Rockies 2013 Draft Retrospective: Jon Gray headlines a stacked class

The 2018 MLB Draft takes place next week, June 4-6. For three days, teams will make selections for 40 rounds, drafting over 1200 amateur players from high school and college. This year, the Rockies hold the 22nd pick after earning the National League Wild Card and finishing with the 9th best record in the 2017 season.

In the week leading up the draft, let’s take a quick look back at the seven preceding years of picks.

2013 MLB Amateur Draft

Rockies 1st Round

The 2012 season was the worst in franchise history. Colorado won just 64 games and finished with a .395 winning percentage and 30 games out of first place. General Manager Dan O’Dowd launched his Project 5183, a plan to use a four-man rotation. O’Dowd would step away from his duties as GM after the 2014 season, but Manager Jim Tracy would resign just two years after leading the Rockies to consecutive winning seasons.

The only teams with a worse winning percentage than Colorado in 2012 would be Houston and Chicago, both of whom were at the midst of their newfangled “tanking” approach. With the third worse record, the Rockies held the 3rd pick overall.

Once Stanford University’s Mark Appel and University of San Diego’s Kris Bryant were taken, the Rockies were able to have their pick of any player in the country.

The Gray Wolf of Blake Street signed for $4.8M and finished his first season as a professional by dominating High-A. This performance earned him a spot as the 12th best prospect on Baseball America’s top 100 prospects at the beginning of 2014. The righty from Chandler, OK spent 2014 at Double-A and after 21 starts with Albuquerque, he made his major league debut in 2015, where he’s stayed a starter at the front of the rotation for the Rockies.

In Round 2, the Rockies got another top 50 pick for the fifth consecutive season dating back to 2009. The first two years of this run produced Tyler Matzek, Tim Wheeler and Rex Brothers in 2009 and Kyle Parker and Peter Tago were selected in 2010.

Signed for $1,327,600, McMahon showed an ability to hit the long ball and to hit for average. In his first full-season of professional baseball, McMahon hit 18 homers with 102 RBI in just 126 games at Single-A Asheville in 2014. From this point on, the 3B from Yorba Linda, CA became a staple on the annual top 100 prospects list at the start of the 2015 season.

He had a brief hiccup in 2017, when he began the year repeating at Double-A Hartford; after two months of hitting for a .926 OPS, he moved up to Triple-A Albuquerque on June 1 and never looked back. He dominated the Pacific Coast League to the tune of .374/.411/.612 and earned a call-up to Colorado when rosters expanded in September.

Top 10 Selections

*Did not sign

Notable players who slipped outside the top ten:  #13 Hunter Renfro (SD), #16 J.P. Crawford, #17 Tim Anderson (CWS), #19 Marco Gonzalez (STL)

Mark Appel appeared to be a can’t miss as the top overall pick. In 2012, he was selected 8th by the Pirates and when they couldn’t agree to a deal, he went back to Stanford for his senior year, where he dominated even more.

Appel was a disappointment in three seasons with Houston’s minor league affiliates and was included in a package for closer Ken Giles before the start of the 2016 season. At the age of 26, after two frustrating seasons for Philadelphia, Appel announced his retirement in February this year. He remains one of the only three players to have been drafted first overall and retire before ever making it to the majors.

The other two players, Steve Chilcott (1966) and Brien Taylor (1991), both had their career halted due to unfortunate injuries to their shoulder; Chilcott dislocated his shoulder diving into second base after an infielder fell and Taylor had severe shoulder injuries stemming from an off-season brawl.

Kris Bryant has delivered in a major way and is just getting started on what should be a prolific career. The third baseman quickly worked his way through minors in 2014, hitting .325, with 43 homers and 110 RBIs across Double-A and Triple-A in just his first full season as a professional. He won the NL Rookie of the Year award in 2015, followed by an NL MVP in 2016 and set the record for largest contract in 2018 by a first-year arbitration-eligible player in 2018 with his $10.85M salary.

The 2013 Draft was first one under the new 2012-16 collective bargaining agreement (CBA), which created the qualifying offer as a competitive balance measure to provide teams with compensation for top players lost in free agency.

Teams were able to offer their free agents a qualifying offer, a one-year contract of a salary based on the average of the top 125 highest paid players. If a player rejected a qualifying offer (worth $13.3M in year one) and signed with another club, the signing team would lose their 1st round selection (unless is was a top ten pick); the team that lost the player would be awarded a pick in the Compensatory Round, held immediately after the first round.

In year one of this system, nine players were made a Qualifying Offer, all of which rejected. Three of the nine eventually resigned with their club. The Yankees lost Nick Swisher and Rafael Soriano and were awarded with the 32nd and 33rd overall pick, giving them three selections in the first thirty-three.

A total of 39 players were selected in the first round, which was made up of 27 in the first phase, 6 in the Compensatory Round, and 6 in the newly created Competitive Balance Round A.

22nd Pick

When the Rockies make their 1st round selection, 21 of the best players will have already been taken off the board. However, lots of top talent will remain. Though slightly arbitrary, let’s look at who was taken at this spot in 2013.

Harvey was drafted as an 18-year-old out of high school and immediately made a strong showing, twirling 25.1 innings with a 1.78 ERA and 1.066 WHIP across two, lower-level leagues.

At the start of 2014, the son of former Angels and Marlins closer Bryan Harvey was ranked 58th by Baseball Prospectus on their annual top 100 prospects list. He pitched well in his first full season, but missed all of 2015 with elbow tightness and had Tommy John surgery in 2016.

In order to protect Harvey from being taken in December’s Rule 5 Draft, the Orioles placed the right-handed starter on their 40-man roster in October of 2017. He’s still just 23-years-old and is currently pitching in the Double-A Eastern League for the Bowie Baysox.

Notable players who taken after 22nd pick: #25 Christian Arroyo (SF), #32 Aaron Judge (NYY), #34 Sean Manaea (KC), #38 Michael Lorenzen (CIN), #39 Corey Knebel (MIL)

The Rest of the Rockies Picks

Sam Moll (3rd Rd, #77): The lefty out of the University of Memphis made a great first impression at short-season Tri-City in 2013, pitching to a 1.80 ERA in 30 IP; he would also combine with two pitchers to throw a no-hitter a little more than a month after getting drafted.

He was quickly converted to a reliever and though he pitched well at each level, was designated for assignment in August of 2017. His trade to Oakland allowed him to make his major league debut for the Athletics on September 1st. He bounced around teams during the offseason—Pittsburgh, Seattle, Toronto—and now pitches for Buffalo with the Blue Jays organization.

Jordan Patterson (4th Rd, #109): The outfielder from South Alabama has produced throughout his progression of the minors, flashing his penchant for doubles (146), homers (92) and HBPs (91). He’s played some first base every year and in 2017, played more games at first than outfield for the first time.

The former college reliever made a brief appearance with the big league club, but has yet to make it back to Denver since those 18 at-bats in September/October of 2016. He’s currently on the 7-day DL in Triple-A Albuquerque.

Dom Nunez (6th Rd, #169): Drafted as 3B from Elk Grove, CA, Nunez considered going to college, but was given an $800,000 signing bonus. In contrast, Trevor Story was selected #42 overall just two years prior and get only $100,000 more.

The left-handed hitting Nunez was converted to catcher in 2014 and repeated Rookie League Grand Junction. In 2015, he had arguably his best season, batting .282 with 13 homers and 53 RBI. His defense has become a strength for him; last season at Double-A Hartford, he had just 5 pass balls and threw out 34% of base stealers.

Pat Valaika (9th Rd, #259): A shortstop for UCLA, Valaika was consistent throughout his four-plus seasons in the minors. Much like his brother Chris, Patty Barrels learned how to play effective second and third base to increase his value to the big club. Before his recent demotion to Albuquerque on May 9, he had spent over a full calendar year with Colorado as their utility infielder.

Mike Tauchman (10th Rd, #289): The Missouri Valley Conference Player of the Year received a modest $10,000 signing bonus since Tauchman had zero leverage as a college senior.

The left-handed hitter from Illinois showed speed at each stop of the minors and in 2017, broke out for 16 home runs – and 54 total extra base-hits – to go along with 16 stolen bases in Triple-A. He made the Opening Day roster at the beginning of this season. Tauchman was sent back to Albuquerque and has hit an impressive slash line of .370/.433/.693 as of Sunday, even earning the Pacific Coast League Player of the Week for May 14-20.

Matt Pierpont (26th Rd, #769): The 27-year-old closer for Hartford was originally drafted out of Winthrop University in South Carolina. The right-handed reliever has pitched well at every level, but has repeated Double-A for the past two years. Pierpont has a 2.08 ERA and 0.88 WHIP to go along with 14 saves, which is tops in the Eastern League.

What Could Have Been?

Oftentimes, players are selected by teams in the late rounds of the MLB draft only to reject a signing offer in lieu of honing their skills at the college level before re-entering the draft to earn a larger signing bonus down the road.

In 2013, the Rockies drafted Alec Hansen (White Sox) in the 25th round at pick #739 and Thomas Hatch (Cubs) at #949 in the 32nd round.

Without the promise of a lucrative signing bonus, Alec Hansen plied his trade at the University of Oklahoma. He was a potential first-round talent, but had a poor junior year and fell to the 3rd round, where he was selected 49th overall by the Chicago White Sox in 2016 and signed for $1.2M.

The Loveland High School graduate is yet to play in 2018 with Double-A Birmingham due to forearm soreness. He’s ranked 3rd by both Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus in the White Sox highly-touted minor league system; MLB Pipeline currently ranks him as the 49th best prospect in all of baseball.

Tulsa’s Thomas Hatch opted to go to Oklahoma State. He was roughed up as a freshman, sat out his sophomore year with a sprained ulnar collateral ligament, then looked dominant as a junior, earning the Big 12 Conference Pitcher of the Year.

When the Cubs signed John Lackey and Jason Heyward during the 2015-16 offseason, they surrendered their first two draft picks. So, Chicago drafted the player they felt had the highest upside and selected Hatch, signing him with a signing bonus at slot value for $573,900.  

The Rest of the 2013 MLB Draft

Notable players taken in 2nd round: #44 Trevor Williams (PIT), #61 Chance Sisco (BAL), #71 Chad Pinder (OAK)

Notable players taken in 3rd round or later: #85 Tyler O’Neill (SEA), #88 Daniel Palka (ARI), #95 Keynan Middleton (LAA), #100 Ryon Healy (OAK), #124 Cody Bellinger (LAD), #136 Nick Pivetta (WAS), #175 Matt Boyd (TOR), #179 Adam Frazier (PIT), #225 Tyler Mahle (CIN), #235 Kendall Graveman (TOR) , #249 Trey Mancini (BAL), #269 Chad Kuhl (PIT), #288 Zach Godley (CHC), #299 Shane Carle (PIT), #300 Jimmy Sherfy (ARI), #323 Carlos Asuaje (BOS), #336 Chad Green (DET), #434 Caleb Smith (NYY), #554 Dustin Fowler, #945 Andrew Benintendi (CIN – did not sign)