Having never seen him pitch, I can't claim to know a lot about Tyler Anderson.* Keith Law poo-poo'd the pick, but I only trust his recommendations on cookware. A big lefty with a couple of good pitches sounds like a fair deal to me, but the best quote I've seen on him comes from his high school coach in a story by the Salem Statesman Journal:
"He's an extreme competitor and an incredible hard worker," said Mike Gomez, his high school coach at Spring Valley High, in an interview with MLB.com."He's a warrior. For us in high school, he was a bit inconsistent ... he showed flashes of his brilliance. The coaching staff at Oregon did a great job of getting him to be consistent.
I'll leave it at that. John Sickels of Minor League Ball is "very pro-Story" and I like to tell a story now and then, so we are in agreement.
You can probably deduce the same things about these two guys from a Google News search as me. Instead, let's take a look at the drafts of Rockies past...
*Despite going to a school that produced multiple early round disappointments for NL West Teams (Matt Antonelli, Jamie D'Antona), I never got into NCAA baseball.
It's not a secret that the Rockies have had a muddled history with high first round picks, and the lower first round picks aren't an exception. You can take your pick of whether Jamey Wright (28, longevity) or Jason Jennings (16, brief promise) is the better pick, but the best is either yet to come (Parker, Wheeler, Brothers, Friedrich?) or Jake Westbrook (21, arm problems). Jennings is probably my choice. He provided the memorable debut CG shutout and HR versus the Mets in 2001, and was the export in the trade that netted Taylor Buchholz and Willy Taveras.
Below are all Rockies picks from the latter half of the first round, as well as the supplemental round, that made the major leagues or are no longer with the club, plus those take in the supplemental round (1S). A few ground rules for the list:
- As mentioned, these don't involve players drafted from 1-15;
- WAR figures are taken from Fangraphs, not B-R; and
- Cumulative Rockies WAR tallies the WAR produced by the draftee, plus anyone acquired in a trade for the draftee or drafted as a result of compensation gained by the draftee signing with another club*; and
- If the draftee never appeared with the Rockies, compensation received by the Rockies upon their departure is included in Cumulative WAR.
Year (Round, Pick) |
Player |
Rockies WAR |
Cumulative |
Peak Rockies |
Career |
Method of Departure |
1992 (1, 27) |
John Burke (RHP) |
0.3 (.1+) |
0.3 |
4.77 |
5.96 |
Left baseball |
1993 (1, 28) |
Jamey Wright (RHP) |
9.4 (1.6) |
17.2 |
4.9 |
5.05 |
Traded for Jeff Cirillo, Scott Karl |
1996 (1, 21) |
Jake Westbrook (RHP) |
N/A |
-0.1 |
N/A |
4.16 |
Traded for Mike Lansing |
1997 (1, 18) |
Mark Mangum (RHP) |
N/A |
2.6 |
N/A |
N/A |
Traded for Dave Veres, Mark Hamlin |
1998 (1, 28) |
Matt Roney (RHP) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
5.77 |
Selected by Pirates in 2002 Rule V |
1998 (1S, 36) |
Choo Freeman (OF) |
.-1.2 (-.4) |
-1.2 |
.290 |
.270 |
Released in 2007 |
1998 (1S, 40) |
Jeff Winchester (C) |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
N/A |
Released or lost in 2004 Rule V (unclear) |
1999 (1, 16) |
Jason Jennings (RHP) |
15.2 (2.5) |
19.9 |
4.09* |
4.75 |
Traded for W. Taveras, T. Buchholz, J. Hirsh |
2001 (1S, 44) |
Jayson Nix (SS) |
-0.3 (-.3) |
-0.3 |
.185 |
.294 |
Signed as FA with White Sox |
2005 (1S, 32) |
Chaz Roe (RHP) |
N/A |
-0.2 |
N/A |
N/A |
Traded for J. Lopez |
Year (Round, Pick) |
Player |
2008 (1, 25) |
Christian Friedrich (LHP) |
2009 (1, 32) |
Tim Wheeler (OF) |
2009 (1S, 34) |
Rex Brothers (LHP) |
2010 (1, 26) |
Kyle Parker (OF) |
2010 (1S, 47) |
Peter Tago (RHP_ |
2011 (1, 20) |
Taylor Anderson (LHP) |
2011 (1S, 45) |
Trevor Story (SS) |