Colorado Rockies
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PrintBaseball America's Top 10 Prospects lists are based on projections of a player's long-term worth after discussions with scouting and player-development personnel. All players who haven't exceeded the major league rookie standards of 130 at-bats or 50 innings pitched (without regard to service time) are eligible. Ages are as of April 1, 2008.
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Ten years ago, the Rockies were a non-factor in Latin America. Now they're among the teams getting the most impact talent out of the region.
It's no coincidence that they just won the first National League pennant in franchise history, not to mention had just their second winning season in the last decade.
Manny Corpas, who converted 19 of 20 save opportunities after seizing the closer's role in July, signed out of Panama. Franklin Morales and Ubaldo Jimenez, who stabilized the rotation at midseason, were found in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Two more Dominicans, shortstop Hector Gomez and righthander Pedro Strop, join No. 1 prospect Morales on this Top 10 list.
Before the recent surge of talent, the only Latin Americans whom Colorado originally signed and brought to the major leagues were Neifi Perez and Juan Uribe. "It takes a long time to build a Latin program, but we now have a solid infrastructure," general manager Dan O'Dowd says.
Getting this to point has been a challenge. Under O'Dowd's predecessor Bob Gebhard, the Rockies budgeted $50,000 for its entire Latin American operation. In the last year alone, they spent $1.9 million on signing bonuses for Latin players.
The change began in 1999, Gebhard's final year as GM, when ownership hired legendary scout Gary Hughes. Colorado moved out of the three-bedroom home it had been using as its Dominican "academy" and shared a top-flight facility with the Diamondbacks that included well-groomed fields, a dormitory for housing, a weight room and a cafeteria. Hughes also moved Rolando Fernandez from a roving coordinator in charge of Latin American instruction to director of Latin operations.
"For us, the Latin program is integrated into the rest of the organization," vice president of baseball operations Bill Geivett says. "We treat it just like we treat any of our minor league teams. We send all our roving instructors down there to work with the players, providing consistency in the message we are sending to everyone in our system."
So far, the Latin program's impact has shown up on the big league staff. But with strong arms developing out of Latin America, scouting director Bill Schmidt has been able to target position players with early picks in recent drafts. The Rockies have spent first-rounders on infielders Jayson Nix (2001), Ian Stewart (2003), Chris Nelson (2004) and Troy Tulowitzki (2005). Tulowitzki had a spectacular rookie season in 2007, while Stewart is the system's top position prospect and Nix could take over the second-base job in 2008.
The Rockies originally signed six of the eight regulars in their postseason lineup. The only exceptions were free agents Yorvit Torrealba and Kazuo Matsui, who likely will be replaced by homegrown products Chris Iannetta, Clint Barmes and Nix. Colorado has done a fine job of developing players, as Todd Helton and Tulowitzki were the only regulars who were first-round picks. Matt Holliday batted just .271 with 61 homers in six minor league seasons before blossoming into the NL's reigning batting and RBI champion.
Four of the five pitchers who started postseason games for the Rockies were originally signed by the club, including staff ace Jeff Francis, a first-round pick in 2002. All told, 16 of the 25 players on the World Series roster were homegrown.
| Scouting reports for the Top 10 Prospects
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