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The Colorado Rockies history of having the 8th overall draft pick

By Noah Yingling

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 22: Kyle Freeland #21 of the Colorado Rockies pitches in the bottom of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on September 22, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images)
SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - SEPTEMBER 22: Kyle Freeland #21 of the Colorado Rockies pitches in the bottom of the first inning against the San Francisco Giants at Oracle Park on September 22, 2020 in San Francisco, California. (Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /
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MLB confirmed on Monday that the Colorado Rockies will have the 8th overall pick in the 2021 draft and the Rockies have a history of drafting there.

On Monday, it was confirmed that the Colorado Rockies will have the 8th overall pick in the 2021 MLB Amateur Draft. The draft order is completely based on team’s 2020 regular-season record. Considering that the 2020 season was the shortest in MLB history, combined records in 2019 and 2020 was also under consideration.

The Pittsburgh Pirates, who wen 19-41 in the regular season in 2020, will have the first overall pick in the draft.

For the Rockies, it will be the fourth time in their franchise history that they have had the 8th overall pick. In the previous three 8th overall draft picks, the Rockies did well with two of the picks and struck out on one of them.

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The one they struck out on was in 2007 when they drafted right-handed pitcher Casey Weathers out of Vanderbilt. He never made it to the major leagues and, just two picks later, the Giants drafted Madison Bumgarner. However, the Rockies traded Weathers to the Cubs after the 2011 season for DJ LeMahieu so it’s still not a bad move for the Rockies.

The most recent time that the Rockies had the 8th overall draft pick, they drafted a local product by the name of Kyle Freeland. Freeland was drafted in the 2014 draft out of the University of Evansville but he was born and raised in the Denver area.

The first time the Rockies had the 8th overall pick was all the way back in 1995. They decided to draft a player who was a pitcher, first baseman, and outfielder out of the University of Tennessee. His name was Todd Helton.

Helton is the Rockies all-time leader in games, hits, home runs, RBI, doubles, and walks. He also had a career slash line of .316/.414/.539 and he was an All-Star five times, a Silver Slugger winner four times, a Gold Glove Award winner three times, and a batting title.

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In 2021, the draft will look a bit different than usual as it will be held in Atlanta, Georgia as a part of the All-Star Game festivities in July. Due to the pandemic, the draft was cut down from 40 rounds to just five rounds but in 2021, it will be a minimum of 20 rounds.

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