innings at all of them, as well).

The starting rotation wouldn’t win dozens of Cy Young Awards in their careers but for a Colorado team, it’s a serviceable rotation with Marquez likely being the ace. I think the bullpen would actually be a strength on paper as a number of those guys have the ability to be closer. With all being at their best, I would have Ottavino close, though.