Welcome to Around the Bases! Over the next few months, I’ll be talking all things Rockies, from players to trends to stats, and trying to figure out where the Rockies can go from here. This week, I’ll be discussing exactly what this year’s MLB First-Year Player Draft means to the Rockies.

The MLB Draft is a completely different animal than that of other sports, like the NFL or the NBA. It doesn’t take place under the lights in New York City and ESPN doesn’t devote hours of coverage to it—for good reason. Baseball players take years to work their way through the minor league system and eventually up to the majors. A first-round draft pick is probably not going to immediately make an impact, unlike NBA and NFL players. The outlook is at least a couple of years into the future, especially for a team like the Rockies who has finished miles under .500 in the last few years.

This year’s MLB First-Year Player Draft took place from June 8-10. 40 rounds worth of players were selected, including compensatory picks.

With that in mind, this was also Jeff Bridich’s first draft as the Rockies’ general manager after taking over the job from Dan O’Dowd in October 2014, and things clearly need to change. This draft could be a time for the Rockies to start over.

Thanks to their 66-96 (wins-losses) record last year, the Rockies had the third pick in the draft. With that pick, they selected shortstop Brendan Rodgers out of Lake Mary High School, Florida. MLB.com ranks Rodgers as the number one prospect to come out of the draft. Rodgers has already signed a contract with the Rockies, receiving a $5.5 million signing bonus. He’ll start his season in the Rockies’ advanced rookie-league affiliate along with the rest of the draft signees in Grand Junction with the goal of being in the major leagues by the time he’s 21 in 2017—three years before shortstop Troy Tulowitzki’s contract runs out in 2020. The 18-year-old set the tone for a young draft for the Rockies; a draft so young, that I, at the ripe old age of 19, am older than their first five picks.

Rodgers was followed up by a handful of pitchers, as well as a few other position players. But, of their top 10 picks, eight were pitchers, which is a good sign. Pitching is everything in baseball, and by drafting a lot of pitchers, the Rockies are hedging their bets that at least a few of them will work out. Pitching has notoriously been the Rockies’ Achilles heel, but they are attempting to fix that through these efforts. Because pitching is such a commodity, the draft is the easiest place for the Rockies to find pitching, rather than attempting to sign free agents or complete a trade.

A few of the Rockies’ other top-10 picks have signed as well, including the Rockies second pick, and another first-round pick, right-handed-pitcher (RHP) Mike Nikorak (Stroudsburg High School, Strourdsburg, PA). Updated information about signees and full results of the draft can be found online.

As their first five picks were all high school players, these are not players who will be ready in a year or two. The Rockies are clearly not trying to win right now, but trying to rebuild, showing Bridich’s commitment to the future. In drafting for the long-term, it looks like Bridich wants to be around for awhile to watch these draftees and the team develop.

In the immediate future, it seems like the Rockies’ best bet might be to follow the mold of someone like the Houston Astros—another team that was bad for years and is now, thanks to a young team, first in their division. Hopefully a few years of picking high in the draft will lead the Rockies to a similar fate. Like the Astros, the Rockies have a smaller budget; they aren’t going to be able to get better by signing big names. Their best hope is going to be in developing young players.

The old adage of the fans of teams that spend the majority of their time in the bottom of standings is “wait until next year.” With the Rockies, it might better to say, “wait for the next few years.” By that point, the whole starting lineup might be completely different.

Notes:

Outfielder Corey Dickerson is on the DL again with plantar fasciitis, possibly to return in July. First baseman Justin Morneau is still on the DL recovering from concussion symptoms with no set return date.

Tulowitzki is currently in third place in All-Star voting, behind number one Jhonny Peralta (St. Louis Cardinals) and number two Brendan Crawford (San Francisco Giants). Nolan Arenado is in fourth for third baseman.