Wednesday Rockpile: Will Charlie Condon save the Colorado Rockies?

Colorado Rockies news and links for Wednesday, July 17, 2024

When a team makes a pick at the top of the draft, it’s typically with the intent of selecting a franchise-altering player. We have seen plenty of players become the face of their respective franchises and put them on a course for success. How long that success carries varies from team to team but a top pick has a difficult responsibility for carrying the weight of an organization on his back.

As the Colorado Rockies made their first selection of the 2024 Draft, they selected Georgia slugger Charlie Condon as the third overall pick with the hope that he would be the franchise’s new face, tasked with ushering in a new era of Rockies baseball.

The Rockies find themselves in a rough spot as a team. Not only do they own one of the worst records in baseball this season, but they are safely headed towards a second-consecutive 100-plus loss season. Their $182 million star has barely played in three years and their offensive unit has gradually grown more stale since 2017. There have been gambles and decisions that have not paved the way for success, leaving the Rockies rudderless is the vast ocean that is Major League Baseball.

Needing someone to be a saving grace, Condon fits the bill for the Rockies in their mind.

“We see him as the ‘face of the franchise’-type player,” said Senior Director of Scouting Operations Marc Gustafson. “He’s got the the skill set, he’s got the mindset, the work ethic… just a really solid player on and off the field. Most importantly, the hit/power combination is hard to come by. It was a no-brainer when he became available.”

Team officials were “jumping for joy” being able to select Condon because in a way it was making up for a missed opportunity 10 years ago.

Condon has already drawn comparisons to current Rockie Kris Bryant with the accolades, physical makeup, and ability to lift baseballs. The Rockies were intent on selecting Bryant with the third overall pick in 2013 before the Chicago Cubs took him second, leaving the Rockies to pivot to Jon Gray (which turned out pretty well). Bryant went on to live up to the hype in his first few years in Chicago, helping turn the franchise around a bit, and doing everything the Rockies had hoped would have happened to them. That remorse led the team to the ill-fated signing of Bryant in 2022.

Now, with the selection of Condon the Rockies may finally be getting what they had hoped to acquire back in 2013.

It’s easy to be enthusiastic about the pick. After being overlooked by scouts and college recruiters out of high school because he was physically underdeveloped, Condon managed to make the team at the University of Georgia as a walk-on. As he redshirted the 2022 season to grow and develop more, he quickly won National Freshman of the Year honors in 2023 by slashing .386/.484/.800 with a Southeastern Conference freshman-record 25 homers.

Then in 2024, he became the most feared hitter in the nation by posting even better numbers and leading NCAA Division I in batting (.433), slugging (1.009), OPS (1.565), homers (37), extra-base hits (58) and total bases (233). He won the Golden Spikes Award, SEC Player of the Year, and the Dick Howser Trophy which is awarded to the national college baseball player of the year.

The Rockies are certainly banking on Condon being able to seamlessly take that offensive production and translate it to professional baseball. The hope is that he could be on the fast track to the big leagues and follow in the footsteps of the other two college position players the Rockies have drafted in the top 10.

Both Todd Helton and Troy Tulowitzki found themselves in the big leagues not long after being drafted. Helton was selected in 1995 and debuted in 1997. Tulowitzki was selected in 2005 and made his debut by the end of the 2006 season. Both were special talents and changed the organization when they were on the field. While Condon isn’t guaranteed a Hall of Fame career, he has the potential to follow in their footsteps as a leader for the Rockies moving forward. The team has already shown a willingness to fast-track a college bat in 2024 with the emergence of Jordan Beck before he broke his hand.

His power will definitely play at Coors Field but it’s his plate discipline that will also be intriguing. He struck out just 86 times in his college career (116 games) while drawing 90 walks. That shows that he is more than just a slugger, but has a refined approach and keen eye at the plate that enables him to be an all-around hitter, something the Rockies have been missing for a while.

They will still have to figure out where he fits defensively since he can play the outfield corners and both corner infield spots. Still, with a player of this caliber, it becomes prudent for the Rockies to make a spot for him long-term, regardless of how much they value his versatility.

Will Condon save the Rockies? In all honestly, not in the way you’d think. After all he is just one player and the team has a lot of problems that one kid from Georgia won’t fix. However, I believe he can help usher in a new era of Rockies baseball and give the front office a player by which everything revolves around. He can be the face of the youth movement that involves players like Beck, Chase Dollander, Sean Sullivan, Drew Romo and many others. After all, Bryant wasn’t the sole reason and savior for Cubs baseball, but he was the face and leader of their homegrown unit that won a World Series together.

By committing to a player like Condon, the Rockies will really be able to save themselves as an organization and he can be the catalyst.

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Under tutelage of Rox legend, 2nd-round pick draws comparisons to current Rockie | MLB.com

The Rockies selected Jared Thomas with their second-round pick on Monday and it seems that he will be a natural fit in the team’s system. He emulated Charlie Blackmon’s swing growing up and was also coached by Troy Tulowitzki to develop more power this year. Thomas Harding also includes a few notes about the Day-2 picks in the draft.

Yankees can cross Rockies’ Ryan McMahon off trade deadline wish list | New York Post

Ryan McMahon has been a popular trade rumor this year but he is going to stay put. Reportedly, McMahon talked to general manager Bill Schmidt before batting practice one day and was reassured that as much as a trade may make sense, they aren’t going to trade him. McMahon wanted peace of mind because he didn’t want to put his wife and four-month-old daughter through the burden of having to pack up the house and move right now, which is respectable.

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