Seth Rosin Article

Star Tribune

June, 2007

Mounds View pitcher has potential to go far

After closing out a successful career at Mounds View High School, the future looks bright for Seth Rosin.

By John Millea, Star Tribune

Last update: June 23, 2007 – 2:16 AM

Talk to anyone who has seen Seth Rosin pitch, and you will hear the same word.

Upside.

The recent Mounds View graduate has shown enough upside to be signed by the Gophers. The Twins liked his upside so much, they made him the first Minnesota high school player they selected in this month's draft (28th round).

But get one look at Rosin and "upside" takes on an entirely different meaning. His upside is waaaay up there, because the righthander stands 6 feet, 6 inches tall.

He provides a mathematically frightening proposition for anyone holding a bat: The 6-6, 240-pound Rosin standing 60 feet, 6 inches away from home plate, throwing a 92-miles-per-hour fastball.

"I realized right away that I'm going to be a better coach on the days that he pitches," said Mark Downey, who took over as the Mounds View coach this year. "I can hand him the ball and know that we've got a pretty good chance of winning the game."

Rosin (it's pronounced "Rose-EEN"), who will play for the Metro East team in this weekend's Lions all-star series at Chaska Athletic Park, put up spectacular numbers for Mounds View this spring. The 18-year-old had a 6-1 record and 1.62 ERA, striking out 72 and walking 10 in 43 innings.

"I think he's a guy who's going to keep getting better and better. He has a huge upside," Gophers coach John Anderson said. "He's a typical Minnesota kid; I think he's going to be a late developer. A lot of pitchers don't max out until they're 24 or 25, and he looks like one of those guys. We're real excited about him.

"When you look at professional baseball, those are the types of bodies you see out there. I think that's why the Twins took him."

Rosin is leaning toward college. He is waiting to see if the Twins offer a contract but he has already decided on a college major (business and marketing education).

He also is thinking about his first college season, saying, "I have a couple mechanical flaws that we're going to work on next year, and hopefully add a couple more miles an hour to the fastball and then just work on offspeed stuff and placement of pitches."

One of the keys to his success this spring was the offspeed stuff. He came into the year as a power pitcher, leaning on that stunning fastball and little else. But a wakeup call came in a mid-April game against Cretin-Derham Hall -- which went on to win the Class 3A title -- in which Rosin was tagged for 12 hits in 5 ½ innings.

"I think that experience helped me as a coach to reinforce with him, 'Hey, you know what? Your fastball's great but it's not enough, and you need to become more of a pitcher,' " Downey said. "He did a good job of working hard on his curveball and his changeup, and the Gophers will really help him develop more."

Rosin's commitment to the offspeed pitches was clear later in the season when he struck out 14 of the 18 batters he faced in his only defeat, a 1-0 loss at Forest Lake.

"He was a pitcher that night, it wasn't just throwing smoke," Downey said. "He was effective with the curveball and changeup."

Despite his size, Rosin has not completely matured physically. And that only adds to his you-know-what-side.

"I think he's definitely got the potential to play in the professional ranks," Downey said. "Obviously, smarter guys than me, like the Twins, think that, too. What they like is the obvious; he's got a big frame and he's not physically mature. Some guys look like they've been shaving since they were 12. He's not one of those guys. He's only going to get stronger and he's going to grow into his size, become more agile. There's a big upside there."

In fact, there's no downside.

John Millea • jmillea@startribune.com