HOOVER, Alabama — For a man who used to make his living as a baseball scout, Mississippi State baseball coach Andy Cannizaro isn’t afraid to recite the numbers.
When it comes to battling for Brent Rooker, the numbers are all Cannizaro needs.
“If you put up those numbers in this league, you deserve to win every award you’re up for,” he said.
So far, Rooker is 2-for-2.
On Monday, Rooker was named the winner of the Ferriss Trophy, which given to the best college baseball player in the state of Mississippi, and the Southeastern Conference Player of the Year. The honors came as Rooker was preparing for No. 5 seed MSU’s SEC tournament opener at 8 tonight against No. 12 seed Georgia (SEC Network).
“It’s been a fun experience, a really cool experience getting recognized for all the hard work I’ve put in, but obviously that’s not the focus,” Rooker said. “We’re here as a team. We’re here to win the SEC tournament.”
Rooker, a redshirt junior, led the SEC in batting average (.415), home runs (20), RBIs (73), hits (85), doubles (28), and slugging percentage (.873) and tied for the league lead in stolen bases (18). He leads the nation in doubles and slugging percentage. He is second nationally in batting average.
Rooker’s breakthrough came after he changed his mental approach last summer playing in the Cape Cod League and he altered his swing last fall. The hitter he is now forces opponents to pitch around him. For all the work he did in the offseason becoming a more disciplined hitter, Rooker finds himself in fewer and fewer situations where he can display his acumen.
“The biggest thing is learning when to be patient and when to be aggressive,” Rooker said. “At the end of the season, less and less teams started pitching to me and it was basically throwing chase pitches to see if I would get myself out.
“I’ve gotten pretty good at identifying that early in the count. I can tell in the first few pitches whether they’re going to challenge me or try to make me chase something then put me on first base. That’s one of the things I’ve gotten better at, too, is learning the situations where I’m probably going to get pitched to or where they’re going to make me hit their pitch or nothing at all.”
Rooker also was on the midseason watch list for the Golden Spikes Award, which is awarded to the best player America by USA Baseball. Other All-America honors are likely to come. Cannizaro said after Saturday’s regular-season finale he thought Rooker was “the best offensive player in America.”
The job of staying focused through all of the attention has forced Rooker to make another adjustment.
“You have to compartmentalize things,” Rooker said. “You can have the attention and talk to people over here, but once you get on the field it’s back into team mode, back into doing whatever I can to help the team win today.”
MSU shortstop Ryan Gridley joined Rooker on the first-team All-SEC list. Gridley hit .326, which ranked 15th in the conference, and was second on the team with 38 RBIs.
Sophomore Jake Mangum was named to the SEC’s All-Defensive Team and was a second-team All-SEC selection in the outfield. Playing the second half of the conference season with a broken hand, Mangum still hit .330, which ranked 13th in the conference. He scored 49 runs, had 15 doubles, and stole 11 bases.
Follow Dispatch sports writer Brett Hudson on Twitter @Brett_Hudson
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.