Why Kumar Rocker’s Spring Focus Matters More Than His Results

SURPRISE, Ariz. — Baseball is a game built around numbers. But during spring training winning and losing is irrelevant.

The same thing goes for a player’s stats. For every player that bats .400 in spring and falters in the regular season, there is another that bats .200, barely makes the team and turns into a productive hitter. Same goes for pitchers.

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Spring training is all about putting in the work, no matter what the results look like on paper, and then carrying it over into the regular season. For second-year pitcher Kumar Rocker, his win-loss record should be irrelevant to whether he makes the rotation or not. His focus should be on correcting the issues that got him sent down last season.

Kumar Rocker’s Focus in Spring Training

Texas Rangers starting pitcher Kumar Rocker throws a pitch. — Texas Rangers starting pitcher Kumar Rocker. | Jayne Kamin-Oncea-Imagn Images

Rocker has an elite pitching arsenal. But control was a significant issue for him last season. His Baseball Savant page from a season ago revealed a pitcher with an average chase rate (28.8%), an average whiff rate (24.9%), an average walk rate (8.0%) and a well-below strikeout rate (19.5%). For someone with his arsenal — six pitches, including a couple of different types of fastballs — that rate should be much higher.

His focus is on pounding the zone. During a recent batting practice in spring training, he did that, something that made manager Skip Schumaker quite happy.

“The velo was up, the sinker was real,” Schumaker said. “He threw a couple of four seams at the top. The slider and the change were both effective to lefties.”

Rocker said he focus hasn’t changed much from last season, when he was sent down in July for good and ended up on a developmental path for the final two months of the season. During that time in the minors, he drew from the reactions of not only his coaches but his catchers. The feedback was crucial to improving his location.

“I started throwing a lot more, and the swings I got, and the reactions I got from batteries [catchers] was something I needed to have,” Rocker said.

The confidence is starting to form in spring training. Rocker said he didn’t go into last year’s spring training in as good a shape as he could have. He took that note and he came into this spring training ready to go from Day 1. No one gave him a note. He said he made that note himself. He wanted a better foundation.

He also worked more on holding runners on and getting to the plate faster with runners on base, a source of frustration last season that led to him being optioned in May. Schumaker noticed something important during that live BP, something that no one asked him to do when they simulated runners on base.

“He went from the stretch, and he was doing an abbreviated quick step, a slide step, which no one told him to do that [today],” Schumaker said. It’s good to see he’s been working on it.”

None of that will show up in his win-loss record this spring. Texas hopes it shows up on opening day and beyond.