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The tragic story that doomed the Colorado Rockies 1994 Draft class

By Noah Yingling

7 Mar 1999: Infielder Nomar Garciaparra #5 of the Boston Red Sox smiles as he stands on the field during the Spring Training game against the Texas Rangers at the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Florida. The Red Sox defeated the Rangers 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport
7 Mar 1999: Infielder Nomar Garciaparra #5 of the Boston Red Sox smiles as he stands on the field during the Spring Training game against the Texas Rangers at the City of Palms Park in Fort Myers, Florida. The Red Sox defeated the Rangers 7-6. Mandatory Credit: Brian Bahr /Allsport /
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Colorado Rockies, Javier Vazquez, Montreal Expos
MILWAUKEE, WI – APRIL 2001: Javier Vazquez #23 of the Montreal Expos pitching against the Milwaukee Brewers in April 2001 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. (Photo by Ronald C. Modra/Getty Images) /

With their second pick of the 1994 draft (their fifth round pick), the Colorado Rockies drafted a left-handed pitcher by the name of John Slamka.

Slamka never got above Single-A and was out of baseball by 1998. Later in the round, the Montreal Expos drafted a pitcher by the name of Javier Vázquez.

Vázquez pitched in the majors for 14 seasons with an All-Star appearance and a 4th place finish in the NL Cy Young Award voting in 2009. He had a career rWAR of 45.6.

Overall for the Colorado Rockies, they only had four of their 56 draft picks made it to the majors. Only two played for the Rockies, none of them played for the Rockies for more than a season, and none of them had an rWAR above 0.0 in their career.

Some of the best players to be drafted in the 6th round of the 1994 draft or later include:

  • Russell Branyan, Cleveland
  • Future Colorado Rockies infielder Ronnie Belliard, Milwaukee
  • Keith Foulke, San Francisco
  • Jose Rosado, Kansas City
  • Scott Downs, Montreal
  • Carl Pavano, Boston
  • Placido Polanco, St. Louis
  • J.D. Drew, San Francisco (didn’t sign)
  • Eric Gagne, White Sox (didn’t sign)
  • Tim Hudson, Oakland (didn’t sign)

Overall, through tragedy and lack of development, it was not a great draft for the Colorado Rockies in 1994.

Scott Rolen could have been with the Rockies. dark. Next

However, things changed for them in 1995 as they had a very good draft because of one player … but they still could have had an even better draft if not for a few different picks in the draft.

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