Colorado Rockies 2007 Draft: Another really bad draft

In 2007, the Colorado Rockies were coming off of what ended up being an awful draft for the franchise. For the 2007 MLB Draft, the Rockies fared better than they did in 2006 … but that’s not saying much.

In both the 2006 and 2007 Drafts, the Colorado Rockies drafted a right-handed pitcher out of college and both times they were duds. However, for the 2007 draft pick, he didn’t even make it to the majors.

The Colorado Rockies selected Casey Weathers with their first pick in the 2007 MLB Draft

Casey Weathers was drafted by the Colorado Rockies in the first round of the 2007 MLB Draft. He was drafted out of Vanderbilt, which is known to have produced some good MLB pitchers in recent years, including Walker Buehler, Sonny Gray, Mark Prior, David Price, Mike Minor, and two current pitchers for the Rockies in Ben Bowden and Jordan Sheffield.

However, Weathers never made it to the majors.

In fact, he never got above Double-A. However, his drafting wasn’t as bad as Greg Reynolds in the previous draft because, eventually, the Rockies were able to trade Weathers to the Cubs for a decent player. That decent player was DJ LeMahieu.

But the Rockies could have drafted some players who went later in the first round and had more success than Weathers and even a few have had more success than LeMahieu.

• 10th overall pick LHP Madison Bumgarner, Giants (four-time All-Star, three-time World Series Champ, World Series MVP, NLCS MVP, five top 11 finishes in Cy Young voting, 38.2 rWAR)
• 14th overall pick OF Jason Heyward, Braves (one-time All-Star, five-time Gold Glove winner, 39.4 rWAR)
• 27th overall pick RHP Rick Porcello, Tigers (2016 AL Cy Young Award winner, 20.2 rWAR)
• 34th overall pick 3B Todd Frazier, Reds (drafted by the Rockies three years earlier but didn’t sign, two-time All-Star, 25.2 rWAR)
• 48th overall pick C Josh Donaldson, Cubs (later became a 3B for Oakland, three-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger winner, 2015 AL MVP, three more top 10 MVP finishes, 44.4 rWAR)

In the second round, things, arguably, get worse.

The Colorado Rockies also could have drafted two-time Cy Young Award winner Corey Kluber

The Colorado Rockies drafted a pitcher out of high school in Georgia by the name of Isaiah Froneberger. Does the name ring a bell? That’s what I thought. He also never made it above Double-A.

Two picks later, the San Diego Padres drafted a pitcher by the name of Corey Kluber. They ended up trading him to Cleveland a few years later and they regretted it.

Kluber is a three-time All-Star who won two AL Cy Young Awards (2014, 2017) with two more third-place finishes (2016, 2018), and a ninth-place finish (2015). He also got MVP votes in three seasons, including a seventh-place finish in 2017. He has a career 33.6 rWAR.

Early in the fifth round before the Rockies picked again, Jake Arrieta was drafted. Arrieta is a one-time All-Star who won the 2015 Cy Young Award, had two more top 10 finishes, and even came in 6th in MVP voting in 2015. He’s got a career 23.3 rWAR.

So which draft picks from 2007 made it to the majors with the Rockies? Jordan Pacheco, Matt Reynolds, and Bruce Billings.

Pacheco was drafted in the 9th round and he spent parts of six seasons in the majors with a career -4.0 rWAR. In 2022, he will be the Rockies new hitting coach at Triple-A.

Reynolds made 221 appearances as a reliever in the majors with 165 of them coming with the Rockies. He had a career 2.7 rWAR in parts of six seasons. He last pitched in the majors in 2016.

You’ll be forgiven if you don’t remember Bruce Billings. He made one appearance with the Rockies in 2011.

The Colorado Rockies drafted Chris Sale later in the 2007 MLB Draft

If you look all the way down to the 21st round of the draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted a lanky left-handed pitcher out of high school by the name of Chris Sale.

However, Sale didn’t sign. He ended up being drafted by the White Sox three years later (before the Rockies even had a selection that year so they didn’t pass him up later) but from 2012 through 2018, he was an All-Star in each of the seven seasons, came in the top six in AL Cy Young Award voting in each season, and he got MVP votes four times as well.

Overall, here are two other players that signed in this draft that the Rockies passed on:

• Anthony Rizzo, 6th round, 204th overall, Red Sox (three-time All-Star, four-time Gold Glove winner, three finishes in the top 10 of MVP voting, 36.8 rWAR)
• Greg Holland, 10th round, 306th overall, Royals (future Colorado Rockie, three-time All-Star, two top 10 finishes in Cy Young voting, 12.7 rWAR)

So, if you are keeping track at home, the Rockies, in 2006 and 2007, could have drafted these players (the player with the higher career rWAR entering is in bold.

• Either Clayton Kershaw or Max Scherzer, 1st round in 2006
• Either Josh Donaldson or Madison Bumgarner, 1st round in 2007
• Either Giancarlo Stanton or Freddie Freeman, 2nd round in 2007
• Corey Kluber, 4th round in 2007
• Anthony Rizzo, 6th round in 2007

Here’s what the combination of five players have with career accolades:

• 21 or 23 All-Star selections
• 5 Cy Young Awards either way
• 9 or 12 additional top 10 finishes in Cy Young voting
• 3 or 1 MVP(s)
• 9 or 11 additional top 10 MVP finishes

Now imagine those numbers combined with Chris Sale too.

The Colorado Rockies combined two have two drafts that were beyond awful

Instead, the Colorado Rockies combined to have six players sign with them and make their MLB debut with the Rockies in these two drafts. They combined to have an rWAR of -1.1 with the Rockies and a career rWAR of 7.1.

The players not in bold have a combined career rWAR of 218.8 through 2021. The three bold players with Kluber and Rizzo have a combined career rWAR of 230.8 through 2021.

Add in Sale and those WAR numbers are 265.3 and 277.3.

Is it realistic that they would have signed with the Rockies and had the same accolades? No, absolutely not. Is it realistic to believe that any of the five or six would have been with the Rockies for their whole career? No. There’s no way on this planet it would happen.

But it just goes to show important drafting is, especially for a smaller revenue team like the Rockies. If you ever wondered why the Rockies weren’t even in the same state as the playoff race from 2010 through 2016, that is your answer why: poor drafting.

That wraps up in what is, undoubtedly, the worst two draft classes in Rockies history, at least of ones that have matured enough to see how they’ve developed.

Considering that the Rockies were able to get LeMahieu out of Casey Weathers and the quality of players they missed out on in 2006, I still think that’s the worst draft they’ve had but the sheer quantity of great MLB players that the Rockies missed out on in this draft is just mind-boggling.

Next up on our draft list is the 2008 Draft, when the Rockies first-round draft pick was not a great one but the Rockies did an excellent job with their second-round pick.