Colorado Rockies 1995 Draft: Todd Helton or a Hall of Fame pitcher?

The 1995 Draft was one of the better drafts in Colorado Rockies history. The team was coming off of a 53-64 season in 1994 that was shortened due to the 1994-1995 strike. The 1995 season was delayed until late April so teams only could play 144 games in 1995.

In 1995, the Rockies, who were playing in their first season at Coors Field, also went to the postseason as the NL Wild Card team, becoming the fastest expansion team to reach the playoffs (three seasons). That would be broken by the end of the millennium, though, as the Arizona Diamondbacks won the NL West in 1999 (their second season) by winning 100 games.

But when the MLB draft happened in early June, the Rockies were only 17-16. However, that was only 0.5 games back of San Francisco for the NL West lead … but only three games ahead of last place. The Rockies were led by The Blake Street Bombers (Andres Galarraga, newly signed Larry Walker, Dante Bichette, Vinny Castilla, and Ellis Burks) and, as most Rockies teams before the latter years of the 2010s, they didn’t have a great pitching staff.

That’s why, in 1995, they used five and a half of their first nine draft picks on pitchers (that half pick was a pitcher and position player). The only problem was that none of the pitchers even made it to the majors, let alone pitch well in the majors.

But in the first round, the Colorado Rockies drafted a player that could pitch and play a position. They decided to forego the pitching and let him hit … and they are very glad that they didn’t because they just happened to draft, arguably, the best player in Rockies franchise history.

However, they still could have had an even better draft if not for a few missteps.