One step closer: Hopewell's Joe Rock to begin second pro season pitching at Double-A Hartford
While it’s early in Joe Rock’s professional career, his prospect arrow definitely points up.
It’s not official at this moment, but from all indications, he’ll start his second full season of pro baseball pitching in Double-A.
If that’s the case, at age 22, he’ll be two steps away from the Major Leagues.
Rock, a 2018 graduate of Hopewell High School who played collegiately at Ohio University, expects to start the 2023 season with the Hartford Yard Goats, the Colorado Rockies’ farm team in the Class AA Eastern League.
Hartford’s website already lists Rock on the Yard Goats’ roster. But a team spokesman said the official roster won’t be announced for another week or so.
The Yard Goats open their season April 6.
“Right now, I’ll probably start out in AA and most likely stay there the whole year as long as I do well,” Rock said in a phone interview from the Rockies’ spring training complex in Scottsdale, Ariz.
“It will feel good (to be in Class AA). The competition is a lot better and it’s also one step closer to the main goal, which is obviously the big leagues.”
On July 12, 2021, the Rockies selected Rock, a lean and lanky 6-foot-6, 215-pound left-hander, with the 68th overall pick of the MLB draft.
Later in the summer of 2021, he pitched for the ACL Rockies in the Arizona Complex League, a rookie-level minor league that operates in and around Phoenix, Ariz.
Last year, he spent most of the season with the Spokane Indians, the Rockies’ high Class A team in the Northwest League. He then spent one week in September in Hartford.
In November, Baseball Prospectus listed Rock as the 20th best prospect in the Rockies’ organization. In March, MLBPipeline.com ranked Rock as the Rockies’ 18th-best prospect. The Athletic ranks Rock 17th.
“It went really well,” Rock said of his performance last year. “I started to tire out later in the year. I pitched 115 innings, that’s the most I’ve ever thrown in one year.
“But I led the league in almost every category, so that was good.”
In Spokane, he started 20 games and totaled 107.2 innings of work. He compiled a 7-8 record and a 4.43 earned run average with 109 strikeouts.
He did have a few rough starts, but also pitched some masterpieces, like a seven-inning, one-hitter in which he struck out nine and a five-inning stint when he struck out 10.
Among the Northwest League leaders, Rock’s seven wins tied for the league lead. He also led the league in batting average against at .219.
In Hartford where he was 3.5 years younger than the league average, Rock made two starts and allowed nine runs in 11 innings of pitching.
“I’m definitely learning how to pitch,” Rock said of the progress he's made since joining the Rockies' organization.
“In high school, you can throw mostly fastballs in a game and get by with it. In college I had to add another pitch, and now I've had to add another pitch. So I’m learning how to pitch to different hitters and finding their weaknesses."
Since getting drafted by the Rockies, Rock has a three-pitch repertoire.
He throws a four-seam fastball consistently in the 92-to-95 miles per hour range and was clocked as high as 97 mph last year. He throws a mid-80s slider, which might be his best pitch. He also throws a changeup that he just started throwing two years ago.
“I added a change-up and it’s working well,” Rock said.
Depending on how Rock pitches this season, he’s hoping to move up to the Rockies’ Triple-A team — the Albuquerque Isotopes — sooner than later.
And if there’s continued success, there could be a call up to the Rockies’ major-league squad perhaps as early as 2024.
“That would be a dream come true,” said Rock, who signed for a slot bonus of $953,100 after he was drafted in 2021. “It’s like when you’re a kid and you’re watching games on TV, and you’re thinking ‘Man, that’s something I want to do someday.’
“The reality is that most kids never get that opportunity. But now, I do have that opportunity. It’s so close. It drives you and motivates you every day.”
Rock, who celebrates his 23rd birthday on July 29, hopes to become the third Hopewell graduate to play in the Major Leagues.
Joe Verbanic, a 1961 grad, pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies in 1966 and the New York Yankees in 1967, ’69 and ’70. He appeared in 92 major-league games, mostly in relief, and finished with a career record of 12–11.
George “Doc” Medich, a 1966 grad, spent 11 seasons in the majors from 1973-1982 with eight different teams, including four years with the Yankees and one with the Pittsburgh Pirates. He won 124 games in his career including a career-high 19 in 1974.
Rock dominated throughout his scholastic career at Hopewell. He finished with a career ERA of 1.48, amassed a 21-7 record, struck out 252 in 198.1 innings and threw a no-hitter. As a senior, he recorded 110 strikeouts in 70.2 innings.
He then went to Ohio where several Hopewell stars played before him: Scott Kuvinka (Class of 1976), Gary McLaughlin (1979), Dave McLaughlin (1982), Donny Morris (1986) and Chad Ciccone (1996).
Kuvinka was the Pirates’ third-round pick in the 1979 draft and spent three years in the Bucs’ minor-league system.
In 1983, McLaughlin signed a free-agent contract with the Reds and spent that year with Cincinnati’s Class A minor-league team.
As a junior at Ohio in 2021, Rock started 14 games for the Bobcats. He led the team in ERA (2.33), wins (eight), complete games (four), innings pitched (88.2) and strikeouts (117).
It was that kind of pitching that convinced the Rockies to draft him.
“My goal is to get to Coors Field (the Rockies’ home field in Denver) as quickly as possible, hopefully within the next couple years,” Rock said on the day he was drafted.
“That’s the goal, to get to the big leagues as quickly as possible.”
This article originally appeared on Beaver County Times: One step closer: Hopewell's Joe Rock to begin second pro season pitching at Double-A Hartford
