Rockies Inaguaral Draft Class-Graded

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The soon to be expansion Colorado Rockies participated in their first ever amateur draft, even though they are still a few years away from fielding a

major league squad. Heading in to the draft, new GM Matt Andersen was charged with the job of building the organization from the ground up. How

did he do? Let's take a look.

1(7)-SP Brad Radke-Picking from the 7th spot the Rockies selected High School starting pitcher Brad Radke with their first ever draft choice, you trivia

nerds might want to store that in your memory banks. It was fairly well known that Andersen coveted the diminutive lefty Mike Hampton but the Twins

had selected him two picks earlier. Radke is a real bulldog on the mound, possessing four pitches and profiles as an innings eater who could occupy the

#3 spot in the rotation, or maybe the #2 with some development. He has good feel for the plate and is a ground ball machine. Radke quickly signed

with the Rockies and will head directly to A ball. Grade-B

2(11)-RP Steve Karsay-The Rockies made a trade with the Rangers, trading the 7th and 10th picks of the 2nd for the 11th, 14th and 25th pick of the round.
The Rockies had targeted 2B/UT Tony Womack with this selection but the Rangers immediately selected Womack and the move back fired. In Karsay

the Rockies get a fairly developed reliever who should be a center piece of the Rockies bullpen in a few years. He profiles as more of a setup man

than a closer, can keep it on the ground, but does have a tendency to lose the plate once in a while. Grade-C, primarily because even in this weak

draft class, an expansion team has bigger needs than a relief pitcher and the trade backfiring.

2(14)-SP Jimmy Haynes-This felt like a bit of a reach as there was a bit of a run on starting pitchers here with Kirk Reuter and Aaron Sele being drafted

immediately before, especially in light of the fact that we project Haynes to end up a reliever most likely. He does keep the ball in the park, which is

important in Denver, but with really only two pitches and the fact that he doesn't throw particularly hard, not a ton of value here. Grade C-

2(25)-RP Pep Harris-The lack of talent in this draft really showed through based on the fact that there really were no good offensive options available

at any time of the draft when the Rockies were picking. There were decent bats, but all felt like stretches at that particular point of the draft. Harris is

another serviceable bullpen arm, can occasionally lose the plate, projects to possibly have a role in the back end of the pen someday. Grade C

3(7)-RP Nelson Cruz-18 year old flame thrower out of the Dominican, some had Cruz rated higher than Harris, very projectable arm, just will he fully

develop. Really good dart throw at this point of the draft, could develop and be a lights out setup man or could disappear. Grade B+

4(7)-RP Bobby Chouinard-18 year old rubber armed reliever out of the Philippines of all places, the Rockies did have a few bats they were hoping would

slip to this spot, Darrin Bragg, Kevin Stocker and James Mouton it's believed, but when all went at the end of round 3 they took Chouinard. Plus character,

good control, mediocre stuff. Could pitch some major league innings at some point. Grade-C

5(7)-RP Rick Krivda-The lone lefty of the class, the Rockies were somewhat surprised he was still available. Already 21 and not very developed, it's a small

window for Krivda, but he comes very highly recommended for his leadership and character and was certainly worth a flyer. Grade B

6(7)-UT Jason Wood-SS is his best position but he has a lot of work to do on his defense to where any of them really are a strength. Can make contact and

rarely strikes out, but next to no pop in the bat. Looks like a AAA bench guy from here. Grade D

7(7)RP Scott Ruffcorn-College arm, keeps ball in the park so you can see what the Rockies saw here I guess, but has no idea where the ball is going most

times and stuff isn't there. Grade C-

8(7)-SW Shad Williams-Rockies will try to make him a starter, but looks like a reliever and most likely a poor one at that. Not a lot here. Grade D

Overall not a terrible draft for Andersen, he was somewhat handcuffed by the overall lack of talent in this years draft. You have to figure he got two sure

fire major leaguers in Radke and Karsay and you'd think one or two of the relievers could pan out. You can't really grill him for the trade in round two even

though it didn't go how he'd planned. On paper picking up the extra draft capital when trying to build a team from scratch seemed like the right thing to do,

although one has a feeling the Rockies are going to regret not getting Womack at the top of 2. His speed and defense would have been a great fit for a young

team. You can't really help Hampton not being there and Radke was a good fallback option. You sure would have liked to seen more bats in this class than

Wood, but the good news is there's probably an awful lot of AAA guys on major league squads now that will look like All-Stars when hitting in Denver, so worst

case maybe the Rockies can build a serviceable offense that way until they get more depth in the system. Overall Grade C

[CSCommish]

10!