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Victor Roache Breaks Wrist, Could Be Out For Season

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Victor Roache, who entered the 2012 season as one of the top power hitting prospects in the 2012 draft, broke his left wrist last night in an injury that could put him out for the season. Georgia Southern took on Radford in a double header yesterday, and the injury for Roache took place in game two.

The outfielder went 3-for-4 in the first game, with a walk. He started off game two with a walk, his seventh of the 2012 season in 25 plate appearances. Roache went for a diving catch in game two, which is when the injury occurred. He rolled his wrist and was down on the ground for five minutes. Roache left the field after being fitted for an air cast, and later said on Twitter that he could miss the rest of the season.

It is unknown what the injury would do to his draft value. Roache was a top ten prospect according to MLB.com and Baseball America. Keith Law had him rated 45th overall. His value was primarily based on his hitting, since he doesn’t bring much to the field defensively. Even with hitting driving his value, he was good enough to be a top draft prospect.

Last year Roache hit for a .326/.438/.778 line in 230 at-bats, and led division I baseball with 30 home runs. He started the 2012 season in the same fashion. Prior to his injury, Roache hit for a .412/.600/.765 line in 17 at-bats, with two home runs. Perhaps the most impressive thing was his 28% walk rate, compared to his 6% strikeout rate.

If Roache is out for the year, he’s probably going to have to submit medical information to teams in order to regain some value on draft day. For the Pirates he looked like a strong candidate for the eighth overall pick. Now he looks like he could be a reach at eighth overall, since he will be out for the season and has a wrist injury with unknown long term effects. Teams could still gamble on his power, but the downside to this injury is that Roache’s value is fully based on his offense. If the injury impacts that offense in any way, it lowers his value a greater deal.

Tim Williams
Tim Williams
Tim is the owner, producer, editor, and lead writer of PiratesProspects.com. He has been running Pirates Prospects since 2009, becoming the first new media reporter and outlet covering the Pirates at the MLB level in 2011 and 2012. His work can also be found in Baseball America, where he has been a contributor since 2014 and the Pirates' correspondent since 2019.

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