Colorado Rockies 1998 Draft: Drafting a Rockies legend

In 1998, the Colorado Rockies were in an odd place. They won 83 games for the second straight season but things weren’t necessarily looking up. Entering June 2 (the first day of the draft), the Rockies were 24-33. The main reason was the Rockies starting pitching staff that was awful. In March and April alone, they had a ghastly 7.30 ERA.

The Rockies also decided to trade each of their previous #1 draft picks and one of their two second-round draft picks in the previous two years to the Montreal Expos for reliever Dave Veres and second baseman Mike Lansing.

But the Colorado Rockies had a well-ranked farm system entering the 1998 MLB Draft.

Despite that, the Colorado Rockies still had five prospects in the top 100, per Baseball America. One got to the majors and did very well like Todd Helton, who was Baseball America’s #11 overall prospect, a few got to the majors for a few seasons and didn’t live up to the hype for one reason or another (e.g. Ben Petrick and Shawn Chacon), and a few never panned out at all (e.g. outfielder Derrick Gibson and pitcher Lariel González were in the top 100 and they combined to play 18 games in the majors).

So that’s part of the reason why the Rockies were comfortable trading away three of their top four picks in recent years and why they were comfortable with sacrificing their first-round pick to Houston after they signed Darryl Kile as a free agent.

However, they still had three first-round draft picks since they got two first-round picks for losing Andres Galarraga to the Braves in free agency and a first- and second-round pick for losing Walt Weiss in free agency (again, to the Braves).

But the Rockies struck out on all three picks.

The Colorado Rockies drafted poorly at the beginning of the 1998 MLB Draft

With their three first-round picks in 1998, the Colorado Rockies drafted right-handed pitcher Matt Roney with the #28 overall pick, outfielder Choo Freeman with the #36 overall pick, and catcher Timothy Winchester with the #40 overall pick.

Roney and Freeman combined for a -1.9 rWAR in their careers. Roney never pitched for the Rockies as the Tigers claimed him as a Rule V pick in 2002. He pitched for them on their 2003 team (the team that is the worst MLB team in nearly 60 years as they lost 119 games) and he made three appearances for the 2006 A’s.

Freeman played for the Rockies in parts of three seasons with a career OPS+ of 56 and a career rWAR of -1.8. and Winchester never made it above Double-A.

There were only three players in the rest of the first round after #28 (Roney) that had a positive rWAR in their career so here’s who the Rockies have had instead.

They could have had one of:

• 33rd overall pick: OF Brad Wilkerson, Montreal, 11.0 rWAR; or
• 35th overall pick: OF Aaron Rowand, White Sox, 20.9 rWAR (two-time World Series Champ, one-time All-Star, and one-time Gold Glove winner)

And they also could have had pitcher Mark Prior (drafted by the Yankees but didn’t sign). He eventually was an All-Star and came in 3rd in NL Cy Young Award voting in 2003 for the NLCS-bound Cubs before he was riddled with injuries.

Two other players that went in the first half of the second round of the draft that the Rockies could have drafted were:

• 50th overall pick: OF Adam Dunn, Cincinnati, 17.9 rWAR (two-time All-Star and 462 career homers)
• 57th overall pick: C Brandon Inge, Detroit, 19.2 rWAR (one-time All-Star)

They weren’t available for the Rockies to pick by the time their two second-round picks came around (#60 and #71) but they could have drafted three of them in the first round.

The Colorado Rockies had a decent draft pick late in the second round of the 1998 MLB Draft.

Instead, the Colorado Rockies drafted outfielder Jody Gerut out of high school in the second round.

Gerut played parts of six seasons in the majors but his career 7.2 rWAR was the fourth-highest in the round. Dunn, Inge, and future Colorado Rockies reliever Matt Belisle (7.3 rWAR) were the only three better than Gerut. He never played with the Rockies in the majors, though, as they traded him to Cleveland in 2001 for outfielder Jacob Cruz.

However, Barry Zito was drafted by the Rangers early in the third round so the Rockies, realistically, could have drafted him.

Zito didn’t sign with the Rangers but one year later, he was the 9th overall draft pick with Oakland. Zito was in the majors by 2000 and he won the 2002 AL Cy Young Award. He played in parts of 15 seasons in the majors with a career rWAR of 31.9.

Later in the third round, the Rockies drafted a pitcher by the name of Kevin Gordon. Gordon never got above Single-A. He was traded to Florida in July 1999 to complete a trade for outfielder Pat Watkins (16 games with the Rockies) before he wrapped up his career after the 2000 season.

One spot before Gordon, the White Sox drafted future Colorado Rockies pitcher Josh Fogg.

The Rockies, by and large, struck out with their other picks in the draft but they were much more successful than most teams because of two picks later on in the draft.

The Colorado Rockies drafted Matt Holliday in the 1998 MLB Draft … as a third baseman.

In the 7th round of the draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted a third baseman by the name of Matt Holliday. Yes, the Rockies drafted him as a third baseman.

The Rockies gave him a signing bonus of $840,000 which was, by far, the highest for a 7th round pick at the time. For comparison, there were seven players in the first round that had a signing bonus lower than that.

Holliday was viewed as a very good prospect but teams thought that Holliday might change his mind and decide to play football.

The Rockies signed him and he played third base for his first three seasons in the minors but in 2002, the Rockies moved him to the outfield. He almost exclusively played left field in the minors after exclusively playing third base in his pro career. Throughout the rest of his minor league and major league career, Holliday never played a game at third base again. He played a handful of games at first base and a combined five games in center and right field in the majors but he almost exclusively made the change to left field.

He made his debut with the Rockies in 2004 and nearly won the 2007 NL MVP Award (came in 2nd to Jimmy Rollins), which is the year the Rockies got to the World Series.