Rangers top prospect Kumar Rocker made his MLB debut last night, generating a lot of swings and misses in 4 innings vs. the Mariners. Rangers broadcaster Jared Sandler joined Shan & RJ to talk about his start and what impressed him the most with Rocker's outing.
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00:00What impressed you more, was it his ability to locate the fastball or the late bite that
00:20he had on some of his off-speed?
00:22Yeah, I mean, I think, honestly, RJ, what impressed me, first of all, was in the first
00:27inning, gives up two C&I singles.
00:30Neither ball was hit more than 78 miles an hour off the bat, and then Julio Rodriguez
00:36steals second.
00:37So here in his Major League debut, three pitches in, there are two guys on base, I think two
00:41pitches later, there are runners at second and third and nobody out, and he's facing
00:46an all-star in Cal Raleigh, and he strikes him out, strikes out the next guy, and then
00:52gets a fly out and gets out of it unscathed.
00:55I think the poise and the composure is really impressive.
00:59And then I think, specific to your question, I just think the slider and his ability to
01:04throw that pitch in the zone and out of the zone, and to some degree, he threw it with
01:08a couple different shapes, right?
01:10It wasn't the exact same pitch every single time.
01:14When he throws it arm side, it seems to have a little more vertical movement.
01:18When he throws it glove side, he can get a little more horizontal bend to it.
01:22So that was really impressive to me, and he really didn't need the changeup a ton.
01:29I think that as he starts to see teams more and more, and he faces guys for a third time,
01:36we'll start to see more of the changeup and maybe a little bit of the curveball, but that
01:41slider is a very special pitch.