Colorado Rockies draft history: Who could have been Rockies in 1992?

The Colorado Rockies didn’t do well with their 1992 first round draft pick.

In the first round of the 1992 Draft, the Colorado Rockies had not played an MLB game yet so they got the 27th pick in the draft (the first pick after the 26 MLB teams at the time).

Drafted ahead of the 27th pick was future Hall of Famer Derek Jeter (6th overall), three-time All-Star catcher Jason Kendall, and 14-year MLB outfielder Shannon Stewart.

With the 27th overall pick, the Rockies decided to draft a local product in right-handed pitcher John Burke. Burke, who graduated from Cherry Creek High School in the Denver suburb of Greenwood Village, was pitching at the University of Florida.

Burke signed for a $336,000 bonus and got to the majors in 1996 but was out of baseball by 1999. He only appeared in 28 games (nine starts) at the MLB level between ’96 and ’97 (all with the Rockies) and he had a 6.75 ERA and a -0.5 rWAR. Not the best pick by the Rockies.

Despite being drafted 27th in the round, there were some other good MLB players drafted after Burke that could have been Rockies. The player drafted with the next pick after Burke was catcher Charles Johnson by the Florida Marlins.

Johnson was a two-time All-Star and won four Gold Gloves in his 12 year MLB career with a career 22.6 rWAR. He also eventually played for the Rockies in 2003 and 2004. He had a signing bonus of $575,000, though, which was nearly a quarter-million more than Burke.

With the 35th overall pick in 1992, the Royals drafted an outfielder by the name of Johnny Damon. Damon played parts of 18 seasons in the majors, making the All-Star team twice, getting MVP votes four times, and he compiled an rWAR of 56.3.

The Colorado Rockies didn’t do well with their 1992 second round draft pick either.

In the second round, the Colorado Rockies drafted pitcher Mark Thompson out of the University of Kentucky. He pitched in parts of seven seasons in the majors (five with the Rockies) but in 94 games (52 starts), he had a 5.74 ERA and a 0.0 rWAR.

He was drafted after future Colorado Rockies first basemen Todd Helton (drafted by the Padres) and Jason Giambi (drafted by Oakland). The Rockies, realistically, could have drafted one of them in the first round. Helton didn’t sign with the Padres but last July, we examined the possibility of him being a member of the Padres.

In the third round of the draft, the Rockies drafted pitcher Roger Bailey. Bailey pitched in parts of three seasons in the majors (all with the Rockies) but of all of the third round picks, his 5.2 rWAR was the highest.

The Rockies drafted a pitcher (notice the trend?) by the name of Lloyd Peever in the fourth round. Peever never made it to the majors but nobody in that round had an rWAR above 0.3 in their career.

In the fifth round, the Rockies drafted third baseman Ryan Freeburg, their first position player of the draft but he never got above Advanced-A ball. The best MLB player by rWAR in that round was backup MLB catcher Doug Mirabelli, who is best known to be the personal catcher for Tim Wakefield in Boston because of his knuckleball.

The Colorado Rockies best draft pick in 1992 was a late pick who barely played with them.

In the 6th round, the Colorado Rockies drafted a catcher by the name of Will Scalzitti, who got up to Triple-A for one solitary plate appearance and never to the majors.

The best MLB player to come out of the round was future second baseman Jose Vidro (three-time All-Star, 17.4 rWAR), who was drafted by Montreal.

The Rockies best draft pick (by rWAR) was Craig Counsell, who was drafted in the 11th round of the draft. His 22.4 rWAR towers in comparison to the next highest draft pick (Roger Bailey at 5.2 rWAR). But Counsell only had two plate appearances with the Rockies at the MLB level.

Some of the other future MLB players drafted in the 7th round or later in the 1992 draft included:

• Frank Catalanotto, 10th round, Detroit
• Casey Blake, 11th round, Philadelphia (didn’t sign)
• Darin Erstad, 13th round, Mets (didn’t sign)
• Future Colorado Rockies reliever Mike DeJean, 24th round, Yankees
• Raúl Ibañez, 36th round, Seattle
• Jermaine Dye, 43rd round, Texas (didn’t sign)
• Mike Lowell, 48th round, White Sox (didn’t sign)

Especially at the beginning of the draft, the Colorado Rockies could have looked very different if they drafted Charles Johnson, Johnny Damon, Todd Helton, or Jason Giambi.

Three of the four ended up playing for the Rockies but what if Johnson was with the Rockies for the better part of a decade, rather than two years? Instead of being second on our list of the five Rockies catchers, he easily could be the best.

If they drafted Damon, would the Rockies have traded him? By the time he made his debut in 1995, the Rockies had an outfield of Ellis Burks, Dante Bichette, and Larry Walker. Would they have even signed Larry Walker on the free agent market prior to 1995?

That’s something that we will never know but if drafting Johnny Damon means losing Larry Walker, that’s something that all Rockies fans would probably agree that while it would been nice to have Damon in the mid- to late-2000s, it wouldn’t have been worth sacrificing Walker and his eventual Hall of Fame career at the corner of 20th and Blake.