Earlier this weekend, Kumar Rocker had not started a baseball game since the 2021 College World Series. One year off is a significant cut for any pitcher, although in the 12 months since he last took Vanderbilt’s mound, Rocker has gone to a hell of a professional Odyssey. Rocker was selected 10th overall by the Mets in the 2021 Amateur Draft, only to find that the Mets decided not to give him a deal with the expected signature bonus of $ 6 million from a combination of doubts about his ability to hold on long-term. Good old labor anti-draft-pick arbitration.
Billionaire Mets owner Steve Cohen Make that last bit clear When he explained that he had found the greatest college player in his organization in a decade because he could only imagine him as an inhuman asset. And so Rocker, an undoubtedly talented pitcher, was forced to make a long cut before the 2022 draft. Last month, he signed with the Tri-City Valicates of the Independent Frontier League to prepare for that draft, and on Saturday he made his first start, against the Troyes-Rivieres Eagles. Through four innings of his career, Rocker has shown that he is still absolutely the top potential.
Rocker struck out six batsmen, the first of whom was looking at 97 miles per hour. He got his first three innings relatively efficiently, using 38 pitches before needing 22 more to get out of the fourth. He has tossed 43 of his 60 pitches for the strike, allowing a home run and hitting a batter. He did not walk to anyone, although the scouts who took part in the game said that his control had loosened in the final frame. This is not entirely surprising since, again, he has not started a game since June 2021. The thing you want to see is the speed, which he has brought.
Rocker hits 99 with his fastball and shows a nice slider and change. After allowing a single on the second batter of the game, he retired eight in a row. “It’s been a long year, a lot of work has been done,” Rocker told the Associated Press. “I am just happy to see good results. I had a process. When I get the start date, attack, attack, attack গিয়ে go there and do my job. ”
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Rocker doesn’t have to be Valicat for long – just enough time to remember what Tri-Cities are, let alone Troyes Rivieres – because he’s almost certain to start his MLB journey next month. Lots of scouts Was in hand For the game, and although we still don’t know if there was anything legitimately troubling about Rocker’s medical assessment, he looked good in front of Big-League evaluators yesterday. Hopefully he’ll join an organization that wants a cool pitcher and doesn’t have the opportunity to arbitrarily leveraged arbitration, or worse, Oakland Athletics.