Two Colorado Rockies make Kiley McDaniel’s Top 100 prospects list

Kiley McDaniel of ESPN released his top 100 prospect list on Tuesday (subscription required) and he had two Colorado Rockies on his list.

As you may expect, those two prospects were 2020 first round draft picks outfielder Zac Veen and catcher Drew Romo.

Colorado Rockies top prospects Zac Veen and Drew Romo have seen their stock rise

Colorado Rockies top prospect Zac Veen is rated at #20 on Kiley McDaniel’s top 100 prospect list for ESPN.

McDaniel ranked each attribute for the top players in the future on a 20-80 scouting scale on where they are currently and where he thinks they will peak at. For Veen, McDaniel is bearish on his hitting ability currently and still a bit apprehensive on his hit tool as he matures. However, McDaniel notes that Veen has beaten the odds on other things before so he is very bullish on his power and bullish on him, in general.

McDaniel also believes that Veen will stay an outfielder. He says that some scouts think he will be best at first base in the future but he prefers Veen in the outfield.

He also has a good comparison to a player who was an All-Star in the top 10 in AL MVP voting in 2021.

As for Drew Romo, McDaniel ranks him as the 85th overall prospect. Romo falls into one of two categories that McDaniel says that he has always been hesitant to rank high but McDaniel says that in just over a year since the Rockies drafted him, Romo has made him make a “180.”

He was bearish on his hitting ability but McDaniel says that Romo proved him wrong in 2021. In Low-A Fresno, Romo hit .314/.345/.439 in 79 games. He also had 23 stolen bases, which is something that you don’t often see from a catcher.

The thing that McDaniel is still hesitant on Romo’s power, which is understandable considering that his slugging percentage was only .439.

For comparison, Keith Law of The Athletic (subscription required) had both Veen and Romo in his top 100 prospect list a few weeks ago but ranked them at #23 and #97 so McDaniel likes both of them more than Law.