Rogers8Fan

That's a great article to read on Rogers.

Yo, Thunnis. This is the only thread I've started about Rogers.

Man, when did I claim to be the Mark Rogers messiah? I was just stating my opinion and those of others who are actually aware of him. It's not like I'm not making stuff up. I'm stating my observations. I'm sure there are hundreds or even thousands of people who know more about Mark Rogers than I do. However, until you came along (supposedly you know more about Rogers than I do, I don't doubt it's possible, but you haven't said anything about him) I had no problem telling these Brewer fans (who seem to appreciate it) what I knew about Rogers. My post was opinionated, but that's stuff they won't find in the press. Usually the press just reports on things. I'm not trying to come across as the be-all, end-all of Mark Rogersdom.

Well it was in 8th grade. My friend struck out, no surprise.

Compared to everyone else at this board, I am more like from the "inside looking out" rather than from the "outside looking in." I thought I said this... I'm from Lewiston. You know where Lewiston is if you went to Mt. Ararat. I've seen Mark Rogers pitch, which the very heavy majority of people here have not. I gave my insights to him using not only what I personally think of Rogers but what my friends think, what I've heard his classmates say, the local media, and other observations. I figure they could get most of the positive things quite easily through the media. I gave my more insightful opinions, rather than you who just attacked them and insulted me and simply said he would give 110% to the Brewers. And I believe I did address he is a determined individual.

I wouldn't say "athlete." Rogers is a great athlete.

Oh what fun! Best of luck to him in Arizona. I know I'll be following him!

Haha, speaking of "Mr. Rogers" When Deering beat Mark Rogers someone was over a bridge with a sign saying "Mr. Rogers can't hang in this neighborhood." I thought it was pretty witty.

OH, and in case you were curious, that's his dad in the lower right hand corner of "Rogers3".

Yeah... the game was 11 innings and he pitched 9 shutout innings against Lawrence (who we beat much more handily than Mt. Ararat, by the way!) He struck out 22 and walked 4... so basically 75% of his walks this year came in 2 games. His dad gave him like a week and a half rest, though, to make sure his arm didn't fall off.

It was my pleasure sharing them... I only wish my battery wasn't so low or the close-ups would have been a lot better quality.

Well, Wisconsin has 3 of the 4 major sports in their state to go with... I mean, Maine the STATE has an independent baseball team, a minor league baseball team, a minor league hockey team, and a junior hockey team to cheer for. Sure, our home teams are in Boston, but we don't get much of a real sense of home.

Yes, that I agree with that. But he needs to fix it while keeping that whip of an arm. I really think his whole wind-up is just a disaster waiting to happen.

It's just something that is against him. There aren't many first round picks that are high school pitchers from a small state that became good.

It's the competition he's faced. He hasn't faced much so he's untested. He has good control but not when he has to do his best. He may go into the minors trying to do too much. And no, it's worse he hasn't pitched much because he's going to go from 50 innings a year to 150, instead of 80 or so innings a year to 150. And Curt Schilling is a rare case.

I'll send them to that brewerfan address. Some of the pictures are poor quality because the battery on my camera was quite low and I pretty much had 2 seconds to zoom in (which I couldn't all the way) and snap a pic.

I'm going to go all out in this. I would post it in that other topic but I feel I deserve my own http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif . I can confidently say I know more about Mark Rogers than anyone on this board. Mt. Ararat played against us, I saw him play (hah, I'm the scorekeeper, though.) He struck out against my friend's 55 MPH change-up. I've also researched a ton on him and read every article I have found since September on him. I spent $40 to get a Baseball America subscription just to find out more stuff about him. I also just saw him pitch yesterday. Okay, so Mark Rogers is your first overall pick. I love the guy, and I hope he becomes the next hall of famer. But someone who is supposed to be biased about him has this to say: Hah, that's a pretty bad pick. Here's why: I'm sure a lot of people agree with me, and I would probably argue he's a good pick because I like him so much if I saw someone say something bad about him. I believe wholeheartedly in the philosophy of drafting college players. Everything about me says I go against that philosophy (Josh Beckett has been my favorite player since I saw him throw his first pitch off the mound at Hadlock Field for the Portland Sea Dogs, and I'm a Braves fan, who take mostly high schoolers.) But everything goes against it. ESPECIALLY high school pitchers. Not that there are no good high school pitchers in the majors out there... but more because they are just so tough to project and it's almost as likely an 8th rounder will become an ace as a 5th overall pick when it comes to high school pitchers. Hitters are a little better, I do not know why exactly, but they are. But Mark Rogers is an even greater risk than other high school pitchers! He's from Maine! Ugh, I love this state, but this is not a place to be drafting high school pitchers 5th overall from. Our best major leaguer in the past 20 years is either Mike Bordick (who wasn't even born here!) or Bill Swift, who was taken out of college. Our high school pitchers... the only 2 I know of are Jeremy Shorey and Matt Kinney. Shorey was never a big prospect, but he never made it past Ogden, which I believe was yout low-A affiliation at the time. Kinney is actually a "success" story. If Rogers advances as much as Kinney did, then he will be a solid #2 starter, which would certainly be considered successful to me. So let's look at the 2 most recent success stories from high school so far. Josh Beckett and Kerry Wood. Both have injury troubles, and both are from Texas. That's why... you should have taken Homer Bailey! Ahh it would have been such a much better pick for the Brewers. I would have gone with any college pitcher available over Rogers, anyway. Rogers' wind-up is so very erratic. It's not smooth in the least bit. It's almost like a less exaggerated Chan Ho Park and he throws way across his body. What's good about it is he seems to get a ton of arm action in there... his arm is a freakin' whip when he is pitching. The competition he faced in Maine also isn't even the best possible. Maine's class A (the highest possible) has 2 divisions... the KVAC (Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference) and the other one. I think they are just considered "south" or something. Well, anyway, Mt. Ararat is in the KVAC, which doesn't even compare to the competition of southern Maine. Let's use my school as an example. Last year we were in the south and won 2 games, losing 12. Our worst loss was 22-0 to Deering. This year, with what I thought was a worse team than last year's, we went 6-10 and our worst loss was 10-0 to Mt. Ararat. It was the only game we lost by the 10-run rule, compared to about 3 or 4 last year. Southern Maine also has like 5 less teams. The 5 extra teams in the KVAC aren't really that fantastic. Even schools with good records aren't necessarily great because they are up north and play the other bad teams from up north. He is a tremendous athlete, but don't be fooled by his hockey skills. Reports that he'd get a hockey scholarship are right, but he was only the 5th or 6th best player in the state. He has a killer slapshot that is about as fast as his fastball, but that's about it. My school eliminated Mt. Ararat in the playoffs earlier this year. Rogers only had an assist, and couldn't score a goal on my friend who later struck him out... I think Rogers would have been much better off accepting his scholarship to Miami. But he had to be so unstoppable this year and the Brewers had to take him 5th overall. I can't blame him for not taking the 2+ million dollars the Brewers will throw at him and run with it when there's a risk if he goes to Miami he becomes nothing. This is such a very disorganized post, I realize, which poor grammar and stuff. Heh, I'm out of school for the summer and I'm not thinking. I'm also preoccupied. Anyway, now I will say what's good about Rogers. Mark comes from a very athletic family. A family of lobstermen! That's what his dad, Craig (Mt. Ararat's coach) does and his whole family works doing that in the summer. His older brother is a pitcher for UMaine, and it isn't often a Mainer pitches in a D1 college. His younger brother might even be the best of them all! He's in 8th grade and throws in the early 80s. I've seen the kid, too, he's only like 5'5"! He has a ton of growing to do. So it's evident Rogers comes from a very un-Mainelike family, which is beneficial to him. I know he has the potential to be good. He has tremendous potential. However, it all depends on how the Brewers treat him. Not many mistakes can be made with him. And no offense, but I'm not quite sure the Brewers can handle him. I really mean no offense by it, but I think there are better organizations (like the Marlins or Yankees) for him. The Brewers are a decent team this year, but they need help and may want to have him before he is ready. Finally, he's Mark Rogers! I know he has as much determination to succeed as it will take to succeed. That could be wishful thinking, but I hope not. I've heard stuff from people he may be a brown-noser and a little cocky, though. That may not be good.

Dang, there really is no way I can import pictures here, is there?

Well, I know there are 16 players on that Mt. Ararat team that really wanted to win the game, including him. They had no chance without him. And he threw 120 pitches earlier this year.

Like I said, Deering should be considered as more than just a "Maine high school team." I'm sure they would do well in a national competition.

Hey guys... I was at the game yesterday. I live about 40 minutes north of Portland in Lewiston. It was amazing. We had to wait an hour just to get in and the whole place was packed. Just so you know, Rogers was not shelled, but he did not have his best stuff and a couple less than perfect pitches did him in. Playing in front of 7,000 fans both teams made 3 errors due mostly to nerves, but Mt. Ararat's proved to be more costly. The errors were really clumsy, too. The only error that I don't blame was Rogers'. It was on a bunt and he needed to get the out. The bunt was great and he had to rush to get the speedy runner out. He threw off balance into the dirt and a runner scored on the throw. I believe only 2 hits were out of the infield, 1 was a bloop and 1 was that solid hit on the curve by I forget who, I think it may have been Esposito but I have Giobbi in my mind, too (heh, freshman year playing against Giobbi I dropped a routine flyball hit by him.) The errors also added quite a few pitches to his pitch count. Like 10-20 over 2 innings. He walked 3 guys, he only walked I believe 6 the entire season. I think one of the reasons he may have struggled is because Deering is a lot more mature and advanced in baseball skills than any other team he played. What I'm saying is he should have tried to throw his changeup more. He only threw it once or twice. He kept trying to blow people away with his fastball or buckle their knees with a curve. Yes, he did that very well, too... 8 times to be exact. However, he tried to do it too much. He did a poor job of mixing his pitches. I remember in the first inning they were making contact which stunned everyone... but in 2 of the at-bats of runners who got on base in the 1st inning (maybe it was the 2nd, but it happened) he threw 4 fastballs to one guy and then 3 curves to another and then walked the guy because it was 3-0. Don't get over Rogers just yet. Deering were ranked the #25 team in the nation by Baseball America. They went down to #41 but they did nothing wrong, and that doesn't count them beating Rogers. Portland, which is where Deering is, cheats! Haha, they are the only place in the state with good indoor baseball fascilities. And those are important for Maine. And it's well known Deering is the richest part of Portland so those kids probably have more money to spend on going there than anyone else. It's amazing... because Deering is only graduating 5 seniors, and had 9 juniors on the team and 3 freshmen! Rogers left the game in the 5th inning (maybe 4th? I think 5th,,) to a minute-long standing ovation. It was so great. I don't think it could be understood by anyone in Wisconsin the pandemoneum Rogers created. He is ours, and we don't have much. Especially since we are really a hockey state (well, I say that because I'm in the center of the extreme hockeyness in Lewiston.) The day belonged to Ryan Reid, though. Reid was throwing mid-80s and he had no problem putting away a much less talented Mt. Ararat team. I wouldn't give Reid too much credit, but good luck to him in the future. He's on scholarship to James Madison University so hopefully he'll help his stock there. Haha, I don't think this great pitching performance is much because he's really a better hitter. His (if I remember correctly) 0-3 performance with a whiff doesn't help. I'd just like to say good luck to Rogers in the future, and Milwaukee... don't screw him up! You drafted another Maine kid in Jeremy Shorey a few years back and he ended up blowing it in Ogden and he now works with my dad building ships. Then again, he was drafted in the 11th or 12th round or so. I'd post pictures of the game on here but I don't believe there is a way to.