Rangers prospects Kumar Rocker, Jack Leiter show potential for Texas to develop homegrown pitchers

after last night I think I'm about to do something that I swore I would never do again and that is have hope in a Texas Rangers pitching Prospect you are locked on Rangers your daily Texas Rangers podcast part of the locked on podcast Network your team every day [Music] you are locked on to the World Series champion Texas Rangers I'm Bryce Patrick a cripplingly addicted Texas Rangers Fan covering this team for 11 seasons including all six as the founder and host of this podcast thank you all so much for making lockdown Rangers your first listen every single day if you're not already you can follow me on Twitter at BR Patrick you can follow the show at lockon Rangers Hit subscribe on your favorite podcasting platform and on YouTube where the best way you can help grow the show is to comment nearly any single thing below now before we get into Kumar rocker's fantastic outing last night Jack lighter maybe even one uping him and me starting to have faith in Texas Rangers pitching prospects this episode is brought to you by prize pick the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports go to prize.com lockon MLB use code all lowercase lockdown MLB for a first pass match up to $100 now last night instead of watching the Rangers lose and annoying and frustrating and apparently discourse filled 3-2 game to the Minnesota Twins I ventured up to Frisco it had been a while since I'd been to Frisco this season I got some eyes on amelon tooto early I believe I saw him again later on this season but it been a minute since I'd been there I wasn't able to see Kumar rockers Kamar excuse me Kamar not Kumar Kamar I'm swear I'm going to get that down eventually but I was able to see Kamar rocker's second appearance in Frisco his fourth start in daa in person watching that kid last night was just an absolute treat I mean truly delightful it was one of my favorite games that I've been to in quite some time not only just because I was seeing a Rangers pitching prospect that I was excited about heading into it and left the game still even more excited which outside of tooto it's been a minute since I've done that but last night the numbers may not look overall incredibly dominating but what he was doing on the mountain what he's been doing since he's been called up to Frisco since coming off of that rehab for the elbow surgery that he underwent last year he has been nothing short of fantastic there has only been one of his four starts in Frisco where he has allowed multiple hits in last night's game he only allowed two base runners in the entire four Innings and one of those base runners probably shouldn't have been a base runner the one walk that he issued in the first inning the leadoff batter a 3-1 count where couple of those pitches including ball four and I think ball three as well were fast balls that were located away to a lefty that I thought were probably strikes from my pretty good vantage point but alas he did not get the call still worked around it work quickly four Innings one hit a ringing double that scored on two consecutive groundouts to second base and uh five strikeouts where he just look at looked as nasty as advertised I mean this is the real deal the Rangers got one finally a potential top of the rotation pitching prospect that has not been said since the days of I don't know Kevin Brown basically it has been that long it's been a long time since the Rangers have even developed you know decent starting pitchers there there have been some CJ Wilson was pretty good for a while homegrown pitcher granted he went the closer to starter role um but he did it well and was a talented multi-time All-Star starting pitcher for the Texas Rangers on some of their best teams Matt Harrison not entirely homegrown but was an All-Star was a solid number three starter Derrik Holland had a couple of pretty good years Martin Perez had a couple decent years but outside of that there has been not a whole lot there and not a whole lot with this kind of ceiling and with Kamar rocker there has been a lot of hand ringing and overthinking and I don't know about this guy the questions have been Amplified more so than his strengths because there has been a lot of prospect fatigue around this guy because he's been on the prospect Consciousness since he was basically 16 years old and he's 24 now and he only is in his second year of organized excuse me Affiliated baseball technically his third year second year of pro baseball but not a whole lot of starts for him as a pro I mean this was his fourth start finally allowed an earn run in doublea which we knew was eventually going to happen but pitching on a little bit shorter rest than he had the first three starts he had been going on six days rest this time he was on just five days rest and still incredibly efficient 52 pitches for him in those four Innings um the reindeers are probably wanting to keep him around I'm assuming 50 innings for the year that's what Evan Grant wrote as a Target in his mailbag column and he's right now at 28 Innings on the year between Arizona complex league and Frisco so I think that's a reasonable Target for him tepa participation on Twitter said he couldn't rule him out of maybe fighting for a spot in the opening day rotation next year at a camp I still think that's maybe a bit aggressive but after what I saw last night I mean I don't think I'm ruling it out either I wouldn't Bank him on it I wouldn't count on it I wouldn't expect it but I don't know that I would be totally shocked at this point if he is a member of the Rangers starting rotation next year now he's not going to be the ace next year that is going to go to Mr Jacob deg Gro he's probably not going to be the number two that's almost certainly going to Tyler Mali unless the Rangers bring back eovaldi or sign somebody else which we'll get to later on in the show about what they're going to do with the rotation next year including how Cody Bradford and Jack ligher might factor into it uh cuz Jack himself had a pretty good night as well but what I saw from Kumar rocker Kamar rocker is the full package of a guy who could be an actual ace at the big league level fast ball sitting in there two different fast balls four seamer two seamer two seamer works very very well against righties four seamer works very very well the top of the zone the you know the numbers on it the shape on it the everything on it looks really darn good and the slider which apparently has always been a curveball does not call it a slider he grips it like a curveball manipulates it two different ways but it's he's always called it a curveball we just apparently have decided that it's a slider but whatever he calls it whatever he shapes it like it is absolutely devastating and that change up is looking much much better as well he's looking more comfortable with it it's a circle change up so it moves away from left-handed hitters and into right-handed hitters and he's feeling more comfortable with it that could end up being at least an average Big League offering and when you got a fast ball two fast balls that go all the way up to 99 miles an hour have good shape on them and then the devastating breaking ball that whatever you want to call it however he shapes it it is Absolut Ely Elite that's a potential top of the rotation pitcher not to mention the kid's built like a frecking horse I mean his dad played defensive end in the NFL and was fantastic at it he's 64 245 looks every bit of it works quickly knows what he's about he is the first one out of the Dugout when he was getting on the mound I mean he was just right there ready to go as soon as the bottom half inning was done he just pop right out there and got on the out I mean catcher had to really hustle to get out there to catch his warm-up pitches cuz this kid Works fast I mean three and a half minutes for I believe his final inning of work just one two three boom mow him down like that he is everything the Rangers hoped he would be and then some there are still concerns he is still a pitching Prospect he has had some injuries he's had the shoulder Sur the the knee concerned that the Mets ended up passing on drafting him because of the shoulder and knee concerns he has also now had elbow reconstruction surgery which for me didn't really change all that much on my opinion of him the delivery when he first threw pro ball for the Rangers in the Arizona fall league looked uh all kinds of messy and terrifying and Grant and I talked about it at nauseum of oh boy this boy is uh they're reworking that delivery but this young man um stop doing that stop throwing the baseball like that don't don't do that cuz you're going to hurt yourself and you're going to hurt me when you hurt yourself because I am going to be hurt cuz I have belief in you but the delivery that he was doing last night that he's been doing all year since he came back up and what he was doing last year as well it's clean it's repeatable it is effective and it is what the Rangers were hoping for I mean it it's not putting unnecessary stress on his shoulder there will still always be you know concerns about is he going to stay healthy is he going to be able to you know pitch a full starters workload because there's concerns about that for literally everybody even if you have been the picture of Health I mean heck Garett Cole was the picture of health and this year has missed more than half the year it's just what happens to pictures nowadays it's just kind of how things work but from what I saw last night from Mar rocker that is someone to have hope in that is someone that you know has the full package that is someone that can do something that no Rangers pitching Prospect has done in 20 years almost 30 years and that is give me good reason to Hope coming up and talk about his Vandy buddy Jack lighter doing something that he hasn't done before and looking downright exceptional last night for Round Rock talk about right that right after this word from our sponsors this show is brought to you by liquid IV when you're taking in America's pastime don't forget to hydrate with liquid IV's popsicle firecracker flavor flavor a Surefire summer hit get hydrated with electrolytes essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients from the number one powdered hydration brand in America because baseball and summer go together like liquid IV and indulgent hydration find all your favorite flavors from on their website from asai Berry to lemon lime to P colada as well tear pour live more one stick plus 16 ounces of water hydrates better than water alone powered by La hydroid an optimized ratio of electrolytes essential vitamins and clinically tested nutrients that turn ordinary water into extraordinary hydration no more thirsty Summers when you indulge in hydration with liquid IV get 20% off your first order of liquid IV when you go to liquid iv.com and use code MLB at checkout that's 20% off your first order when you shop better hydration today using promo code MLB at liquid iv.com shout out to the every for making lock down Rangers your first listen every single day tonight the Rangers take on the twins 705 Central Time first pitch it's going to be Simeon Woods Richardson against Andrew Heeney you can catch every pitch the hometown broadcast on SiriusXM just download the sxm app and search Rangers now last night the two Vandy boys count them two Vandy boys gave me reason to Hope in a Texas Rangers pitching Prospect something I didn't think I was going to do again something that I have been burned doing uh many many times I mean prospects will break your heart and there is no such thing as a pitching prospect there is but for the last few years there's really not been such thing as a Texas Rangers pitching Prospect and last night in triaa Jack ligher just looked absolutely fan freaking tastic just downright exceptional he had just gotten off of the I forget exactly what the the list the development list basically just getting a couple weeks off for some rest for some load management so far this season in Round Rock he has pitched um 71 in a third Innings um he hasn't thrown all that many innings so far this year I mean he's thrown 70 or 82 Innings he hasn't thrown that many innings so far in his minor league career 92 and a third in 92 and two3 innings back in 2022 in 2023 85 Innings so this year he's getting right up around um where the Rangers are hoping to you know not push him too too much this season still trying to increase that workload but see seems like that time off for RNR really made a big impact the last start he had was on the 27th of July this start on the 15th of August and there was one big notable difference for Mr Jack L actually well a couple notable differences for Mr Jack ligher on the hill for the Round Rock Express the dude was throwing freaking gas absolute heat I mean blowing it by guys in a way that we haven't seen him do really in the minor leagues at all he's shown velocity at times I mean on the air his for seamer is averaging 95.6 miles an hour that's that's not slow he's also got good movement on it it's not just velocity only and we've even seen him touch a 100 before in the miners but not really this year and not to this extent last night he threw a 62 pitches 34 of them were for seam fast balls and that for seamer was averaging 98.6 miles an hour let me say that again it was averaging 98.6 miles an hour which means on the TV it was showing up it's 99 that's nuts that's absolutely Bonkers and it wasn't just that he was throwing hard is that he was throwing it effectively as well the slider looked good the curveball looked good the change up was fine cutter was solid but man that fast ball had some ride to it and not just looking at him and the numbers and everything being great with that but when you go you back and you watch the delivery you watch what he's throwing like I mean it just looked so free so easy he looked so comfortable and confident out there in a way that we haven't really seen much in the minor leagues you go back and watch his starts at FY fandy you know that kid was pitching like someone who knew he was an ace he was a top five draft pick he was going to be a big leager and a darn good one he had all the confidence in the world just letting it ride saying here's my fast ball here's my slider here's my curve ball you cannot hit it I'm just freaking better than you and he was right now he got challenged when he got the dou when he got to professional baseball he realized oh uh I need to get a lot better I can't just blow it by these guys I can't just get away with mistakes like I could at Vanderbilt I can't just throw cheddar cheese 60 70% of the time and get it by guys because these hitters are so so much better than they were in college and you know he just didn't look as confident after a couple of rough years where this year he's made some progress there have been some changes he has failed in different ways which is good he has learned to do new things and change things up and I think that he has been able to buy more into the Rangers system and had a little less familial influence um which I think is very good for any Prospect I don't care if your dad is Randy frck and Johnson um maybe buy into to the professional developers not just a guy who was a pretty good big leager for 20 years but the slider worked so well it was up in velocity as well it was averaging 89.7 mph which is up 4.1 miles hour from his season average curveball he threw six times he got three swings on it two swings in misses so a 67% whiff rate on that seven swings and misses of nine swings on on the slider so 78% whiff rate on that only one ball in play on those nine swings the other was fouled off weekly the curveball was up 4.6 miles an hour I mean everything was just playing way way up in a way that makes we think you know what there's always been some reliever risk with Jack ligher and if he is a reliever now I'm not saying that he for sure is but if he is then I think he's going to be an absolutely phenomenal one which you know not what the Rangers were hoping for but if that turns out to be the case then me you look at how little pitching the Rangers have developed not just in the starting ranks but in the relief ranks and when you can get one of those guys in Elite reliever for you know league minimum for three years and then arbitration controlled for the next three years that's valuable that allows you to go out and spend on the big stars like the SIM I and the seagar and the deg grams that's value when you get that kind of production from a guy like him but seeing Jack ligher go out there be confident I I don't know that the Rangers are going to call him up to do too much in the majors after the Triple A season is done maybe they will I mean he keeps throwing like this and the Rangers want to use him as a multi- ining reliever at the big league level consistently and on a scheduled workload then uh I think that'll help I don't think it'll get them back into the race but I think it'll help Jack ligher saying okay you go out there throwing cheddar cheese like this against big leers that's going to get big Leaguers out that's going to get them to swing and miss that is a hugely great thing for the Rangers as of been a lot of things for the Rangers on the pitching side of development this year I'm talk about what's gone right for the Rangers system and what has gone wrong and why their system despite having a lot of nice things going right for them this year still ranks in the bottom 10 and kind of deserves to right after this from our sponsors this show is brought to you by prize piix prize pick is America's number one daily fantasy sports app with over five million active view users priz is the easiest and most exciting way to play daily fantasy sports unlike other apps on priz it is just you against the numbers all you do is pick more or less on two to six player stat projections and watch the winnings roll win get in on the daily action with your friends and become part of the prize pick Community today you can now win up to 100 times your money on prize pick with as little as four correct picks you turn $10 into a th000 price pick is available in more than 30 States across the country including California Texas and Georgia so download the prize book app today and use code locked on MLB for a first deposit match up to $100 that's code lock down MLB on prize picks for a deposit match up to $100 price picks pick more pick less it's that easy now overall I'd say the Rangers have had a good year on the farm just from a whole perspective generally it's been a pretty solid season especially when you look at the strides forward that so many different pitching prospects have made hitting Wise It's been a little bit of a different story Sebastian walcut has had a good year and other than that hitting wise on the farm it has been not great not anything you know too terrible but nothing really of that much consequence I mean there have been a couple of good Seasons from guys low low in the minors um but I feel like for most prospects you don't know much of really anything until they're at least in high I me you can kind of sus out some things but some good numbers that have make in summer league is great good numbers in the complex League great good numbers in full season ball now we're starting to talk then once you get to Hickory it's like okay now we have kind of a sense of of who these prospects are I mean the pitching prospects that have made big strides this year I mean there's been you know six or seven of them from Kamar rocker to amelan tooto Alanda Rosario has been fantastic both of those all of those three guys I mean rocker we already kind of knew the ceiling but the other two have made big big strides this year Cole Drake has been another surprise that's been very good Isaac tiger Mitch brat Winston Santos all those guys pretty solid strides forward but the reason that this Rangers farm system ranks in the bottom 10 in baseball is a lot about a ceiling I was having this conversation with tea participation last night while watching Kamar rocker about okay well you know the depth is there there's probably 30 40 guys that I think will be big Leaguers at some point maybe even you know everyday starters maybe solid everyday starters in terms of whether that's you know back at the rotation or you know position players maybe or impact High leverage relief guys but the real problem with this Rangers farm system is that when you look up and down their top 30 prospects you don't see a lot of potential stars now the ceiling has its place and at one point when I was first getting into Prospect riding and evaluating prospects for me it was sealing over everything I mean it made sense given the prospects that I was evaluating given where the ranger system was if guys like Lewis Brinson and Jorge alaro and Joey Gallow and noar mazara those guys had some incredibly High ceilings but their floors were also pretty darn low and a lot of them were much closer to the floor than the ceiling Joey Gallow being the exception because he is always the exception and so then over time I started evaluating you know floor is a little bit more important than I give it credit for maybe there's some importance of having a floor of okay at the very worst this guy's going to be a big league regular especially when it comes to pitching prospects if at worst a guy is you know a number five starter that is solid that is something that has value or if at worst he's going to be a really dang nasty reliever that is something the Rangers haven't really developed and need to develop and you look up and down this system and there are maybe two guys with potential All-Star ceilings and that's Sebastian Walcott and Kamar rocker now I just talked ad nauseum about rocker and wot's been having himself a really darn good year and I I think I'm going to get to see him in person for the first time towards the end of the season in Frisco there'll be about a week extra of the Season uh that double A goes longer than ha so I'm excited to see when Walcott gets here what he looks like just seeing that dude in person but outside of that I mean lighter ceiling is no longer you know number two maybe number one starter that that kind of hope is probably gone I still have hoped that he could be a number three starter in the big leagues and that would be a good value for what the Rangers are hoping for and what they've done in the past Rosario's seing ceiling is probably a number two starter but it's been one year so it's really difficult to tell and what four or five starts in high this year teoto if he sticks as a starter maybe he could be that nasty I mean the breaking ball that he's got is probably the best pitch in the system but you look up and down and you know fosu ceiling is maybe decent starter uh Malcolm Moore if he's a catcher I don't know what to make of him he's played six pro games it hasn't been inspiring six Pro game but it's six pro games and you look kind of lower in the system I mean maybe Gutierrez has that kind of a SE ceiling maybe Vargas does maybe yron Castillo Paulino Santana but again those guys are so low in the system that we really don't know a darn thing about them so when you're thinking why is this reindeer system ranked so low that is why also the graduation of Evan Carter and Wyatt lenford that that will do some damage to your system proc ECT rankings that that's just kind of unavoidable but overall this is this team is in a decent place they're in a decent place with in terms of how they're developing this Talent especially if they can get Kamar rocker to be the Kamar rocker that everybody thought he might be at 18 or 20 or 21 that would be a massive massive developmental win because a lot of how you build your baseball team is how you allocate your dollars and it's why I don't understand the hate to Le varis cuz he's making $3 million this year to be your worst everyday starter but an everyday starting caliber player and yeah he's not perfect but you spend $3 million on having a fine everyday center fielder so you can spend $50 million on the Seager and the Simeon and it's why it's so important that rocker can be developed that these starting pitchers can be developed internally especially why it's so important of Cody Bradford if he is a legit number three to five in your starting rotation and you can roll him out there and if rocker does the amazing and Unthinkable and makes the everyday starting rotation next year at Camp Heck if Jack lighter does the amazing Unthinkable and is actually ready to be a big league starter next year out of camp that makes you feel so much better about this team moving forward and how they can allocate their dollars and not only that but the guys in the bullpen if some of those starters that I mentioned earlier like Winston Santos or Mitch brat or emonoto if they end up being just dang nasty relievers you can spend the league minimum on those guys and have more dollars to allocate to the most expensive things like Star middle infielders or probably not a one sto but some kind of impact bat or starting pitching which is really dang expensive even the mediocre starting pitching on the free agent Market is so dang expensive so this team is in an okay place I'm really excited about Kamar rocker's future I'm really excited to hopefully see s of Sebastian Walcott probably in about a month or so uh maybe it'll be I think actually I think it'll be about um two to three weeks before we see him I'm excited to see rocker again next week I will believe I believe it'll be on Wednesday in frco I'm excited to go out there and see Mitch brat tonight and see what he's got there but you know the the strides that rocker and lighter have made just last night alone was so incredibly impressive I mean it's one game for rocker it's now been four inaa but for for Jack it was just one game and just seeing him out there and being free and looking that loose and looking that nasty having that kind of confidence back is something that we haven't seen from him and that more than him just going out there and and letting it eat at you know 99 mes an hour on the regular that gives me more confidence the the look of him than the actual results that makes me so happy for Jack and for this organization as well cuz I mean I don't know I don't know about what this team is doing moving forward with the questions about you know not only the question of why the heck is Chris Young not extended right the heck now because every day that that goes on and he doesn't have an extension on his desk makes me want to lose even more here than I've already lost over the last couple of years makes me want to throw things because if you let that guy go if you let your young star GM who won you your first championship ever who has made some strides and figuring out how to develop some pitchers it's it's going to have to you know show up at the big league level for me to fully believe it because that's what it's all about but it makes me concerned about how much money this team is spending you know that they're not going to go out and be able to down the road go out and throw money to get in the sweep Stakes of aano or even an Anthony Santan Dan or even you know one of the three to five best pitchers in the starting pitching Market or heck even bringing back Kirby eights if this team's not spending really any money then you're going to have to develop those guys those cheap guys internally that's how the likes of the Rays and the Astros and the Dodgers that's how they keep staying in it and if you want to stay in it and you know like Chris Young said make it not be about winning that one championship and everything kind of fluky going exactly perfectly for once in your franchise's history then it's really important the strides that rocker has made the strides that lighter has made the strides that this pitching farm and the farm system has done in general that those are absolutely legitimate but I mean after what I saw from Kamar rocker last night it gave me all kinds of hope that this kid is the best pitching Prospect I have ever seen for the Texas Rangers not a great list but still it is by a wide wide margin and it made me do something dangerous and the dangerous thing is having hope about any Prospect but especially a pitching Prospect but super especially a Texas Rangers pitching Prospect but man if Kamar keeps looking like that he might erase make me say there's no such thing as a pitching Prospect except for Kamar rocker that's going to do it for this week's shows thank You' all so much for listening and subscribing be back on Monday hopefully with some nice things to say about Mitch brat maybe even some ni things to say about Winston Santos and hopefully some at least slightly better games from the big league club against the twins thank you all so much for listening and subscribing and until next time don't forget to enjoy World Series champion Texas Rangers baseball