The picks have been made, the platitudes dished out and now the real work begins for the Rockies after 21 new prospects were drafted over the weekend.
For a new front-office regime tasked with leading a beloved franchise out of an historic hole, the MLB Draft offered insights into what kind of team Paul DePodesta and Josh Byrnes want to build in LoDo. The upcoming trade deadline will also offer clues.
Here are some takeaways from the weekend after 613 players were selected by MLB’s 30 franchises across 21 rounds over two days.
Versatility is a must
The Rockies took a shortstop with their top pick for the second straight year, drafting Kentucky’s Tyler Bell, 21, a switch-hitter who shone against SEC competition over the past two seasons.
Bell passed on turning pro straight out of high school two years ago after the Rays took him at No. 66 overall, betting on himself. It paid off handsomely — he’s slotted to sign for $6,393,100 as the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft.
Whether he ends up playing shortstop at Coors Field or itap Ethan Holliday — the 19-year-old son of Rockies legend Matt Holliday, whom the club took fourth overall last year — remains to be seen. Tommy Tanous, Colorado’s assistant GM in charge of player development and scouting, told reporters on Saturday that both players will continue on a shortstop track, but added that doesn’t mean they won’t play other positions.
“We have plenty of teams and we need plenty of shortstops,” Tanous said. “A lot of players in this organization going forward are going to move around a little bit and we’re going to build some versatility. That does not mean they are not shortstops when you put them in center field for a day or second base. Both of those players are going to get the majority of their time developing at shortstop.”
There were also telltale signs of what the front office values among the four other players that Colorado picked on Day 1 — catchers Daniel Jackson (No. 37) and Jack Natili (No. 76) and pitchers Logan Reddemann (No. 38) and Ben Davis (No. 104).
Depodesta joked that the club might actually have taken three catchers, since Davis — a 6-foot-4, 230-pound right-handed flamethrower from Mississippi State — began his college career pitching and catching for two seasons at Itawamba (Miss.). Community College.
Jackson, a 6-foot-2, 200-pound Golden Spikes Award winner from Georgia, isn’t your average college catcher, either: he won the SEC Triple Crown last season, slashing.379/.473/.803 with 32 home runs, 87 RBI, and 26 stolen bases over 67 games. He led the nation in total bases and runs scored.
He’s got the athleticism to be a corner outfielder if he doesn’t stay behind the plate, given that Colorado’s current catcher, two-time All-Star Hunter Goodman, has hit 27 homers this season.
Natili, a 6-foot-3, 198–pound prospect from Cincinnati, also has exceptional power at the plate.
DePodesta said Saturday’s opening rounds provided opportunities, given how Colorado valued players, and that Jackson and Natili both represented perfect fits when it was time to pick.
“Not necessarily the plan we laid out going into the day of, ‘Hey, we’re going to get two catchers here.’ But those were both players that we had very high on our board that we felt if we had access to, we wanted to jump on that opportunity,” he said. “We think both of them have a chance to have very long careers in the big leagues. And they’re both right-handed hitters, both have power, both can really catch.
“Maybe I’m showing a little of my bias here in terms of where I think a team is built from the start. But these are two really, really good ones and they’re both going to get plenty of opportunity with us.”
Pitchers with big repertoires
Itap a company line that the Rockies have been preaching ever since the new regime took over: Pitchers trying to survive at Coors Field need a deep arsenal to keep hitters off balance. They also need to pound the strike zone. The two pitchers Colorado took on Day 1 certainly fit that mold.
Reddemann, a 6-foot-2, 185-pound right-hander who is slotted to sign for $2.63 million, has developed velocity and pitching diversity over three college seasons, first at the University of San Diego before transferring to UCLA. He has a 95-96 mph fastball that has hit 99 mph, an 84-85 mph changeup and a hard cutter that reaches 87-91 mph. He also unveiled a low-80s slider and will use an 80-82 mph curve to get ahead early in counts.
“He not only developed more velocity, he developed more pitches themselves,” Tanous said. “This is one of the biggest arsenals you’ll see. Itap incredibly impressive. Itap almost a professional arsenal. He’ll throw you cutter, sweeper, more traditional curveball, changeup. The last six or seven games, he really came on, and on top of that, he’s throwing 95, 96. He was the college pitcher of the year.
“Really what stands out is the ability to throw with that arsenal and throw it for strikes. Kind of a unique guy. Especially in today’s college game where a lot of the pitchers are two-pitch guys throwing very hard.”
Tanous called Davis “a big horse” that scares hitters with a fastball that hovers between 94 and 97 mph, tops out at 100 mph and moves in mysterious ways. He also averages 91 mph with his cutter and 87 mph with a slider that features more depth than sweep.
“You watch him and you do not want to be in the batter’s box against him,” Tanous said. “Itap a big, moving fastball that we feel like we can actually develop even more. Itap a swing-and-miss cutter and slider, so he has three pitches that he can go to, but itap really high-octane stuff.”
Depodesta harped on the athleticism as well, adding that Reddemann had also played middle infield before moving to pitching full-time.
“Both very, very good strike throwers,” he said. “Reddeman sort of has elite repeatability and really good feel for the baseball. As Tommy noted with Ben Davis, he has an unusual fastball that we really think is going to play well in our environment.”
The Rockies took 12 pitchers among the 21 players they selected this weekend, including a run of 9 straight between rounds 4-9.
Here are all of the Rockies’ picks from this year’s MLB Draft.
- No. 10, SS Tyler Bell, SS, Kentucky
- No. 37: Daniel Jackson, C, Georgia
- No. 38: Logan Reddemann, RHP, UCLA:
- No. 76: Jack Natili, C, Cincinnati
- No. 104: Ben Davis, RHP, Mississippi State
- No. 136: Tyler Putnam, RHP, Battle High School (Columbia Mo.)
- No. 165: Garrett Lambert, RHP, Mercer
- No. 194: Jack Scott, RHP, Central Missouri
- No. 224: Hudson Barrett, LHP, Oklahoma State
- No. 254: Tanner Sagouspe, RHP, TCU
- No. 284: Mikiah Negrete, LHP, California State, Fullerton
- No. 314: Gavin Swartz, RHP, Normal Community High School (Bloomington, Ill)
- No. 344: Garrett Brewer, LHP, Auburn
- No. 374: Juriel Collazo, OF, Christian Military Academy High School, Ponce, Puerto Rico
- No. 404: Lorenzo Carrier, OF, Pittsburgh
- No. 434: Ryan Niedzwiedz, 1B, Southern Illinois Edwardsville
- No. 464: Sam Larson, RHP, Tulane
- No. 494: Josh Swink, LHP, Liberty University
- No. 524: Blake Bowen, OF, JSerra Catholic High School (San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
- No. 554: Cort MacDonald, OF, Stanford
- No. 584, Dimitri Williams Jr., OF, Bishop O’Dowd High School (Oakland, Calif.)
