Top 5 players to play for the Colorado Rockies and Oakland Athletics

5. Seth Smith

The Colorado Rockies drafted Seth Smith in the second round of the 2004 MLB Draft. He made his debut in 2007 and only recorded eight plate appearances with the team that year, during the regular season.

Throughout his career, Seth Smith was built for playoff baseball. While coming off the bench in 2007, Smith hit .500 as he came in at critical moments and performed. He tripled and scored in Game 163 against the Padres (you know, the one where the next guy on this list touched home plate). In game two of the NLDS, he singled and then was batted in by Kazuo Matsui’s Grand Slam. In game four of the NLCS,

Smith opened up the scoring with a two-run double when the Rockies were down 1-0 in the 4th inning. Even in the World Series, Smith went 1 for 2 in the series despite the Colorado Rockies being swept. The Rockies named Smith starter in 2009 and also performed well in the NLDS that year, getting on base twice, though sadly never getting sent all the way around.

Smith joined Oakland from 2012 to 2013 and helped propel the A’s to their first playoff appearances since 2006. His regular-season statistics were not great with the team on either side of the ball, but yet again, Smith could make some playoff magic. In 2012, Smith hit a solo HR in game 3 in a game the A’s would win 2-0 and hit a 2 run double in the bottom of the 9th inning that helped force a game 5. Smith was never fantastic for either team, but his Postseason heroics are burned into the minds of fans of both franchises alike.

4. Matt Holliday

While Seth Smith may have had heroic moments in the 2007 postseason, Matt Holliday was the true hero of the Rockies’ ill-fated World Series run. The other crucial difference between him and Seth Smith is that Matt Holliday was phenomenal in the regular season. In his time with the Rockies, Holliday was a 3-time All-Star, 3-time Silver Slugger, a batting champion, NL MVP runner-up, and the 2007 NLCS MVP.

Holliday is on several all-time Rockies’ lists, but this list is not only about the Colorado Rockies, so what did he do for the Oakland Athletics? Well, not much. His trade to the A’s and then subsequent trade from the, are a fascinating set of miscues that I would kick myself for days without going over.

The initial trade for by the A’s during the 2009 offseason seemed ok, Huston Street and two prospects for Matt Holliday. Street would end up being a great pitcher for the Rockies and future All-Star, and one of the prospects ended up being one of the best Colorado Rockies of all-time, Carlos Gonzalez. Oakland struggled in the 2009 season, with only one year of control on Holliday, the A’s traded their shiny new star as a rental to the St. Louis Cardinals for three no-name prospects, all of whom would ultimately go nowhere.

Holliday would help propel the Cardinals into the playoffs in 2009 (along with five other seasons), win the World Series in 2011, earning four more All-Star appearances, and a final Silver Slugger. Carlos Gonzalez would earn three Gold Gloves, two Silver Sluggers, a Batting Title, finish 3rd in the 2010 MVP vote, and appear in 3 All-Star games with the Rockies. Huston Street would end up in two All-Star games.

In total, the Athletics ultimately brought in players with a career WAR of 0.3 and lost players with a monster career WAR of 85.2 netting a total -84.9 WAR. While they have earned not all of that WAR with one of the two franchises involved, it just shows the caliber of players they lost during that half a year, entirely in service of the one, the only, Matt Holliday.

3. Jason Giambi

MVP, MVP Runner-Up, All-Star, Silver Slugger, veteran presence for the Rockies in 2009, fan-favorite, one-and-done HOF ballot appearance, admitted cheater. All of these things describe Jason Giambi.

2. Walt Weiss

In 1988, Walt Weiss became the Oakland Athletics’ third Rookie of the Year in a row, following not-at-all-controversial figures Jose Canseco and Mark McGuire. Weiss never quite became the superstar that they did, but then again, he might not have had the same skill access that McGuire and Canseco did. Weiss was a Colorado Rockies and Oakland A’s starter for many seasons, seeing most of his time with the A’s, winning a World Series with the club in 1989. He was also a starter during the Rockies 1995 postseason team, though his offense never rose to the level that the Blake Street Bombers did.

The A’s took Weiss in the 1st round of the 1985 draft and would spend 8 years within the organization. After retirement, Weiss became Head Coach for the Rockies and kept the position from 2012 to 2016, some very tough rebuild years for the team. While his time with the Rockies and A’s never made him a superstar, he has definitely made his mark in the history of both franchises.

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1. Huston Street

In 2005. Huston Street became the Oakland Athletics’ second Rookie of the Year in a row, following Bobby Crosby, who underperformed the rest of his career. Huston Street, on the other hand, became an elite pitcher. Street posted great numbers his rookie season, with an ERA of 1.72.

Throughout the rest of his career, Street would only post an ERA above 3.90 once. He was the Athletics closer during their 2006 playoff run and the Rockies closer in the 2009 run. Despite how elite he was in the regular season, Street struggled in the playoffs for both the A’s and the Rockies.

He was responsible for the last loss in the Tigers series sweep of the A’s in 2006 and both of the Rockies’ final two losses in 2009, losing all games in the 9th inning. I do not want to dwell on these painful memories for long, but it is important to bring them up.

Huston Street had enough of a clutch gene to be an elite closer, but that gene seemed to run out in the playoffs. Either way, Street’s elite, All-Star-caliber performances easily earn him the top spot on this list.

Data for this article was found using Baseball-Reference and Wikipedia