Scott Rolen could have been a member of the Colorado Rockies

Yesterday, we started our series looking back on the Colorado Rockies and their draft history of who could have been members of the Rockies in 1992.

Drafts are crucial for teams and especially smaller revenue teams, like the Colorado Rockies, who are rarely big players on the free agent market. Today, we continue with a look at the 1993 draft and how things could have been different for the Colorado Rockies.

The Rockies were in their first year of playing games in 1993 so without a previous history of playing games before the draft order was set, the Florida Marlins and the Rockies had the picks right after the 26 teams that played in 1992. In 1992, the Rockies had the 27th pick so in 1993, the Marlins got the 27th pick and the Rockies the 28th pick.

The 1993 draft was one of the very rare drafts in MLB history that actually saw the best MLB player of the draft go #1 overall. Alex Rodríguez was drafted by the Seattle Mariners with the number one overall pick and by the next year, he was in the majors.

He accumulated a 117.5 rWAR career and, if not for his positive steroid tests much later in his career with the New York Yankees, he would be a sure-fire Hall of Famer, making him only the second first-overall pick to become a Hall of Famer. The other was Rodriguez’s teammate in Seattle: Ken Griffey, Jr.

Other than Alex Rodríguez, there were some other good players that the Colorado Rockies could have drafted Scott Rolen.

Before the Colorado Rockies made their selection in the 1993 draft, there were other future All-Stars like Billy Wagner, Derrek Lee, Chris Carpenter, Torii Hunter, and Jason Varitek, that were drafted in the first round but the MLB success of the players by the 21st pick (Varitek) started to wane. But by far the most successful player in the draft after Alex Rodríguez was Scott Rolen.

Let’s look at some of the players that the Rockies chose and who else could have been a Colorado Rockie.

Scott Rolen could have been a member of the Colorado Rockies

With the fourth pick of the second round, the Philadelphia Phillies selected Scott Rolen out of high school in Indiana. As with most teams, he would have been good on the Colorado Rockies.

But in the years that Rolen blossomed with the Phillies and, later, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Colorado Rockies had Vinny Castilla at third base.

When Rolen was drafted, Castilla was a shortstop but he was struggling at the position both offensively and defensively. That’s why in the 1993-1994 offseason, the Rockies signed Walt Weiss as a free agent.

Rolen made his debut in 1996 but won the NL Rookie of the Year Award in 1997 when Castilla was firmly cemented at third base, where he flourished, and Weiss was entering his final season as a Rockie but neither are future Hall of Famers when Rolen could be.

Castilla and Weiss combined for an rWAR of 35.9 and Rolen had an rWAR of nearly double that (70.1).

Later in the second round, the Rockies took a right-handed starting pitcher out of Bradley University in Bryan Rekar. Rekar got to the majors quickly as he made his debut in 1995 and he made 15 appearances (14 starts) but he didn’t have a great career overall (1.9 rWAR in parts of eight seasons).

But considering the picks following Rekar with the three remaining second round picks and most of the third round picks, it was not as bad of a pick as you may think.

The rest of the 1993 MLB draft was not particularly great either, for the Colorado Rockies or otherwise

Despite Bryan Rekar not having a great career with the Colorado Rockies or otherwise, the later picks in the second round and in the third round were not great MLB players either.

None of the second round picks after Rekar made it to the majors and in the third round, only two had at least 1.0 rWAR in their career: pitcher Matt Clement and catcher Eli Marrero.

The Rockies had the last pick in the third round and, like with Rekar, they selected right-handed pitcher out of Bradley University: Joel Moore. Moore got up to Triple-A with the Rockies but never got to the majors and was out of baseball by 2000.

In the fourth round, there were also only two MLB players with an rWAR above 1.0: pitcher Billy Koch and shortstop Jason McDonald. Koch was the Reliever of the Year in 2002 for the Moneyball Oakland A’s and McDonald played for the A’s in the late 90s but neither lasted long in the majors as Koch last appeared in the majors in 2004 and McDonald in 2000.

The Rockies selected pitcher Doug Walls out of community college in Florida. He made it to Double-A with the Rockies and Triple-A with Detroit but never to the majors and was out of affiliated ball by 2001.

The Colorado Rockies did have one more good draft pick in the 7th round.

The fifth round was even worse as not a single player in the round had a positive rWAR career. The major leaguer who appeared in more than 40 games was catcher Paul Bako, who was a backup catcher in the majors for parts of 12 seasons with a -1.2 rWAR. The Colorado Rockies had the last pick in the fourth round and selected Mike Zolecki.

Zolecki was out of St. Mary’s University in San Antonio, Texas and he never got above Double-A and was out of baseball after the 1998 season.

From the sixth round on, there weren’t a ton of great major leaguers that came in the draft but they included:

• Mark Loretta, 7th round, Milwaukee
• John Thomson, 7th round, Colorado
• R.A. Dickey, 10th round, Detroit (didn’t sign)
• Jermaine Dye, 17th round, Atlanta
• Richie Sexson, 24th round, Cleveland
• Paul Lo Duca, 25th round, Dodgers

Thomson was the Rockies best overall pick of the ’93 draft over his whole career (12.3 rWAR). He had 7.9 of that rWAR with the Rockies but he struggled with some injuries in his career, including with the Rockies, that hampered his potential.

But for the Rockies, the best player that they could have chosen, by far, was Scott Rolen, if they decided to move him up 18 picks from where the Phillies ended up taking him.

Next, we will take a look at the 1994 Draft and who could have been members of the Colorado Rockies.