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2022 Texas Rangers Thread

CowtownHorn

By CowtownHorn
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ztejas
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Bye. Gtfo  

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C-Man

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Pudge’s Pizza. 
 
Fuck it, I wasn’t digging either of the two names everyone thought. 

I admittedly know little about the pool but after hearing Keith Law on the Ticket this week, I was hoping for the kid who the Pirates took right after us. Rocker has pitched pretty well for his IL team??? He’s healthy, no arm worries?
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C-Man

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I had no idea Kumar Rocker is the son of former Auburn legend/NFL player Tracy Rocker, BTW.

From The Athletic: https://theathletic.com/3430173/2022/07/17/kumar-rocker-rangers-draft-pick/

Quote

It has been a while since the Rangers were the talk of the sport. For a moment Sunday, that changed. While most draft experts predicted a fairly straightforward top three talents — Druw Jones, Jackson Holliday and Elijah Green, with the possibility of Kevin Parada or Termarr Johnson sneaking in — the Rangers took a hard left, opting instead to take starting pitcher and former Vanderbilt Commodore Kumar Rocker with the third pick.

The decision prompted a question to start the media availability: “How does it feel to break the draft?”

“I can only speak for what we do,” said Rangers senior director of amateur scouting Kip Fagg, in response to the question. “I don’t worry about anybody else. So I don’t know if we broke the draft.”

Maybe they didn’t break it, but they certainly took a risk. Rocker was once considered the prize of the 2021 draft class. Then health concerns hurt his draft stock, and he fell to 10th, a pick that our Tim Britton described as “a draft coup.” One problem: The Mets didn’t like what they saw in Rocker’s medicals, and he went unsigned, ultimately choosing to play independent ball with the Tri-City ValleyCats in Troy, N.Y.

“Kumar Rocker is healthy according to independent medical review by multiple prominent baseball orthopedic surgeons,” Rocker’s agent Scott Boras said in a released statement at the time. “Immediately upon the conclusion of his collegiate season, he had an MRI on both his shoulder and his elbow. When compared to his 2018 MRIs, the medical experts found no significant change. Kumar requires no medical attention and will continue to pitch in the regular course as he prepares to begin his professional career.”

So what exactly was the problem? Neither team nor player opted to illuminate the situation further.

“I can’t comment on that; I’m not versed enough to comment,” Rangers general manager Chris Young said when pressed for details. “I don’t want to get into the semantics of what it was. Kumar and Scott can speak to that when the time’s right. But yes, that would be a good question.”

Rocker was a bit more succinct while being no more forthcoming: “Yeah, I can’t really talk about it, bro.”

Scientists will tell you that there’s no sound in a vacuum, but scientists apparently don’t read many baseball Facebook groups, message boards or Twitter. Rumors ran rampant, both in and out of baseball circles. What we do know, from a source, was that the medical reports sent out after Rocker’s surgery showed that a scope was done that did not involve the rotator cuff or labrum.

“We’re extremely comfortable with the review that our medical team has done,” Young said. “Obviously, Kumar has been under the care of one of the leading orthopedic surgeons in the world (Dr. Neal ElAttrache, and) in great supervision throughout his rehab. He’s been pitching healthy, we’re very comfortable with the medical review. And that’s why we drafted him.”

Still, it was something — something big enough to make the Mets decide not to sign the 10th pick in the draft last year. And while the Mets medical team hasn’t been above reproach in the last decade or so, it’s not like they had shied away from drafting players with medical risks before. Just one year prior, in 2020, the team drafted J.T. Ginn as he was returning from Tommy John surgery. Whatever they saw, it must have been more concerning than that.

And yet, Fagg says, when he saw Rocker in Troy, the pitcher’s velocity ranged from 94-98 mph. According to The Athletic’s Keith Law, Rocker dropped down to a slightly lower arm slot and looked none the worse with the ValleyCats.

“It was probably a little bit better than he was in school (at Vanderbilt),” Fagg said of seeing Rocker this summer. “But obviously, it’s a short window and a short timespan. So like CY said, we gotta get around him and kind of figure out the best plan moving forward.”

For all the questions about Rocker’s arm, one thing that appears not to be in question is what baseball industry folks call “makeup.”

“I think that Kumar has answered the questions,” Young said. “I think certainly he faced a lot of adversity last year with the draft and the way everything transpired. He had a procedure. He’s come back from that healthy. I think this is an incredibly hard worker, someone who we’re very, very comfortable (with) the character, the makeup, the drive, and from seeing him pitch this summer. I think it’s just the beginning steps of what’s going to be a really successful career. And we’re very fortunate that we had this opportunity to pick him.

“(He) brings a competitive intensity, not only between the lines but in everything he does, that elevates his teammates,” Young added. ‘That’s something that’s really special. … This is an unbelievably caring person who pushes his teammates to greatness (and) in himself as well. And that’s what we’re excited to get.”

One teammate in particular agrees with the front office: Jack Leiter was the Rangers’ first-round pick last year and pitched with Rocker at Vanderbilt. Asked for his impression of Rocker, Leiter used a lot of the same verbiage.

“The first thing that comes to mind with Kumar as a pitcher is (he’s) a competitor,” Leiter said. “It’s pretty obvious when you watch him pitch, and it’s a lot of fun to watch him pitch. And I think having that privilege to watch him on Fridays at Vandy (when) I was pitching the next day, it really just got me fired up for my start the next day. I really think we made each other a lot better, pitching together; we made each other better competitors and better pitchers. … The idea of the possibility of pitching on the same staff really soon is super exciting.”


They might be teammates sooner rather than later. Rocker, like Leiter, is 22 years old and has been out of college for a year. Indy ball isn’t exactly Triple-A competition, but given his level of experience, it’s not inconceivable that Rocker could follow in Leiter’s footsteps and skip straight to Double-A Frisco, though Young was clear that no decision had been prematurely made.

“We’ll take first things first, just getting him in here and conducting a normal physical and then finalizing the contract,” Young said. “And then we’ll assess that. We’ll understand where he is in terms of his throwing program and routine and decide the next steps.”

One way that Rocker is unlikely to mirror Leiter’s path is that the Rangers shut Leiter down after drafting him last year. Leiter had thrown 110 innings at Vanderbilt (Rocker threw 122 that season — both ended with identical strikeout totals of 179 each), and the team figured his arm could use the rest. A year later, Rocker pitched 20 innings for Tri-City (striking out 32, walking just four and finishing the season with a 1.35 ERA).

“I think I need a foundation moving forward,” Rocker said. “I mean, there’s plenty of time left in the year.”

Frankly, this is the sort of go-for-it pick that can determine the future of an entire front office. After all, it’s not like the Rangers didn’t have options. Per sources, the team was very high on both Holliday and Jones — had the Orioles decided to take an under-slot pick and choose, for instance, Johnson with the first pick, it’s likely that Texas would have taken one of those two. But when the Orioles took Holliday with the first pick, and the Diamondbacks followed by taking Jones, the Rangers decided to — whether they’d phrase it this way or not — “break the draft” and take a pitcher who has a vast spectrum of possibilities between his ceiling and his floor.

If Rocker ends up being the top-of-the-rotation starting pitcher that Young and Fagg seem certain he’s destined to be, they’re going to look like geniuses. If his shoulder ends up being worse than expected when the team conducts a physical, it’s the sort of pick that could cause a ritual cleaning of house.

But maybe that’s not as big a risk as it appears. After all, when asked after the 2021 season for a “timeline of accountability,” president of baseball operations Jon Daniels gave a very forthcoming response: 2023. That’s a timeline that Young reiterated again Sunday.

“We expect to contend next year, if not the second half of (this) season,” Young said when asked about the Rangers’ window of contention. If that plan fails, Rocker might be another front office’s problem. If both plan and pitcher succeed, it could be viewed as one of the most shrewd moves in recent memory.

 

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DougO

DougO 5239

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I like it. Roll the dice on a guy you know has great talent that translates almost immediately rather the rolling the dice on a projection of a skinny kid five or six years down the road. Good move for the Rangers at this point. 

 

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Sgt. Slaughter

Sgt. Slaughter 2841

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6 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

anyone have info on pollard?  i don't know that name and i'm too tied up to search right now. 

Quote

Round Five — Chandler Pollard, OF, Woodward Academy (GA)

Pollard is one of the younger players in this draft class, having just turned 18 in May. He’s ranked just outside of the top 100 in both the Baseball America and MLB Pipeline Rankings. He’s someone who is more of a throwback to the guys we were used to seeing the Rangers select 5-10 years ago — fast, athletic, questions about how much he will hit. He played shortstop in high school, but was announced as an outfielder when the Rangers drafted him, and he’s got the tool set to stick in center field.

Spoiler

Round Five — Chandler Pollard, OF, Woodward Academy (GA)

Pollard is one of the younger players in this draft class, having just turned 18 in May. He’s ranked just outside of the top 100 in both the Baseball America and MLB Pipeline Rankings. He’s someone who is more of a throwback to the guys we were used to seeing the Rangers select 5-10 years ago — fast, athletic, questions about how much he will hit. He played shortstop in high school, but was announced as an outfielder when the Rangers drafted him, and he’s got the tool set to stick in center field.

For dark users. 

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DougO

DougO 5239

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2 hours ago, Don Johnson said:

Surprised to see another HS kid taken.  I figured we'd be looking at money savers the next 5 rounds.

 

 

 

Seems like a pretty bold strategy of only drafting players with two last names. That's outside the box stuff.

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ztejas

ztejas 43244

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32 minutes ago, Sbbruin said:

Seager will always hold a place in Dodger lore. You guys got yourself a good one.
fa0ba99594a647980cc35893ca17d4d4.jpg

We did. He's maybe my favorite player on the team already. (not that there was stiff competition)

Edited by ztejas
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