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 could have drafted New York Yankees OF Giancarlo Stanton or Braves 1B Freddie Freeman

In the second round of the 2007 MLB Draft, the Colorado Rockies outfielder Brian Rike out of Louisiana Tech. Who? Yeah, not a great pick.

He, like Weathers, never got above Double-A. He was out of baseball after the 2012 season.

Rike was drafted with the 72nd overall pick and here are some other players drafted after Rike in the second round.

• 76th overall pick 1B Giancarlo Stanton, Marlins (moved to the outfield, four-time All-Star, two-time Silver Slugger, 2017 NL MVP, 2014 NL MVP runner-up, 44.1 rWAR)
• 78th overall pick 1B Freddie Freeman, Braves (five-time All-Star, three-time Silver Slugger winner, one-time Gold Glove winner, 2020 NL MVP, five more top 10 NL MVP finishes, 43.1 rWAR)

In the third round of the 2007 Draft, the Rockies drafted yet another player who never got to the majors in catcher Lars Davis. He made it to Triple-A, unlike Weathers and Rike.

The best MLB players drafted after Davis was former Mets pitcher Matt Harvey. He’s been in the news lately for less than stellar reasons but he was drafted by the Angels in this draft out of high school and didn’t sign.

(Extreme Billy Mays voice) But wait! There’s more!

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 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.