The tragic story that doomed the Colorado Rockies 1994 Draft class

In our Colorado Rockies draft series looking back on who they could have drafted, we’ve seen how the Rockies could have drafted Todd Helton three years earlier than they as well as Johnny Damon, or Jason Giambi in 1992, and yesterday, we examined how the Rockies could have drafted Scott Rolen and not the Philadelphia Phillies.

Today, we will check out the 1994 MLB Draft and what the Rockies did and or who they could have drafted. However, this year was a bit different in a few ways.

First of all, this was the first year where the Rockies weren’t at the bottom due to being placed there. In 1992, the 26 MLB teams that played in 1991 were placed in order from worst record to best (minus a few teams due to comp picks) for the top 26 spots. The two expansion teams (the Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins) had the 27th and 28th picks in the draft. In 1992, the Rockies had the 27th and the Marlins had the 28th and in 1993, since neither had played a game in 1992, the two teams flipped so the Marlins had the 27th pick and the Rockies the 28th pick.

In 1994, the Rockies had the 7th overall pick in the draft since they went 67-95 in their inaugural season.

However, due to a very sad story, numerous free agent signings, and the lack of development of nearly every prospect that they had, the Colorado Rockies did not have a good draft. In fact, not a single player that they drafted had a career rWAR above 0.0.

But let’s start at the beginning and the first round of the draft.