1996 Draft: What if Jimmy Rollins was drafted by the Colorado Rockies?

Our series of looking back on the Colorado Rockies and their past draft classes to see how they ended up. Thus far, we have examined the 1992, 1993, 1994, and 1995 drafts. Overall, the Rockies missed out on some Hall of Famers/future Hall of Famers but in 1995, they did draft Todd Helton, who was arguably the best player in Rockies history, regardless of how the player came to the Rockies.

In 1996, the Colorado Rockies were coming off of a playoff season, despite it only being their third season in franchise history. The 1995 Rockies, led by the Blake Street Bombers, made it to the playoffs as the NL Wild Card team (in the first season of the Wild Card since the 1994 playoffs were canceled).

In 1995, they drafted the aforementioned Todd Helton but in 1996, the Rockies had a lower draft pick due to their successful 1995 season.

So the Rockies did not have access to the top players of the class, quite frankly, it was a class that was, largely, full of duds. The Rockies had the 21st pick of the draft so let’s check out the 20 picks before the Rockies.

1. Kris Benson, RHP, Pirates
2. Travis Lee, 1B, Twins (didn’t sign)
3. Braden Looper, RHP, Cardinals
4. Billy Koch, RHP, Blue Jays
5. John Patterson, RHP, Expos (didn’t sign)
6. Seth Greisinger, RHP, Tigers
7. Matt White, RHP, Giants (didn’t sign)
8. Chad Green, OF, Brewers
9. Mark Kotsay, OF, Marlins
10. Eric Chávez, 3B, Oakland
11. Adam Eaton, RHP, Phillies
12. Bobby Seay, LHP, White Sox (didn’t sign)
13. Rob Stratton, OF, Mets
14. Dee Brown, OF, Royals
15. Matt Halloran, SS, Padres
16. Joe Lawrence, SS, Blue Jays (pick from Orioles for the free agent loss of Roberto Alomar)
17. Todd Noel, RHP, Cubs
18. R.A. Dickey, RHP, Rangers
19. Mark Johnson, RHP, Astros
20. Eric Milton, LHP, Yankees (pick from the Angels for the free agent loss of Randy Velarde)

Of those 20 picks, only Dickey and Milton were All-Stars and only Kris Benson, Milton, Mark Kotsay, Dickey, and Eric Chávez had a career rWAR above 10.

Dickey had to reinvent himself as a knuckleball pitcher, though, but he ended up being an All-Star (for the only time) and won the NL Cy Young Award in 2012.

But the Colorado Rockies pick was also above that threshold too … but he never played with them in the majors.

In the second round of the 1996 Draft, the players that were drafted before the Colorado Rockies picked were outfielder Jacque Jones, outfielder Milton Bradley, and shortstop Jimmy Rollins, who was, by far, the best of three. The Philadelphia Phillies drafted Rollins with the 46th overall pick of the draft.

Rollins was drafted out of high school in the San Francisco Bay Area and he was in the majors by 2000. He spent parts of 17 years in the majors, which was highlighted by three All-Star Game selections, four Gold Glove Awards, and winning the 2007 NL MVP award.

Rollins currently is the Baseball Hall of Fame ballot for the first time this winter.

Throughout most of Rockies history, the Rockies have had decent shortstops. Walt Weiss, Troy Tulowitzki, and Trevor Story are the three best and, in fact, the latter two have been the Rockies only two Opening Day shortstops since 2007. But with Rollins, he could have helped the Rockies through their lean years of shortstop.

From 2001 (Rollins’ rookie year) up until 2007, the Rockies had five Opening Day starters at the position and none were particularly great. They included Neifi Perez (2001), Juan Uribe (2002), José Hernández (2003), Royce Clayton (2004), Clint Barmes (2005-2006).

He would have overlapped with Tulowitzki in his later years, requiring a position change for one of them but it’s something to ponder about what could have been.

In reality, the Rockies took a right-handed pitcher in the second round by the name of John Nicholson. Nicholson was traded along with Westbrook to Montreal for Mike Lansing so, in theory, it was a bit of an overpay for Lansing but Nicholson never made it above Advanced-A ball, last pitching in 1999.

In the third round of the 1996 draft, the Colorado Rockies took right-handed pitcher Shawn Chacon.

Chacon was a local product as the Rockies drafted him out of high school in Greeley, Colorado, which is about 55 miles away from Denver and he did make it to the majors and with the Rockies. He spent part of five seasons with the Rockies and part of eight in the majors. However, he did not pitch particularly well as he went 24-45 with a 5.20 ERA in 150 games (83 starts) and 35 saves.

Chacon amassed a career rWAR of 6.5 but he was the start of a trade chain that was good for the Rockies. The Rockies traded him to the Yankees in 2005 for pitcher Ramón Ramírez. Ramírez, who is best known for being on the Giants 2010 World Series Champion team, was with the Rockies until March 2008. He was traded to the Kansas City Royals for Jorge De La Rosa.

De La Rosa is the Rockies franchise leader in strikeouts (985), first in wins (86), second in games started (200), and third in rWAR for pitchers (15.5).

The only two players with a higher rWAR drafted in the third round after Chacon were infielder and future Red Sox manager Alex Cora and first baseman Nick Johnson (who primarily played with Montreal/Washington and the Yankees).

Some players that were drafted later in the draft and signed to a deal in this draft included:

• One-time All-Star third baseman Joe Crede, 5th round
• Two-time All-Star pitcher Brad Penny, 5th round
• Two-time All-Star infielder Shea Hillenbrand, 10th round
• Three-time All-Star pitcher Roy Oswalt, 23rd round
• Two-time top 10 MVP finisher DH/first baseman Travis Hafner, 31st round

Next up in our series is the 1997 Draft, where the Rockies struck out at first but later picks later bore some fruit. However, they could have had some very good players from that draft.