Colorado Rockies: Top Five Center Fielders in Franchise History

We continue our countdown of the top five Colorado Rockies at each position by continuing on with center fielders.

The Colorado Rockies have not had many center fielders stick around for many seasons. In fact, they have only had two players be the “primary” center fielder for more than two seasons, meaning that they played the most games there.

For this list, we are just considering the player’s time as a Rockie. For some of them, they played multiple outfield positions in their tenure so they will be eligible for all the positions. We also consulted Baseball-Reference and FanGraphs for their WAR numbers on players. While it is a good barometer for evaluating players, it is not the be-all, end-all for the rankings. You can check out some of those other lists here.

Let’s check out the top five Colorado Rockies center fielders in franchise history.

Number 5- Mike Kingery (1.5 bWAR, 1.4 fWAR, two seasons as a Rockie)

Mike Kingery was the Rockies’ primary center fielder in 1994 and in 1995. He had previously played for the Giants, Mariners, and A’s in the majors but he came to the Rockies after the 1993 season in which he played exclusively in Triple-A for the Royals.

His magnificent 1994 season at the plate is the primary reason that he is on this list. In 1994, he hit .349/.402/.532 with an OPS+ of 126 in the strike=shortened season. He also had a WAR of 1.5 in that season.

He was around replacement level for the playoff-bound Rockies in 1995 as his batting average dropped 80 points and his OPS dropped more than 170 points as well.

Recently, Rox Pile’s Kevin Henry caught up with Kingery and talked with him about his career and what’s he’s doing now.

Number 4- Ellis Burks (12.0 bWAR, 11.0 fWAR, parts of five seasons as a Rockie)

By overall WAR, Burks would be higher on this list but he got about two-thirds of that in one season and, largely, in left field.

In the other four seasons as a Rockie, he played about two-thirds of his games in center field. In those four seasons, he amassed a 4.1 bWAR/3.8 fWAR, which is why he’s at number four in our rankings.

Number 3- Juan Pierre (4.1 bWAR, 3.7 fWAR, parts of three seasons as a Rockie)

Juan Pierre is best known for his time with the then-named Florida Marlins but he started out his career as a Rockie. He played in part of three seasons (two full) and he hit .308/.356/.371 with an OPS+ of 71. That OPS+ is low due to his lack of power, as he only had 3 home runs in 359 games.

In his first full season as a Rockie (2001), he led the NL in stolen bases with 46 and he was also second in the NL in hits with 202.

The Rockies traded him along with Mike Hampton and cash for reliever Vic Darensbourg, catcher Charles Johnson, infielder Pablo Ozuna, and outfielder Preston Wilson before the 2003 season.