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Colorado Rockies 2002 Draft: They miss out on Cole Hamels and Joey Votto

By Noah Yingling |
PITTSBURGH, PA - SEPTEMBER 16: Joey Votto #19 of the Cincinnati Reds in action against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the game at PNC Park on September 16, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
PITTSBURGH, PA - SEPTEMBER 16: Joey Votto #19 of the Cincinnati Reds in action against the Pittsburgh Pirates during the game at PNC Park on September 16, 2021 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Justin K. Aller/Getty Images)
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OAKLAND, CA – MAY 22: Pitcher Zack Greinke #23 of the Kansas City Royals delivers against the Oakland Athletics during the game at Network Associates Coliseum on May 22, 2004 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Royals 4-3 in 11 innings. (Photo by Don Smith/MLB Photos via Getty Images)
OAKLAND, CA – MAY 22: Pitcher Zack Greinke #23 of the Kansas City Royals delivers against the Oakland Athletics during the game at Network Associates Coliseum on May 22, 2004 in Oakland, California. The Athletics defeated the Royals 4-3 in 11 innings. (Photo by Don Smith/MLB Photos via Getty Images) /

We continue our series recalling the Colorado Rockies and the history of their draft picks and today, we discuss the 2002 Draft.

The Colorado Rockies were coming off a 73-89 season in which most of the team was mediocre. Other than Todd Helton and Larry Walker, the Rockies offense was not very good. Helton hit .336 with an OPS of 1.116 and Walker hit .350 with a 1.111 OPS, which was good enough for each of them to have an OPS+ of 160. But nobody else had an OPS above .846 or an OPS+ above league average (with at least 130 plate appearances).

The pitching staff wasn’t much better as they only had one pitcher with an rWAR that was above 2.0 and that was starter John Thomson … at 2.1. As we discussed in our 2001 Draft article, the Rockies had recently signed both Denny Neagle and Mike Hampton but in 2001, both of them had ERA’s around 5.40.

And that’s part of the reason why the Colorado Rockies continued to draft a lot of pitchers

As a result, per usual, the Colorado Rockies drafted a fair amount of pitchers. They drafted pitchers with 11 of their first 22 picks in 2002 and each of the first three on pitchers.

Ahead of their ninth overall pick in the 2002 Draft, there was a wide variety of great picks and awful picks.

  1. RHP Bryan Bullington, Pirates, -0.2 rWAR
  2. SS B.J. Upton, Devil Rays, 16.8 rWAR
  3. RHP Chris Gruler, Reds, never made it above Single-A
  4. LHP Adam Loewen, Orioles, -0.3 rWAR
  5. RHP Clint Everts, Expos, never got above Triple-A but spent 11 seasons in the minors
  6. RHP Zack Greinke, Royals, 73.1 rWAR
  7. 1B Prince Fielder, Brewers, 23.8 rWAR
  8. SS Scott Moore, Tigers, -0.8 rWAR

The Colorado Rockies were up next.

DENVER – SEPTEMBER 3: Starting pitcher Jeff Francis #26 of the Colorado Rockies delivers against the San Francisco Giants and earned the win as the Rockies defeated the Giants 7-4 at Coors Field September 3, 2007 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)
DENVER – SEPTEMBER 3: Starting pitcher Jeff Francis #26 of the Colorado Rockies delivers against the San Francisco Giants and earned the win as the Rockies defeated the Giants 7-4 at Coors Field September 3, 2007 in Denver, Colorado. (Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images) /

The Colorado Rockies drafted Jeff Francis in the 2002 Draft, a key piece to the 2007 NL Champion Rockies.

With their first round draft pick in 2002, the Colorado Rockies drafted left-handed pitcher Jeff Francis out of the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, B.C., Canada.

Francis signed with the Rockies and he ended up getting to the majors with the Rockies by 2004.

For their 2007 championship run, Francis was their ace as he went 17-9 with a 4.22 ERA (114 ERA+) with 34 starts and 215 1/3 innings. He started Game 1 of the NLDS, NLCS, and World Series for the Rockies in the playoffs and he pitched well in the NLDS and NLCS (2.13 ERA) but, just like the Rockies, he did not do well in the World Series. He went four innings and allowed 10 hits and six runs in Game 1 of the eventual sweep of the Rockies by the Red Sox.

The problem was that after that 3.9 rWAR season, Francis was a shell of his former self. Like the Rockies, in general, in 2008, they could not repeat their 2007 season. Francis went from a pitcher that came in 9th in NL Cy Young Award voting to a pitcher with an ERA over 5.00.

He missed the entire 2009 season due to shoulder surgery. He returned in 2010 and still had a 5.00 ERA in just 20 games (out, again, for injury). He signed with the Royals in 2011 but returned to the Rockies via free agency in 2012 and 2013. From 2011 through 2015 (the final season of his career), he had a 5.40 ERA (80 ERA+). For his entire career, he had a 9.6 career rWAR.

Between Francis and their second round pick, there were six players who had at least 20.0 rWAR but the best two players were Cole Hamels and Joey Votto.

Hamels was drafted by the Phillies with the 17th overall pick. He had a 59.3 rWAR career, four All-Star selections, four top 10 NL Cy Young voting, and the 2008 NLCS and World Series MVP.

Votto, who was drafted as a catcher by Cincinnati with the 3rd pick in the 2nd round, is still playing with Cincinnati after 15 years in the majors with a 64.6 rWAR, a career .302/.416/.520 slash line, a 148 OPS+, six All-Star selections, and six top 10 NL MVP votes.

LOS ANGELES, CA – JULY 30: Micah Owings #15 of the Arizona Diamondbacks pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on July 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA – JULY 30: Micah Owings #15 of the Arizona Diamondbacks pitches against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium on July 30, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) /

In the second round of the draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted right-handed pitcher Micah Owings.

Micah Owings did not sign with the Colorado Rockies but was later drafted by Arizona in 2005 and made it to the majors in 2007. As a rookie, he won the NL Silver Slugger Award for pitchers and faced the Rockies in Game 4 of the 2007 NLCS but Owings and the D-Backs were vanquished in four games. Owings had a 3.2 career rWAR but only a 0.7 rWAR for pitching so that tells you how good his bat was and how poor the pitching was. He eventually became an outfielder in the minors but never resurfaced in the majors.

Later in the round, the Red Sox drafted left-handed pitcher Jon Lester and the Braves drafted catcher Brian McCann.

Lester retired after the 2021 season and in his 16-year MLB career, he had a 44.2 rWAR with 200 career wins, a 117 ERA+, five All-Star selections, four top 10 finishes in Cy Young voting, and three World Series titles.

McCann could have filled what has almost always been an issue for the Rockies. The catcher spent parts of 15 seasons in the majors with an rWAR of 32.0 with seven All-Star selections and six Silver Slugger Awards.

Early in the third round, the Tigers drafted outfielder Curtis Granderson. Granderson played parts of 16 years in the majors with three All-Star selections, two top 10 finishes in MVP voting, and a Silver Slugger. He had a career rWAR of 47.2.

Of the Rockies 50 draft picks, the best future MLB player was right-handed pitcher Matt Garza. Garza was drafted by the Rockies in the 40th round and did not sign. Three years later, the Twins drafted him in the first round. He pitched in parts of 12 seasons in the majors with a career 12.5 rWAR.

But between the 4th and 8th rounds, the Rockies drafted Jeff Baker, Ryan Spilborghs, and Jeff Salazar. The former two were key players on the 2007 Rockies and Salazar, despite not playing on the Rockies much, was later the assistant hitting coach for the Rockies from 2017 through 2021.

Next. 2001 Draft: The Rox could have had David Wright if not for Mike Hampton. dark

Next up is the Rockies 2003 Draft, when they only had one of their first 18 picks even reach the majors.

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