The name of the Colorado Rockies was present from the first moment in the 2022 Rookie Draft of the Dominican Professional Baseball League, an organization that saw five of its talents selected in the first three rounds of the draw.
Adael Amador, a 19-year-old shortstop, ranked by MLB Pipeline as the third best prospect in Colorado, started the party by being selected as the first pick of the lottery, who becomes part of the Toros del Este team.
The second overall pick in the raffle went equally to a member of the Rockies, after the Leones del Esgido took over Warming Bernabel, a third baseman who ranked eighth among the best baseball players on the farms of the franchise.
The name of the “Centennial State” organization would appear again with the third and sixth picks of the second round, when the Águilas Cibaeñas took on outfielder Juan Guerrero, followed by the Gigantes del Cibao, who took on utility player Julio Carreras. .
The first selection of the third round would once again fall on the shoulders of a Rockies player, after the Bulls chose to be creditors of infielder Juan Brito. Pitcher Ángel Chivili was another Colorado member to be selected in the draft, being the Giants’ sixth pick in the 11th round.
Such superiority shown by the Rockies in the draft does not correspond to a coincidence, since said team is currently seen as owning the ninth best Minor League system for the development of its players among the thirty organizations of the Major Leagues, according to a ranking prepared by MLB.com in the past month of August.
The five selections of players belonging to the Rockies in the raffle of the local baseball teams, is only surpassed by the overwhelming eight picks on players belonging to the Arizona Diamondbacks, although the latter only achieved one selection in the first five rounds of the lottery.
Those from Colorado opened the doors of an academy in the Dominican Republic for the development of Latin American players in 2013, so the high presence in quality and quantity of Dominicans in their ranks is logical, evidenced in the selections of players by the different franchises of the LIDOM.
