Home-Grown Rockies Ready for Season

The Rockies scouting and player development department is making a strong statement.
The Rockies open the season on Monday afternoon at Arizona and will feature a home-grown starting lineup.

That’s right. All nine players in the Rockies lineup came out of the draft, originally signed by the Rockies and nurtured through the farm system.

No other major league team can claim that type of production.

Arizona, Cleveland and Milwaukee will have seven apiece, based off the projected lineups. At the other extreme, Florida will have only one – outfielder Jeremy Hermida, a first-round pick in 2002. San Diego (right-handed pitcher Jake Peavy and outfielder Chase Headley), Baltimore (second baseman Brian Roberts and outfielder Nick Markakis) and Washington (third baseman Ryan Zimmerman and left-handed pitcher John Lannan) have two apiece.

And then there are the Rockies, who claim 17 of the 25 players on the Opening Day roster as having been originally signed and developed within.

Where did they come from?

First round picks (3): Todd Helton, first baseman, 1995; Troy Tulowitzki, shortstop, 2005, and Ian Stewart, infielder, 2003.

Second round picks (2): Aaron Cook, starting pitcher, 1997, and Seth Smith, left fielder, 2004.

Third round pick(1): Chris Iannetta, catcher, 2004.

Fourth round pick (1): Jeff Baker, infielder 2002.

Fifth round pick (1): Garrett Atkins, third base, 2000.

Seventh round pick (1): Ryan Spilborghs, center fielder, 2002.

Tenth round pick (1): Clint Barmes, second baseman, 2000.

Eleventh round pick (1): Brad Hawpe, right fielder, 2000.

Fourteenth round pick (1): Dexter Fowler, outfielder, 2004.

Undrafted (1): Ryan Speier, right-handed pitcher, 2001.

Latin American program (4): Ubaldo Jimenez, right-handed pitcher, 2001; Franklin Morales, left-handed pitcher, 2002; Juan Morillo, right-handed pitcher, 2001, and Manny Corpas, right-handed pitcher, 1999.

The scoreboard

Opening Day Starters signed and developed by current team:
9 – Colorado
7 – Cleveland, Milwaukee and Arizona.
6 – St. Louis
5—Tampa Bay, Toronto, Chicago (AL), Minnesota, Los Angeles (AL), Seattle, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Chicago (NL), Pittsburgh and Los Angeles (NL).
4 – Boston, New York (AL), and San Francisco.
3 – Detroit, Kansas City, New York (NL), Oakland, Texas, Houston, and Cincinnati.
2 – Baltimore, Washington and San Diego.
1 – Florida and San Diego.

SOMETIMES THE media creates rumors that become assumed as fact and then teams have to live with the feedback. Tampa Bay general manager Andrew Friedman says the team never talked seriously with any team, much less than Rockies, about right-hander Jeff Neimann, even though it was reported that way by assorted media.

Then there were reports a week ago that the Rockies had interest in Cubs right-hander Chad Gaudin. Not quite. They had interest in Gaudin when he was with Oakland, but after watching him pitch during the spring the interest dwindled to the point that they might be in a wavier claim and send him to the minors, but a trade and assuming a $2 million contract was never a consideration.

Florida officials say they are surprised at reports they scouted right-hander Juan Morillo extensively in the spring. Word out of the Marlins camp is current Marlins pitching coach Mark Wiley remembers too much about Morillo from when Wiley was a special assistant for the Rockies.

It brings back memories of the off-season when a report will pop up that a general manager has talked to an agent about a certain player. That’s usually information provided by an agent who is trying to create a market for his client. Often the conversation consists of the agent saying, “You have interest in what’shisname?’’ The GM says no. So it is true, the two sides did discuss the player.