The 1997 Draft: The Colorado Rockies draft a good starter but missed a great infielder

We continue our series looking at the Colorado Rockies and their successes and tribulations in the MLB Draft throughout their history.

So far, we have examined each draft from 1992 (the Rockies first draft) through 1996 and thus far, they have drafted, arguably, the best player in their history in Todd Helton. But they have had some significant missteps in their history, some due to a lack of development, some due to trade, and one even involved a very sad event.

But in 1997, the Colorado Rockies were in the middle ground. They didn’t repeat in making the playoffs in 1996 but they were above .500 with a record of 83-79. So they did not get a high draft pick. In fact, they had the 18th pick in the draft.

There were a few future All-Stars and/or a few future Rockies drafted in the first 17 picks before the Rockies selected. They included:

• #2 overall pick: OF J.D. Drew, Philadelphia (didn’t sign)
• #3: 3B/P Troy Glaus, Anaheim
• #4: RHP Jason Grilli, San Francisco (future All-Star and future Rockie)
• #5: OF Vernon Wells, Toronto
• #9: SS (yes, shortstop) Michael Cuddyer, Minnesota (future All-Star and future Rockie)
• #10: RHP Jon Garland, Cubs (future All-Star and future Rockie)
• #16: 1B Lance Berkman, Houston

As you may expect, though, the Colorado Rockies decided to draft a pitcher with their first pick and they picked nine pitchers with their first 15 picks.

However, only two of the nine made it to the major leagues and only one of them pitched in the majors for the Rockies. He ended up panning out but he wasn’t their first round draft pick.

With the 18th overall pick of the 1997 MLB Draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted right-handed pitcher Mark Mangum out of high school in Kingwood, Texas.

Mangum signed with a bonus of $875,000, which was $100,000 less than any of the picks ahead of him but the Rockies soured on Mangum quickly.

Within a year, the Rockies traded him to the Montreal Expos to complete a trade that was made in the previous December. Mangum was the player to be named later in a four-player deal. The Rockies sent a PTBNL (Mangum) and outfielder Terry Jones (career 0.8 rWAR) to Montreal for minor leaguer Mark Hamlin and MLB reliever Dave Veres.

Veres was the key piece of the deal as he was a four-year MLB veteran with 225 appearances and a 3.07 ERA. Veres played with the Rockies for two years before he was traded to St. Louis along with his best friend, the late Darryl Kile. Kile and Veres played together in Houston, Colorado, and St. Louis.

In the trade, though, the Rockies acquired Mark Hamlin and despite being a career minor leaguer, it was an odd move. The Rockies had just traded Hamlin to Montreal in November 1996 (three weeks prior to the Veres trade) in the trade that sent their 1996 top two draft picks (future MLB All-Star Jake Westbrook and pitcher John Nicholson) to Montreal for second baseman Mike Lansing.

So in the period of six months, the Rockies traded each of their last two first-round draft picks and one of their second-round draft picks to Montreal for reliever Dave Veres and second baseman Mike Lansing. Decent major leaguers but not worth two first and one second-round picks.

Westbrook became a major leaguer and Nicholson and Mangum didn’t so it panned out for the Rockies but considering how quickly they gave up on those three for their return, they really should have made some better picks.

In the rest of the first round of the 1997 draft, there were only two picks that the Colorado Rockies passed on but had at least 10.0 career rWAR.

• #20 overall pick: SS Adam Kennedy, St. Louis (20.9 career rWAR)
• #21: C Jayson Werth, Baltimore (yep, Jayson Werth was a catcher originally before becoming an outfielder) (career 29.2 rWAR)

There were also two good pitchers among the first 10 picks of the second round.

• 2nd pick of the 2nd round: LHP Randy Wolf, Philadelphia (22.8 career rWAR)
• 10th pick of the 2nd round: RHP Jeff Weaver, White Sox (15.2 rWAR)

But the Rockies decided to take a different pitcher with their second draft pick and he had a good career with the Rockies. They selected Aaron Cook out of high school in Hamilton, Ohio, a suburb of Cincinnati.

Cook spent parts 11 seasons in the majors and 10 were with the Rockies (2002-2011). Cook was the Rockies best starter for much of the mid-2000s and he holds many of the team records in pitching or in the top 10.

• 1st in starts (206)
• 1st in innings (1312 1/3)
• 2nd in wins (72)
• 2nd in complete games (11)
• 4th in BB/9 rate (2.798)
• 7th in ERA (4.53)

While he was good for the Rockies, they could have drafted future Philadelphia Phillies second baseman Chase Utley.

Utley was drafted six picks after Cook by the Dodgers and didn’t sign. He signed a few years later and he is, arguably, a future Hall of Famer. He has a career 64.5 rWAR, a six-time All-Star, a four-time Silver Slugger, and he had three top 10 finishes in NL MVP voting.

Had the Rockies drafted Utley, they would have had some stability at the position when they hadn’t had that since the late 90s. From 2004 through 2013 (Utley’s rookie year through his last All-Star appearance), the Rockies had 9 Opening Day second basemen in 10 seasons. Only Luis A. Gonzalez (2004, 2006) made multiple starts and only Clint Barmes (2010) made an Opening Day start at another position (shortstop in 2005 and 2006).

So, realistically, the Colorado Rockies could have had Scott Rolen, Jimmy Rollins, and Chase Utley, all of which were high Phillies draft picks between 1993 and 1997 and were key figures for World Series playing and winning teams in the mid-to late-2000s.