Colorado Rockies 2001 Draft: They could have had David Wright if not for Mike Hampton

The Colorado Rockies didn’t sign their second-round pick in the 2001 MLB Draft.

In the second round of the 2001 MLB Draft, the Colorado Rockies, without their higher second-round pick due to signing Denny Neagle, only had one second-round pick.

It was the penultimate pick of the second round and it was only there as a comp pick for when they lost pitcher Julián Tavárez to the Chicago Cubs.

With that pick drafted left-handed pitcher David Taylor. Taylor didn’t sign and, eventually, he was drafted by the Cubs a few years later in the 7th round. He made two (2) appearances at Rookie-ball … and his career was over.

The two best players drafted above Taylor that the Rockies could have taken in the first round were J.J. Hardy and Dan Haren.

Hardy was drafted with the 11th pick of the second round by Milwaukee and he played in parts of 13 seasons in the majors. He was a two-time All-Star, a three-time Gold Glove winner, and a Silver Slugger winner. He had a career 28.1 rWAR.

Dan Haren was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals just three picks before Taylor in the second round. Haren spent parts of 14 seasons in the majors and he was a three-time All-Star and had two top 10 finishes in Cy Young Award voting.

Overall, in the rest of the draft (50 rounds), the Rockies had four of their picks make it to the majors. Three of the four picks weren’t even signed by the Rockies. The only other pick was outfielder Cory Sullivan.

Sullivan spent parts of four seasons with the Rockies from 2005 through 2008. His best season came in 2005 when he played in 139 games and he had a 0.8 rWAR season. Overall in his career, he had a 0.9 rWAR. Currently, he is a TV pre- and post-game analyst for the Rockies.

Other than him, the Rockies literally got 22 games and -0.4 rWAR out of Jayson Nix and that is it.

Next up in our draft series is the 2002 Draft where the Rockies were a bit more successful with their picks.