The Dynasty Digest: August 22, 2024

Chris Clegg breaks down Kumar Rocker's dominance plus a ton of other top performers from Wednesday.

Wednesday was full of a lot of great pitching performances at the Minor League level, plus some notable hitters to talk about as well. I discuss why it is important to talk about pitching prospects in the present, not what they were three years ago. Injuries are inevitable and of course, an arm like Rocker could get hurt next week, but so could any arm.

Let’s talk about all the best performances from Wednesday and what they mean.

MiLB Pitchers

Kumar Rocker, RHP, TEX, 24, AA

Rocker has returned from injury and looks like a completely different arm in his post-TJ era. He has continued to get better and turned in his longest start since coming back, tossing 4.2 scoreless innings with eight strikeouts and one walk. Rocker generated 18 whiffs and landed 66 percent of his pitches for strikes. While a small sample, Rocker has tossed 19.2 innings in Double-A and has a 0.46 ERA with 29 strikeouts and three walks.

This is an example of why you can make a much quicker move on a pitching prospect than a hitting prospect. It only takes watching a couple of starts and having that data sample to see a player is different. If you remember the 2022 Arizona Fall League, you can remember how out of wack Rocker’s mechanics had gotten. If not, here is an example.

Those have been cleaned up. The command is stellar. The stuff looks as good as ever. Rocker looks like the best version of himself right now.

Rocker is sitting 97-98 mph consistently with his fastball and touching triple digits. From his lower release point, he is throwing a pitch that resembles a two-seam fastball, showing 15 inches of arm-side movement regularly. Seven feet of extension allow the pitch to really play up even beyond that velocity.

His slider has nice depth in a gyro shape and is around 90 mph. It gets insane amounts of whiffs, and hitters really stand no chance against it. Rocker is mixing a changeup but has not needed to throw it that often.

The crazy thing is Rocker has a 71.5 percent strike rate in his Double-A innings, an elite mark. For reference, that is higher than Zebby Matthews. His swinging strike rate is a Minor League-best 24.9 percent over that span. The CSW sits at an insane 39.5 percent.

People can cite medicals from 2021 as a reason to avoid him. They can cite Tommy John. The reality is that this is the evaluation right now. Things change. Pitchers get hurt. But Rocker is looking like a top pitching prospect in the game and should be treated as such.

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