Victor Roache - Updates (with Video)

[3and2Fastball]

Currently batting .211 with a .697 OPS, 4 HR's in 95 At-Bats. Still a small sample, although the Brewers have to be pleased with the 17 walks as his OBP is at .339 a full 128 points higher than his BA.... he does have 3 errors in 47 chances in the Outfield.

 

He's 21 years old. Has anyone seen him play yet? I'm planning on getting up to Appleton sometime soon to see him and the rest of the Timber Rattlers play.

 

Here's some video

 

[3and2Fastball]

http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/sports/brewers_and_mlb/brewers-prospect-back-from-tough-injury

 

"I do, at times, see some timidness,” said Timber Rattlers manager Matt Erickson. “That's just from not playing. He had a whole year off last year, didn't play at all. He's still learning the speed of the game."

 

“Having to sit out year of baseball, it's kind of hard to get your timing back all the way,” said Roache. “It's just a day in and day out grind, trying to get back to that comfort zone.”

[TheCrew07]

I've watched him play half a dozen times now, as I currently cover the T-Rats all of my first hand observations are after the boxscore link in the T-Rats post in the Link Report each day. Chris' player observations are on the Rattler Radio blog, other LR authors have been in attendance and have posted their thoughts as well.

 

All that information is consolidated in each day's Link Report, it should be a one stop shop on a daily basis for all your prospect needs.

 

As far as Roache at the plate, he was struggling with breaking stuff down and/or low & away just like Clint Coulter. Over the last week or so there has been a noticeable change in the approach from Victor as well as the young hitters like Arcia and Coulter. Coulter and Roache are being more patient and getting better pitches to hit, and as such are swinging with authority again, especially in Clint's case. Arcia doesn't swing and miss much, he would just start guessing and end up taking some awful looking hacks but would somehow manage to get the bat on the ball to at least put it in play. Roache is still susceptible to the breaking ball in the dirt, but again he hasn't swung and missed at 3 in a single AB in some time, so he's making significant improvement.

 

In the field... well he's not even average right now for an A ball prospect. Part of that could be rust, it's really difficult to tell how good his instincts are as it's not obvious that he takes a poor route to the ball like it was with Braun, Victor's first 2-3 steps are generally in the right direction. His arm looks to be league average, he doesn't have a gun, but it's not like McFarland who has lollipopped a couple across the IF. He has 4 errors but there have been at least 6 misplays I can think off the top of my head that weren't scored errors. For example he's not particularly strong going back on balls yet, he's made an adventure out of chasing fly balls a couple of times on the warning track and I remember an instance where he was so caught up in trying to feel for the wall that he pulled up early and didn't actually catch a ball which should have been a fairly routine MLB play. I want to term his defensive play as "sloppy" but I'm not sure that's fair to him, however nothing he does is real smooth or fluid out there, the proper adjective is escaping me at the moment.

[3and2Fastball]

Thanks so very much for your response. So where do you think he projects then? Strictly LF? 1B? DH?

 

Just from the small sample of stats along with your report combined with the quotes from the article I linked it doesn't sound like he's going to just fly through the system or skip any levels. Think he'll be in A ball all season and AA ball next year? AAA in '15 and MLB in 2016 at the earliest?

 

Or still to soon to say?

[TheCrew07]

Thanks so very much for your response. So where do you think he projects then? Strictly LF? 1B? DH?

 

Just from the small sample of stats along with your report combined with the quotes from the article I linked it doesn't sound like he's going to just fly through the system or skip any levels. Think he'll be in A ball all season and AA ball next year? AAA in '15 and MLB in 2016 at the earliest?

 

Or still to soon to say?

 

I think it's very premature to begin trying to predict his career arc and I'm hesitant to project players with an iffy hit tool regardless.

 

I hope defensively he can be a corner OF guy, the last thing we need is another 1B prospect at this time.

 

Like all inexperienced players we'll know a lot more about him by the time his first full season is completed. He's been exactly as advertised so far with the bat... plus power with holes in his swing.

 

The organization really doesn't have a need to push any of the OF prospects at this time so I'm not sure he would be pushed even his performance suggested differently.

[TooLiveBrew]

I'll agree with Seth that, in the limited sample I've seen of Roache, he was a bit... I don't know... awkward? not-comfortable-looking? in LF. He clearly looks like a good athlete, so maybe it's just rust after missing so much time.

 

I can say that his power tool is about as legit as it gets, though. He's hit some pretty incredible HRs so far this season, and the longballs he hits seem to have 'that sound' off the bat.

[3and2Fastball]

I'm certainly not a hitting guru, an ex pro or related to the Narron brothers but it sure looks like there is plenty that needs correction in his swing mechanics

[The stache]

I like that he takes a lot of pitches. Two walks in that video is encouraging.

 

His swing looks a little long, but nothing I'd be too concerned about.

 

Victor's going to have some incredible bat speed when he's fully healthy, and back in rhythm. Nice young man, too. My best friend in Wisconsin went to Brewers Fan Fest, and Victor played catch with his little boy for a bit. He also tweeted a thank you back to me after I gave him a congratulations for his first home run.

[3and2Fastball]

I like that he takes a lot of pitches. Two walks in that video is encouraging.

.

 

yes, I like that a lot too. A player with the potential to be a .400+ OBP guy is great. The Brewers haven't had too many of those guys over the years

[TooLiveBrew]

I think saying Roache could be a .400+ OBP guy is way too premature. His hit tool is still a question, and you have to draw a ton of BBs to have that high of an OBP with a mid-.200s AVG.

[3and2Fastball]

In terms of Victor Roache's hitting mechanics, he needs to watch a ton of video of Barry Bonds and Ted Williams (or Ryan Braun, or Miguel Cabrera) and realize how important it is to have one fluid load/swing (as opposed to first load, then swing) both for reasons of bat acceleration and in order to see the pitch longer. This is something that Ryan Braun excels at, keeping his hands back longer so that he can recognize the pitch and adjust. Braun is amazing at hitting both fastballs and off-speed pitches and in Roache's check-swings it is clear that his mechanics are making it more difficult to adjust to off-speed stuff

 

He has great, pro hitting instructors to work through this stuff with him though

 

He also needs to have more hip rotation. His swing looks like it is all forward momentum right now and what success he is having is based on superior athleticism and bat-speed as opposed to elite mechanics

 

I hope more video gets posted of him over the years as it would be great to see how he progresses with this stuff

[3and2Fastball]

Here is an example of Scooter Gennett's superior mechanics (despite inferior strength/power) and a way to show why Gennett is so much closer to the MLB level than Roache (keep in mind that this video was shot when Scooter was 20 years old, 1 year younger than Roache is now. Freeze the video at 1:01 (right before his HR swing), see how Scooter's hands are further back at front foot touch? Not only does that give him longer to see the ball but allows him to stay off the off-speed junk he was thrown earlier in the at-bat

 

 

My concern with Roache is that if he doesn't significantly change his mechanics he will be an amplified version of the way Rickie Weeks looks in slumps: hitting line-drives on fastballs but missing badly on off-speed stuff

[3and2Fastball]

Sounds like he's starting to hit more. He is hitting .286/.435/.920 in his last 10 games with 2 HR's