One of the best college pitchers in recent years, there have been times when Kumar Rocker was believed to be the top prospect in this draft class. His stock has fallen ever so slightly this year but is still considered a premiere prospect in the draft.
Kumar Rocker Scouting Report
Height: 6′ 5″ | Weight: 245
Bats: Right | Throws: Right | Position: RHP
Highest Ranking: 5th (Baseball America)
When he’s at his best, the Vanderbilt right-handed starter has three above-average offerings with his fastball that works 93-96, a quality slider, and a good change up. He can also couple that with the ability to throw strikes and his track record stacks up with just about anyone.
But not everything is perfect for Kumar Rocker. He’s had some outings where he’s run into some control problems this year. There was also a stretch earlier in the spring where his fastball was working in the low 90’s and his change up isn’t a pitch he throws with any sort of frequency. ESPN’s Kiley McDaniel mentioned that there is some question about how many bats he will miss as a professional in his most recent write up.
Even with some of those concerns you can see a quality big league starter without squinting too much with Kumar Rocker. A fastball that can touch 99 and sits in the mid-90’s along with a quality breaking ball and a change up that needs to be used more but flashes itself as a quality pitch can go a long way when mixed with solid control. If he can find a little more consistency with his stuff the sky is the limit.
Kumar Rocker College Stats
Kumar Rocker Video
You can read all of the 2021 MLB Draft Scouting Reports here.
Basic Information
For this draft scouting report series we are going to look at prospects rated 6th through 50th in a cumulative ranking based on the Baseball America, MLB Pipeline, ESPN, and Fangraphs draft rankings. The guys in the top five seem to have no chance of dropping to Cincinnati at 17, so we’re skipping them to focus a little more on guys with more of a shot to be Reds. The national rankings are updated throughout the month leading up to the draft, so there could be some slight changes from when the cumulative list was compiled and when you read this.
The 2021 Major League Baseball Draft will begin on July 11th and end on July 13th, taking part over a three day period of time. The Cincinnati Reds will have selections 17, 30, 35, and 53 in the first two rounds of the draft. Despite not selecting in the top five, or even the top 10, the Reds have the 4th largest bonus pool allotment to work with due to their compensation pick from losing Trevor Bauer in free agency, as well as a competitive balance round A pick (35th) that adds a lot of additional pool money.
Rocker could conceivably slide down the draft some more. He was consensus top 5 for awhile early this year, but the issues mentioned in this article have him sliding down. I could see more teams passing and him getting in the teens when all is said and done. He had a dominant performance in supers regs against ECU, then a poor performance in CWS. It’s speaks to his inconsistency. Not sure I’d personally even want him if I’m the Reds @ 17.
He won’t be there when the Reds draft.