Rocco Baldelli

[sunshine]

Bad news. Rocco tore his acl playing baseball with his younger brother. Too bad because Rocco was somewaht of a rarity.Ayoung fast center fielder who made it to the bigs at a young age. Hope he has a full recovery.

 

[IceSpeed]

I have followed Rocco for quite a while now. I have been aware of
his abilities since he was playing for Bishop Hendricken High
School. However, I don't know much about injuries. Does
anyone know the recovery rates from a torn acl. How much will it
affect his play?

 

[sunshine]

Sadly it will take a year or so for recovery and often a player does not get back to full speed for two years so I was upset to hear about it. The guy is arguably one of the best athletes in pro sports. 40 plus vertical, 6.3 or so in 60 yard dash. In otherwords he could blow by any cornerback in the NFL. If he played football he would be simialr to Randy Moss.

 

[Van_Slyke_CF]

Baldelli is back with Tampa for the stretch run and giving them some valuable contributions.

Talk about toughness and perseverance....

 

[Don Wassall]

Baldelli is back with Tampa for the stretch run and giving them some valuable contributions.

Talk about toughness and perseverance....

Way to dig up those old threads, Van Slyke.

Too bad we don't have one on Andy Van Slyke, I enjoyed rooting for him when he was with the Pirates at the end of their glory days and the beginning of their stint as permanent losers.

 

[PhillyBirds]

Rocco Baldelli has decided to retire form baseball at age 29. An understandable end to a tragic major league career. A supposed mitochondrial disorder that causes extreme fatigue has ravaged Baldelli's career from the beginning, and was too muchfor him to overcome and live up to his tremendous potential.

Once one of the most exciting prospects in baseball, Baldelli was compared to a young Mickey Mantle in center field, with his mixture of speed, power, and fielding grace. Doing some digging, I found some glowing scouting reports, here and even more effusive here. He put up some ridiculous numbers, including earning Minor League Player of the Year in only his third professional season. Rocco was a tremendous and exciting athlete, prompting one to wonder what could have been.

He'll be joining the Tampa Bay front office in a scouting role. Best of luck, Rocco.

 

[JReb1]

It's a shame that Rocco had that disorder because I always thought he had more talent than Crawford and it would've been him getting that ridiculous contract.