{"id":119780,"date":"2025-06-21T06:32:23","date_gmt":"2025-06-21T06:32:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/119780\/"},"modified":"2025-06-21T06:32:23","modified_gmt":"2025-06-21T06:32:23","slug":"how-kumar-rocker-and-jack-leiter-hope-to-model-their-skill-sets-off-jacob-degroms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/119780\/","title":{"rendered":"How Kumar Rocker and Jack Leiter hope to model their skill sets off Jacob deGrom\u2019s"},"content":{"rendered":"

PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Texas Rangers<\/a>, by pure luck of the baseball season\u2019s schedule, will play three games beside the Allegheny River this weekend and avoid possibly the sport\u2019s most-feared starting pitcher. <\/p>\n

Fine by them. For one thing, Pittsburgh Pirates right-handed phenom Paul Skenes isn\u2019t exactly a welcomed sight for teams that need to jump-start an inconsistent offense. For another, the Rangers have their own stable of lively high-profile arms to parade through PNC Park this weekend. <\/p>\n

It started during Friday\u2019s 6-2 win, when two-time Cy Young award winner Jacob deGrom<\/a> pitched six innings of two-run ball, and will continue into the weekend when right-handers Kumar Rocker<\/a> and Jack Leiter<\/a> start Saturday and Sunday, respectively, to finish the series. <\/p>\n

Rocker and Leiter \u2014 two teammates at Vanderbilt who became top-five draft choices and vaunted professional prospects \u2014 were both college baseball superstars in years that preceded Skenes\u2019 astronomical rise to both first overall pick status and bona fide celebrity status. <\/p>\n

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Be the smartest Rangers fan. Get the latest news.<\/p>\n

Their veteran teammate, who turned 37 years old Thursday, may best represent what the talented rookie pitchers strive to model their own respectably impressive skill sets off of though. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the whole package but done every five days consistently,\u201d Rocker said Friday afternoon. \u201cIt\u2019s something you don\u2019t see every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Or, for that matter, every generation. The lanky right-hander is a one-of-a-kind arm with one-of-a-kind stuff, though his young teammates do not lack raw skills either. Take the popular Stuff+ metric for example. The advance statistic measures the quality of a player\u2019s individual pitch characteristics and shape and compares it with the league average. DeGrom\u2019s 107 overall Stuff+ rating trails only Leiter\u2019s 109 rating among Texas pitchers and his average fastball velocity (97.1 mph) is second on the Rangers to only Leiter (97.4 mph). <\/p>\n

Those peripheral metrics do not value Rocker\u2019s arsenal quite as highly, but, when at his best, the 25-year-old\u2019s hard sinker and upper 90s fastball present a one-two punch that is rarely matched on the nastiness scale. <\/p>\n

The difference between deGrom and his young rotation mates is less in the quality of their arsenals but more in the way in which he is able to wield his on a start-by-start basis. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s not just blowing his way through lineups,\u201d Rangers manager Bruce Bochy<\/a> said pregame. \u201cHe\u2019s pitching. He\u2019s using all his pitches and commanding the ball. That works up here, and you\u2019ve got [Leiter and Rocker], that\u2019s where they will get better as pitchability improves.” <\/p>\n

The staff ace is different, and though deGrom has combined to throw his fastball and slider more than 86% of the time this season, his ability to sequence his pitches, repeat a near-identical delivery and identify the opportunities to use his secondary weapons have confounded hitters for nearly a decade. <\/p>\n

That includes Friday\u2019s start, in which deGrom struck out seven batters, became the first pitcher age 35 or older to post 12 consecutive starts with two or fewer earned runs in the modern era and finished the night with a 2.24 ERA in 88\u2153 innings pitched this season.<\/p>\n

He retired the first 11 batters that he faced Friday before the Pirates jumped him for four singles, a walk and two runs in the fourth inning. Of the 32 pitches he threw that inning, 28 were either a fastball or a slider, and he recognized that the Pirates had effectively picked between one of the two when they swung. So, in the fifth, he taught an impromptu master class in variety when he struck out the side. <\/p>\n

\u201cI came in and said \u2018Hey, we\u2019ve got to start mixing this up a little bit more,\u2019\u201d said deGrom, who\u2019s now two years removed from season-ending elbow surgery. \u201cWe were able to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

No kidding. He landed a first-pitch curveball vs. Isiah Kiner-Falefa before he went slider-fastball-changeup-slider to elicit a big chase from the former Rangers infielder. He threw two curveballs for strikes in the next at-bat vs. Oneil Cruz before he blew a 98.7 mph fastball past him for a swing-and-miss. He landed another strike-one curveball on Andrew McCutchen one batter later but used his velocity to finish the strikeout. The two fastballs that deGrom threw for strike three\u2019s in that inning were perfectly placed on the outside edge of the strike zone. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe made an adjustment there,\u201d Bochy said. \u201cThat\u2019s what good pitchers do.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Texas\u2019 next two starters hope to do. Leiter \u2014 who grew up in New Jersey surrounded by New York Mets fans and attended the World Series game nine years ago in which deGrom started \u2014 called the four-time All-Star an \u201canomaly\u201d because \u201che has overpowering stuff but he pitches like a command guy.\u201d Leiter, 25, has showcased an ability to overwhelm batters with his high-octane arsenal at times but must apply it appropriately to succeed long term. <\/p>\n

\u201cAs a guy who has had the blessing and the curse of a good arm, from a young age, it\u2019s been learning to pitch for me,\u201d Leiter said. \u201c[DeGrom] kind of teaches me in the most simple way possible what his thoughts are and his approach to the game and how he dominates hitters.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leiter and Rocker both individually singled out deGrom\u2019s fastball command as his most enviable trait. He threw it for strikes on 30 of his 37 attempts in Friday\u2019s win against the Pirates, increased his velocity to a season-best 98.3 mph average and didn\u2019t sacrifice his control to do so. He cracked the 100 mph threshold twice for the first time this season. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s something that, again, as a guy with a good arm and a good fastball, it\u2019s something that I\u2019m always continuing to work on until the day I retire,\u201d Leiter said. \u201cI\u2019d argue he\u2019s the best to ever do it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Leiter and Rocker now have an up-close view. <\/p>\n

Consider class in session. <\/p>\n

Texas Rangers first baseman Jake Burger exits game against Pirates with side tightness<\/a>Former Rangers manager, current Angels skipper Ron Washington out indefinitely with health concerns<\/a><\/p>\n

Find more Rangers coverage from The Dallas Morning News here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click or tap here to sign up for our Rangers newsletter.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PITTSBURGH \u2014 The Texas Rangers, by pure luck of the baseball season\u2019s schedule, will play three games beside…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2393],"tags":[4805,5,3321,721,403,360,4,149,185,1567,69,3240],"class_list":{"0":"post-119780","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-texas-rangers","8":"tag-article","9":"tag-baseball","10":"tag-bruce-bochy","11":"tag-jack-leiter","12":"tag-jacob-degrom","13":"tag-kumar-rocker","14":"tag-mlb","15":"tag-rangers","16":"tag-sports","17":"tag-texas","18":"tag-texas-rangers","19":"tag-texasrangers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/114719959320024514","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}