2012 MLB Draft: Brewers Select Victor Roache 28th Overall

Fresh on the heels of landing Clint Coulter with the 27th pick in the first round, the Brewers were immediately on the clock again with pick number 28. They used that selection to draft Georgia Southern junior outfielder Victor Roache.

Milwaukee may have drafted Coulter a little higher than the rankings would have placed him, but they flipped the script with Roache who coming into the spring season was viewed as a potential top-10 selection.

Of course that was before he broke his wrist at the end of February. A simple broken wrist is one thing, but in Roache’s case his wrist required “complicated” surgery that involved several pieces of hardware – screws, pins and a metal plate – to put it back together.

Despite the nature and severity of his injury, Roache was still highly ranked heading into the draft. Baseball America had him at #22, MLB.com at #27 and the extreme outlier was Keith Law (ESPN) who had dropped him down to #88 in his top-100. All in all Milwaukee got excellent value with the 28th overall pick and may have landed another middle of the order power bat to their organization in the process.

Not only did the Brewers select Coulter and Roache back-to-back, they also signed on consecutive days with Roache agreeing to his $1.525 million deal on June 7th.

The Stats:

  • 2012: 17 AB, 0.412/.600/765, 2 HR, 7 BB, 1 SO
  • 2011: 230 AB, 0.326/.438/.778, 10 2B, 30 HR, 37 BB, 42 SO
  • 2010: 151 AB, 0.252/.408/.464, 6 2B, 8 HR, 31 BB, 42 SO

The Stuff:

Any discussion about the 6’2″ 225 lb 20-year old’s prospect profile has to start with his bat. This is a guy that hit 30 HR as a college sophomore and he did it in a season where offensive production was down across the board in college baseball. While his collegiate peers were struggling to produce with the new BBCOR bats, Roache was in the midst of a breakout season in 2011. According to Baseball America, he was the first Division I player to hit 30 HR since 2003.

Augmenting his plus raw power, Roache possesses plus bat speed as well as a generally solid approach at the plate. While he will turn in his share of swings and misses – as almost all power hitters do – he has above average pitch recognition and has made great strides in his plate discipline since he was a freshman.

What he does at the plate will define his career but he’s far from a liability in the field. Roache is not blessed with great speed but he is otherwise a solid defensive player with the range and arm necessary to hold down either LF or RF in the majors, though LF probably fits his skill set the best. By all accounts he is a dedicated player and is willing to put in the work to improve.

The Future:

Coming off a breakthrough season in 2011, he looked to be building upon things in the early going this spring before the fateful attempted diving catch cause him to miss all but six games of the Eagles season.

While he is expected to fully recover from his broken wrist and subsequent surgery, the severity of injury does muddy the waters when trying to gauge the potential impact and ceiling Roache can have.

Will he pick up in pro ball where he left off on February 25th and continue to improve or will he need time to shake the rust off and rebuild his swing? Since it is most likely going to be the latter, how much developmental time will his comeback consume?

Now that he is under contract he will head to the team’s facilities in Arizona to continue his rehab. Whether or not he is able to make his pro debut this summer remains in question, but either way an assignment to the Arizona Fall League seems like a prudent move to get him more at bats.

Before anything happens, he needs to fully recover, but when he does I believe history will show that the Brewers landed one of the steals of the first round.

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