Colorado Rockies 2000 Draft: They could have drafted Yadier Molina

We continue our Colorado Rockies draft series by looking at the 2000 MLB Draft.

In 2000, the Colorado Rockies were coming off of a 72-90 season and the resignation of their manager Jim Leyland and general manager Bob Gebhard after a stressful season. By and large, Leyland resigned since the club hadn’t yet figured out how to pitch well at Coors Field, let alone between Coors Field and sea level and Gebhard resigned due to that and what ended up being four years in a row of not making the playoffs.

Gebhard resigned in late August and Leyland resigned at the end of the season. The Rockies hired Dan O’Dowd, an assistant general manager with Cleveland, to be their new GM in late September and he hired someone he was familiar with as his new manager: Buddy Bell.

Bell was the manager of the Detroit Tigers from 1996 through 1998 but prior to that, he was Cleveland’s bench coach in 1994 and 1995.

How did the Colorado Rockies try to fix their pitching woes? Draft a lot of pitchers in the 2000 Draft

Since the Colorado Rockies had so many issues in 1999 and, frankly, for most of their franchise’s history, they turned to the draft to try to get some pitching help. The Rockies drafted 13 pitchers with their first 19 picks, including each of their first four picks and five of their first six picks.

But, as had most of the draft picks that the Rockies had before, they all fell flat. Only one of the 13 pitchers made more than a dozen appearances for the Rockies.

But first, the biggest dud of them all: their first-round pick.

Lack of communication was a killer for the Colorado Rockies and Matt Harrington

The Colorado Rockies eventually offered $4.9 million to Matt Harrington in the 2000 MLB Draft but with a few stipulations:

• The offer was no longer a bonus but instead a salary to be spread out over eight years
• Harrington had to forgo three years of arbitration if he made it to the majors

Tanzer told Harrington not to sign it since it wasn’t what they were looking for and it could hurt future players in the draft.

So, after the draft, the Rockies and Harrington (through Tanzer) got in a war of words and Harrington did not sign with the Rockies. Harrington was drafted four more times in his career, falling further and further down in the draft each time and he never signed with anybody.

In the middle of the second draft, Harrington fired Tanzer and hired Scott Boras, who still couldn’t fix things. Tanzer ended up suing the Rockies, Boras, a few other agents, and even Tracy Ringolsby, then of The Rocky Mountain News. All of them went nowhere for Tanzer so the Harrington debacle essentially ended his career.

At last update nearly a decade ago, Harrington was working for $11.50 an hour in the tire center at a Costco but he recouped some of the money after Boras and Harrington settled a lawsuit against Tanzer out of court and an insurance policy he took out in 2000 for “loss of skill.”

You can read more about him and the debacle with the Rockies here.

Between Harrington and the fifth pick of the third round, there were only three players with a career rWAR above 6.0.

• 15th overall pick 2B Chase Utley, Philadelphia, 64.5 rWAR (six-time All-Star)
• 29th overall pick RHP Adam Wainwright, Atlanta, 44.5 rWAR (three-time All-Star)
• 38th overall pick SS Kelly Johnson, Atlanta, 16.6 rWAR

The second round of the 2000 Draft wasn’t particularly sparkling for the Colorado Rockies or any team.

The Rockies drafted right-handed pitcher Jason Young with the seventh pick of the second round. He appeared in 10 games in the majors with a career 9.71 ERA.

The best player in the second round was future Colorado Rockies reliever Chad Qualls. Qualls played in parts of 14 seasons in the majors with a career 5.8 rWAR.

In the third round, the best player in the round was the selection by the Montreal Expos of future All-Star outfielder Grady Sizemore. Sizemore was later traded to Cleveland and he was a three-time All-Star. The Rockies could have drafted him in the second round but they wouldn’t have been able to draft him in the third.

Two picks later, the Rockies drafted pitcher Chris Buglovsky. Buglovsky never got above Triple-A.

Later in the round, the Pirates drafted the pitcher Chris Young out of Princeton. Young was the only player with an rWAR above 4.0 in the round. He spent parts of 13 seasons in the majors and had a 17.5 rWAR and he was nominated to the All-Star Game once. Currently, he is the GM of the Texas Rangers.

But the fourth round had a lot more MLB talent.

The Colorado Rockies could have drafted future St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina

In the fourth round of the 2000 Draft with the 107th overall pick, the Colorado Rockies drafted left-handed pitcher Cory Vance. Vance made 11 appearances in the majors with the Rockies and had a 5.74 ERA. That was his entire MLB career.

Two of the picks directly ahead of Vance were:

• 104th overall pick outfielder David DeJesus, Royals, 23.4 rWAR
• 105th overall pick pitcher Cliff Lee, Expos, 43.2 rWAR (four-time All-Star, 2008 AL Cy Young Award, four other top 7 Cy Young Award votes

But the Rockies had an opportunity to draft future St. Louis Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina.

Molina is still playing in the majors as 2022 will be his final season in the majors. Thus far, he has played in 18 seasons with 10 All-Star selections, nine Gold Glove Awards, four Platinum Glove Awards, a Silver Slugger, and two World Series titles. He has a career 42.1 rWAR.

The Rockies have had a history of some not-so-great catchers. Molina has been the Cardinals Opening Day catcher for every season since 2005 and since then, the Rockies have nine. The most frequent has been Chris Iannetta with six Opening Day starts but in his Rockies career (eight seasons) was 7.0 rWAR.

In the fifth round, the Rockies drafted first baseman Garrett Atkins. The Rockies moved Atkins to third base since Todd Helton was at first base but Atkins’ 4.0 rWAR was the second-highest in the round.

Some of the best players drafted after the 5th round in the 2000 Draft that weren’t drafted by the Rockies include:

• SS Aaron Hill, 7th round, Angels, 24.4 rWAR (one-time All-Star)
• LHP Dontrelle Willis, 8th round, Cubs, 19.7 rWAR (two-time All-Star, 2003 NL Rookie of the Year, 2nd place in 2004 NL Cy Young Award voting)
• RHP Brandon Webb, 8th round, D-Backs, 31.1 rWAR (three-time All-Star, 2006 NL Cy Young Award winner, 2nd place in NL Cy Young voting in 2007-2008)
• 3B Edwin Encarnacion, 9th round, Rangers, 35.5 rWAR (three-time All-Star)
• OF Corey Hart, 11th round, Brewers, 14.4 rWAR (two-time All-Star)
• 2B Freddy Sanchez, 11th round, Red Sox, 15.8 rWAR (three-time All-Star, 2006 NL batting champ)
• C Mike Napoli, 17th round, Angels, 26.3 rWAR (one-time All-Star)
• 3B Jose Bautista, 20th round, Pirates, 36.7 rWAR (six-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger winner)

The Rockies also drafted Clint Barmes (14.9 rWAR) in the 10th round and Brad Hawpe (4.5 rWAR) in the 11th round. Barmes never was a good hitter but he provided the Rockies some great defense in the mid-to late-2000s.

Hawpe had a 5.8 rWAR in his best four seasons combined (2006-2009) but he was the opposite of Barmes in that he had good offensive numbers (average 25 homers and 93 RBI with an OPS+ of 124 from 2006-2009) but poor defensive numbers.

Next up in our Colorado Rockies draft series is the 2001 MLB Draft when the Rockies, by and large, struck out in the draft, partially because they didn’t have some great spots since they had to sacrifice some picks for free agent signings … that also didn’t pan out.