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Happy Friday, Athletics Nation!
Yesterday, the A’s plucked Royals first baseman and outfielder Brent Rooker from the scrap heap. Rooker was DFA’d by the Royals earlier in the week.
The A's have claimed Brent Rooker off waivers from the Royals. Big power numbers in the minors haven't translated yet in limited big-league time. Hit 28 HRs in 81 Triple-A games last season.
— Melissa Lockard (@melissalockard) November 17, 2022
Steve Adams at MLB Trade Rumors detailed Rooker’s history in pro baseball, which Melissa Lockard sums up pretty nicely in her above tweet. Rooker has displayed impressive power with his bat in the minors, slashing .274/.387/.590 in 906 Triple-A plate appearances, but has so far failed to carry that success into the big leagues, where he has hit .200/.289/.379 in 270 plate appearances.
Rooker, taken by the Twins 35th overall in the 2017 draft, was profiled by scouts as a marginal defender who won’t likely thrive in the outfield. Per Adams, Rooker’s performance as a corner outfielder has since borne out those expectations. If he does succeed as a major leaguer, it will most likely be as a first baseman or designated hitter who contributes primarily on offense. But the 28-year-old might still get some chances in the A’s outfield since only Ramon Laureano and Cristian Pache play outfield exclusively for the club, and Laureano could be traded this offseason.
Rooker might be a longshot, but he’s established a high ceiling in the minors and he hasn’t been hitting poorly in the majors for too long. In fact, Brent has fewer MLB PAs than both Pache and Nick Allen, who we’d be pretty happy to see equal Rooker’s MLB wRC+ of 86 at this point.
Apparently the A’s front office saw enough to take a chance on Rooker, and if he does find his groove with the A’s, he’ll be quite the bargain. Welcome to Oakland, Brent Rooker! “Sup” right back atcha and best of luck in 2023.
Sup, @Athletics https://t.co/c54hf53cuJ
— Brent Rooker (@Brent_Rooker12) November 17, 2022
A’s Coverage:
- Adams: A’s Claim Brent Rooker
- Adams: NPB’s Hiroshima Carp To Sign Matt Davidson
- Hayes: Twins hope new head trainer Nick Paparesta helps solve injury woes ($)
MLB News & Interest:
- Rosenthal: MLB investigating whether Mets, Yankees communicated improperly about Aaron Judge: Sources ($)
- Passan: Aaron Judge record HR ball heading to auction after $3M offer declined
- Drellich: Rob Manfred talks Pete Rose letter, FTX partnership, MLB rule changes and more ($)
- Sarris: MLB’s best bargain free agents, with help from the wisdom of the crowd ($)
- McDonald: Players Avoiding Arbitration: 11/17/22
- Rosenthal: My NL MVP ballot – and why Paul Goldschmidt was at the top of it ($)
- Blum: Why I voted Shohei Ohtani for AL MVP ($)
- McDonald: MLB Awards 2024 All-Star Game To Texas Rangers
- O’Brien: Braves have Ron Washington working with their potential shortstop: Vaughn Grissom ($)
- Today in Baseball History
Best of Twitter:
How prospects fared in the Arizona Fall League.
FINAL AFL STATS:
— Athletics Farm (@AthleticsFarm) November 18, 2022
2B Zack Gelof .228/.303/.380
OF Lawrence Butler .241/.389/.444
OF Denzel Clarke .275/.370/.475
OF Michael Guldberg .158/.385/.211
P Ryan Cusick 6.26 ERA/1.70 WHIP
P Colin Peluse 1.50 ERA/0.94 WHIP
P Mason Miller 3.24 ERA/0.78 WHIP
P J.T. Ginn 2.25 ERA/1.00 WHIP
Spicy.
Remember: The formula that EVERYONE will latch on to in WAR is an ADMITTEDLY FLAWED statistic. It actually PUNISHES a guy like Ohtani because the formula doesn’t take into account he’s a pitcher playing DH as opposed to punishing him as a 1 dimensional player. But.. but… WAR! https://t.co/XwTXeEuhhN
— Dallas Braden (@DALLASBRADEN209) November 17, 2022
Ohtani didn’t wind up entirely empty handed this week!
2022 PitchingNinja Award for "Best Use of the Force to Redirect an Opponent to the Dugout."
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) November 17, 2022
Winner: Shohei Ohtani. pic.twitter.com/DhyJObpool
Agree to disagree, Dave.
Julio Urias in my opinion is the most durable, most reliable Dodger pitcher. He’s thrown up back to back seasons of above average numbers in ML! I’m not sure if he should have won the Cy Young, but he most certainly should not have been 3rd in the voting. @LaDodgersTalk
— Dave “Smoke” Stewart (@Dsmoke34) November 17, 2022
MLB launches new career development program.
MLB today announced the launch of "MLB University," a new career development program designed to provide a substantive baseball ops training curriculum and mentorship opportunity to prepare diverse, mid-level baseball professionals for advancement to senior-level roles. pic.twitter.com/gWUIJQslWZ
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) November 17, 2022
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