Rockies invite top prospect Rodgers to camp

Rockies top prospect Brendan Rodgers will once again get the chance to show what he can do against big league talent.
The 21-year-old shortstop was among 17 non-roster players invited to Major League Spring Training next month, the team announced Monday. The Rockies said 10 of their invitees were "homegrown players" and that seven would be making their big league Spring Training debuts.

Colorado's first-round pick in 2015, Rodgers found his way into a pair of Major League Spring Training games last year, going 1-for-2 with a double and a run scored. He spent the regular season between Class A Advanced Lancaster and Double-A Hartford, hitting .336 with 18 homers, 64 RBIs and 26 doubles in 89 games, mostly in the California League.
Rodgers was hitting .400 when Colorado moved him up to Double-A last summer, and he finished the year ranked as the No. 7 prospect in baseball. (He currently sits at No. 15 overall on MLB.com's recently updated rankings.)
"Rodgers' numbers tell a pretty good story of how his year went, but not the whole thing," Rockies senior director of player personnel Zach Wilson told MiLB.com in October. "His time in Lancaster went as expected, which is tough to say when someone hits .400. Obviously, we expected him to hit there and he did that and then some. But he also made some very good improvements on the defensive end."

Fellow infielders Daniel Castro, Garrett Hampson, Brian Mundell and Shawn O'Malley also received invites. The Rockies will bring along outfielder Sam Hilliard, catchers Anthony Bemboom, Dom Nuñez and Jan Vázquez and lefties Harrison Musgrave and Jerry Vasto. Shane Broyles, Ryan Castellani, James Farris, Austin House, Peter Lambert and Brooks Pounders were the righties on Colorado's invite list.
Lambert, a 20-year-old second-round pick from 2015, struck out 131 and walked 30 in 142 1/3 innings at Lancaster last year. The Rockies' No. 5 prospect, he went 9-8 with a 4.18 ERA in 26 starts.

Castellani is the No. 3-ranked righty in the Rockies' system after going 9-12 with a 4.81 ERA in 27 starts last summer with Hartford. Colorado's No. 6 prospect had 132 strikeouts and held batters to a .264 average in 157 1/3 innings.
Hampson, 23, put up big numbers in his second season, hitting .326 with eight homers, 70 RBIs and 51 stolen bases at Lancaster last year. The Rockies' third-round pick in 2016 previously led the Northwest League in steals with 36 in 2016.
Mundell, a 6-foot-3 first baseman, hit .300 with 15 home runs and 78 RBIs last year across two levels after leading the Class A South Atlantic League in hits and RBIs in 2016.
Hilliard also enjoyed the hitter-friendly Cal League in 2017, pounding out 21 homers and 92 RBIs in 133 games in an All-Star campaign for the JetHawks. He hit an even .300 and added 37 stolen bases, 23 doubles and seven triples in his third pro season.