Top 5 players to play for the Colorado Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates

2. Clint Barmes

Ok, full disclosure, Clint Barmes was my favorite Rockie as a kid. In short, he played catch with me once outside Coors Field in like 2008 or 2009 when I was around 10 years old, and I became a superfan afterward.

It takes all of my power to not put Clint Barmes at number one out of pure nostalgia and missing my grandfather, but I must try to stay objective. Barmes is another one of those stories of what could have been.

Drafted in 2000 in the 10th round by the Rockies, he was in the Rockies’ system through the 2010 season. Barmes made his debut in 2003 but didn’t get a starting chance until 2005. He rocked the baseball world that year and was favorite for Rookie of the Year until a bizarre injury while hunting with Todd Helton took him out for an extended period. He returned that season but was not the same player he was before. His stats fell hard, but the Rockies had faith in him.

The team relegated him to Triple-A for a majority of the historic 2007 season but was a starter in 2009. Clint Hurdle was so impressed with Barmes during his time with the Colorado Rockies that he actively recruited him to his Pirates team in 2012. While his performance was never great for the Pirates, he was a great veteran presence in the locker room that the fans seemed to love.

He was a leader on the 2013 Pirates that made it to the Division Series, and he performed well in the playoffs, but it wasn’t enough to beat the World Series-bound St. Louis Cardinals.