Colorado Rockies 2009 Draft: They pass up Mike Trout

The 2009 MLB Draft was the beginning of a new era. It was the first year that the MLB Draft was televised on MLB Network, as the network was in its first year of programming. As a result, the Draft was held in Secaucus, New Jersey, where MLB Network is located. It was also a weird draft for the Colorado Rockies and many other teams.

The Rockies and many other teams had supplemental draft picks in the first round. For the Rockies, they had three first round draft picks but there were some teams who had as many five first round draft picks, due to loss of free agents and/or failure to sign first round picks from 2008.

The Rockies had the 11th, 32nd, and 34th overall picks in the first round and they got the 32nd pick from the L.A. Angels for the loss of reliever Brian Fuentes. The Angels, themselves, were one of the teams that had five draft picks in the first round anyway so it was not a big deal for them to not have six.

Before the Rockies drafted, some good future MLB talent went off the board.

• RHP Stephen Strasburg, 1st overall pick, Nationals (3x All-Star, three top 10 finishes in NL Cy Young voting, 33.2 rWAR)
• RHP Zack Wheeler, 6th overall pick, Giants (1x All-Star, two top 12 finishes in NL Cy Young voting, 21.3 rWAR)
• LHP Mike Minor, 7th overall pick, Braves (1x All-Star, one top 10 finish in Cy Young voting, 18.6 rWAR)
• RHP Mike Leake, 8th overall pick, Reds (16.9 rWAR)

But the Rockies weren’t as successful with any of their first round draft picks.

The Colorado Rockies drafted LHP Tyler Matzek with their first draft pick in the 2009 MLB Draft

With the 11th overall pick of the 2009 MLB Draft, the Colorado Rockies drafted left-handed pitcher Tyler Matzek.

Matzek was drafted out of high school so he made it to the majors a little bit later than the collegiate players in the draft. However, he made his debut in 2014 and he pitched well in 20 games (19 starts), as he had a 4.05 ERA (105 ERA+).

But Matzek started to have the “yips” in 2015 as he had massive control issues. He then had some injuries so he was out of the Rockies system by 2017.

He didn’t return to the majors until 2020 as a reliever with the Braves. He has been great for them since but for the Rockies, it was a draft pick that didn’t pan out.

Even if he did pan out, nobody in that draft has been even close to as good as Mike Trout. The Angels drafted Trout with the 25th overall pick in the draft and he was their second draft pick of the first round.

Trout was drafted out of high school but made his debut in 2011. He won the 2012 AL Rookie of the Year Award, is a nine-time All-Star, an eight-time Silver Slugger Award winner, a three-time AL MVP (2014, 2016, 2019), six more top five AL MVP finishes, and 76.1 rWAR.

You can’t have a better draft pick than that, especially when he’s still only 30 years old.

The Colorado Rockies drafted OF Tim Wheeler and LHP Rex Brothers in the first round of the 2009 MLB Draft

The Colorado Rockies selected OF Tim Wheeler with their second first round pick (32nd overall pick). He never made it to the majors, making it to Triple-A and last playing professionally in 2015.

Two picks later, they drafted LHP Rex Brothers. Brothers made it to the majors in 2011 as a reliever and he pitched well (e.g. 1.74 ERA in 74 relief appearances in 2013) but, like Matzek, he had some injuries. He last played in the majors for the Rockies in 2015. He resurfaced in the majors with Atlanta in 2017 and 2018 and he resurfaced again with the Cubs in 2020 and 2021. Control has been a big issue throughout his career, though.

In the rest of the first round, none of the players that signed had/have a career rWAR over 8.5. One of those picks is former Colorado Rockies player Chris Owings.

However, the Colorado Rockies made a great pick in the second round. With their second overall pick, the Rockies drafted a high school third baseman by the name of Nolan Arenado.

Arenado made it to the majors in 2013 and played with the Rockies through the 2020 season. He is a six-time All-Star, a nine-time Gold Glove winner, five-time Platinum Glove winner, four-time Silver Slugger Award winner, and he has finished in top 10 voting for NL MVP five times. He has a career 44.3 rWAR.

By rWAR, he is the second-best player to be drafted in the first two rounds, after Trout.

The second-best player in the second round of the 2009 Draft was future All-Star and future Colorado Rockies second baseman DJ LeMahieu.