Rooker Breaking Out?

[PooPopsBaldHead]

I was pretty confident when that when Rooker left Starkville he would be a star in the big leagues. You don't win the triple crown in the SEC on a flyer.

That said his first few years have not been great and combined with COVID and injuries he was looking like the prototypical quadruple A hitter. Destroyed triple A but could hardly break the Mendoza line in the bigs. He's bounced around and now in Oakland it appears to be clicking.

He's leading MLB in OPS by a healthy clip and is top 5 in HR and AVG. It's only been a month, but it looks like he's finally put it all together.

 

[Puppychow]

This is a bad take.

 

[Perd Hapley]

This is a bad take.

Huh? Why?

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

This is a bad take.

Are you having a stroke or something?

 

[Seinfeld]

I was pretty confident when that when Rooker left Starkville he would be a star in the big leagues. You don't win the triple crown in the SEC on a flyer.

That said his first few years have not been great and combined with COVID and injuries he was looking like the prototypical quadruple A hitter. Destroyed triple A but could hardly break the Mendoza line in the bigs. He's bounced around and now in Oakland it appears to be clicking.

He's leading MLB in OPS by a healthy clip and is top 5 in HR and AVG. It's only been a month, but it looks like he's finally put it all together.

View attachment 336967

My wife texted me yesterday to let me know who broke up the Redbirds' no hitter(our boy, Mangum), and I thought I'd take a look at his numbers. I don't know if he'll ever have the power for MLB to give him a real shot, but he has really taken some strides over the last four years.

 

[QuaoarsKing]

I fully realize that he won't, but hypothetically if he kept this up the whole season, he would be an MVP candidate. Not exaggerating.

 

[Perd Hapley]

I fully realize that he won't, but hypothetically if he kept this up the whole season, he would be an MVP candidate. Not exaggerating.

He wouldn’t be an MVP candidate, he’d be the runaway winner of the MVP. His current OPS would be the 2nd highest in MLB since Bonds in 2004, if applied over a full season. Then you’d tack on 60 HR and 150 RBI’s to that.

 

[Perd Hapley]

My wife texted me yesterday to let me know who broke up the Redbirds' no hitter(our boy, Mangum), and I thought I'd take a look at his numbers. I don't know if he'll ever have the power for MLB to give him a real shot, but he has really taken some strides over the last four years.

View attachment 337017

As of right now, Mangum’s OPS through 55 games in AAA is a mere .008 below what his 4 year OPS was at MSU. .869 vs. .877 at MSU. He may not ever be an All-Star or anything like that, but there’s certainly a long term place for him somewhere in MLB if he keeps up that level of production.

Dudes who can hit 500+ foot HR’s don’t grow on trees, but dudes who can make solid line drive contact on any pitch, anywhere in the strike zone, to any part of the field, from either side of the plate sure don’t either. But there’s no tape measure or fancy metric like exit velocity or launch angle to measure that type of skill, so it gets dismissed by all the sabremetric loyalists out there.

 

[Puppychow]

Huh? Why?

Dude makes it to the bigs and struggles for year or two. That would seem to be the normal progression.

 

[PooPopsBaldHead]

Dude makes it to the bigs and struggles for year or two. That would seem to be the normal progression.i

It was much more than that. He was traded twice and then waived in the off-season last year. He's 28 years old and turns 29 this year. He was extremely close to being labeled a career minor leaguer after last season, hence the waivers. Luckily for everyone involved the A's have a smaller payroll than LSU and gave Rook a legit shot in Spring Training.

Here were his career numbers in the minors and majors prior to this season.

He was a .200/.289/.379 hitter in 270 Major League plate appearances and a .274/.387/.590 hitter in 906 Triple-A plate appearances. He suffered from a few injuries and then not getting consistent playing time, but he also flat out struggled in the bigs. If you are going to make it in the big leagues with a sub .700 OPS, you have to be Ozzie Smith in the field and Rook is a less than premium defensive player.

This season he is slashing .333/.442/.726 through 104 plate appearances. The man has been the best hitter in MLB so far this season and was designated for assignment in November. That's not normal progression, that's 17ing extraordinary. And 17ing awesome for one of the greatest hitters to ever play college baseball and one of my favorite bulldogs to ever lace them up.

I imagine pitchers are going to change it up and make adjustments as he now has his name circled on the opposing lineup card, but Rook has broken out. He is a good enough hitter to make his own adjustments and I expect him to have a nice big league career moving forward.

Bad take my áss. It's a mothering17ing remarkable take.

 

[msudawg12]

I was pretty confident when that when Rooker left Starkville he would be a star in the big leagues. You don't win the triple crown in the SEC on a flyer.

That said his first few years have not been great and combined with COVID and injuries he was looking like the prototypical quadruple A hitter. Destroyed triple A but could hardly break the Mendoza line in the bigs. He's bounced around and now in Oakland it appears to be clicking.

He's leading MLB in OPS by a healthy clip and is top 5 in HR and AVG. It's only been a month, but it looks like he's finally put it all together.

View attachment 336967

Hes also in top 5’s of all of those categories with ~40 less AB’s than the guys ahead of him. He has been scorching hot

he had gotten it going once before in Minnesota and got injured right when he started to figure it out. Im pumped to see him do well

 

[Boom Boom]

The A's May Have Found A Hidden Gem On The Waiver Wire

2022 was a year of change for Brent Rooker, who was a member of four different organizations within the span …

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