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It's a Holliday in Denver
Connor Farrell
July 16, 2025
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Holl-Heads Rejoice! Another Holliday lands in Denver
After the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim went way off board with the number two pick, passing on Liam Doyle, Kade Anderson, and Ethan Holliday for college pitcher Tyler Bremner I thought “oh God, the weird draft class is causing a weird draft.” What if all the mocks were wrong? What if all 30 teams hated Ethan Holliday and he was going to slide into the second round? What if the Rockies were going to take some low bonus college arm like the Angels just did?
Well, it turned out the Angels were on their own there. Ethan Holliday is a Colorado Rockies draftee. The 18-year-old returns to his father’s organization where he will begin a long journey to hopefully restore some modest respect to the club. Holliday technically hasn’t signed yet, but there has yet to be any indication that this will be a difficult one to lock in and ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel hinted the Rockies will be willing to break some signing bonus records to get this one done. There would be little more embarrassing now than for Holliday’s story to fall apart due to financial disagreements.
Ethan is, literally, the most famous prospect in this draft. His father’s legacy in MLB is known, his brother is a big leaguer and was drafted #1 overall just three seasons ago, and he’s been scouted heavily since his entry into high school. The Rockies have rarely had a more high profile draft pick. Even previous top-5 picks like Charlie Condon, Jon Gray, etc. have paled in hype comparisons to Holliday. The Rockies have a very rare draft pick here that is already getting expectations from pretty normal, casual fans thrust upon him. People know his name, they know his story, and now they expect him to change the team’s fortunes.
From a scouting perspective, I won’t pretend to be a scout, but he is a 6’4 lefty with a ton of power that looks, at least from the highlight tape I found on YouTube, to be easy for him to unlock. His swing feels smooth and gets to the ball quickly. I don’t watch a lot of swing tape, but I do watch a lot of baseball. And this swing just looks nice. We’ll have to wait and see on some reports/stat lines from the Complex League later this year but I don’t know how you cannot like what Ethan Holliday brings to the table as a prospect. For a long period of time, he was the highest rated player on the board, and his drop to four may have more to do with bonus pool math and college pitching floors than any hesitancy around his talent.
I don’t know that there has ever been a draft pick in Rockies history with this kind of immediate marketing power. This isn’t a Bryce Harper pick, but I can imagine that it won’t just be ballheads packing ballparks in Fresno and Spokane next year to see Holliday play. It’s such an interesting and unique moment for the franchise. Due to the development process of the minor leagues, the MLB draft rarely has a moment like this. A player who won’t make immediate impact at Coors Field, but will drive high anticipation throughout his career. The day Ethan Holliday does make his MLB debut will be a massive moment for the organization.
I don’t mean to overweigh the significance of this pick, but for a club as in the desert as the Rockies, this is a major moment. Anyway here’s a video of Holliday ripping dingers on the Oklahoma circuit.
Side note: There were some weird body language experts around the social media world trying to say Ethan looked “mad” or “awkward” to be drafted by the Rockies. But to them I say, ok whatever man. That sounds like your preconceived bias towards the Rockies complete incompetence makes you think nobody wants to work for them. But the egg will be on your face when many players agree to work for them every year.
Connor’s Guys Update, An Update on Connor’s Minor League Guys of Note
Connor’s Guys will be an update on the Guys I want to follow through the Rockies minor league system. This won’t necessarily be the best prospects, don’t expect a top-100 guy here, but guys I find interesting. Every now and then we’ll add a new guy when I spot someone putting up an interesting line or having a unique profile to look into. Currently, Connor’s Guys are all pitchers. Sean Sullivan (AA), Welinton Herrera (AA), Brody Brecht (A), and Connor Van Scoyoc (AAA).
Player | Last Week | Last 28 days |
|---|---|---|
Sullivan (Hartford) | 1 GS, 4 2/3 IP, 1 ER, 5 K, 2 BB | 28 IP, 3.45 ERA, 28 K, 6 BB |
Herrera (Hartford) | 1 IP, 0 ER, 3 K, 0 BB | 9 2/3 IP, 0.00 ERA, 16 K, 0 BB |
Brecht (Complex) | 3 IP, 2 ER, 5 K, 0 BB | 8 2/3 IP, 3.12 ERA, 13 K, 3 BB |
Van Scoyoc (Albuquerque) | 1 2/3 IP, 0 ER, 0 K, 0 BB | 14 IP, 5.79 ERA, 5 K, 9 BB |
Shoutout Welinton Herrera who pitched the final out for the winning NL Futures Team last Saturday. It doesn’t count for the above but he got to showcase his stuff and retired Yankee prospect George Lombard to end the game. Congrats to The Beef.
Everyone else was quietly doing their job. CVS Method with another strong week out of the pen and with the deadline fast approaching and many Rockies relievers on the block, I think we can make a good argument that Denver needs to visit a CVS soon.
Other Draft Thoughts
You might remember last week when I threw a random guess out for the Rockies second selection on Sunday.
Well guess what…
