Seattle Mariners Pitcher, A's Brent Rooker Have Hilarious Back-and-Forth

Sep 28, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Oakland Athletics designated hitter Brent Rooker (25) celebrates with second baseman Max Schuemann (12) after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images
Sep 28, 2024; Seattle, Washington, USA; Oakland Athletics designated hitter Brent Rooker (25) celebrates with second baseman Max Schuemann (12) after hitting a two-run home run during the fifth inning against the Seattle Mariners at T-Mobile Park. Mandatory Credit: Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images / Stephen Brashear-Imagn Images

Just a few days ago A's DH Brent Rooker was responding to a baseball fan's question on social media, and started receiving playful jabs from pitchers around the league. One of those pitchers happened to be Bryce Miller of the Seattle Mariners.

This all started when the "X" account Baseball Quotes tagged Rooker, saying that they would love to see him break down some of his at-bats.

Rooker responded, "I’ve considered doing this but I get unreasonably paranoid that some pitchers would see me explain something about my mid-at bat thought process and use the information against me during the season."

That's a totally fair response, because Rooker feels that it would give away a competitive advantage. This also caused "Normick Donald" to respond to Rooker's post with "It really surprises me how willing a lot of pitchers are to share their specific grips and other info on their pitches in interviews."

Rooker laid it out pretty clearly from there, saying that pitcher's grips don't help him at all, but his thought process in the box after a certain pitch could be very valuable intel for opposing pitchers.

This led to Mariner's right-hander Miller chiming in.

Rooker responded, "You don't need any extra help, Bryce."

The batter and pitcher have faced each other a few times each of the past two seasons, with Miller holding Rooker hitless in 2023 with an 0-for-5 with three strikeouts, but Rooker got some measure of revenge in 2024, going 2-for-3 with an RBI.

What really made this a great back-and-forth is that Miller posted a video of his training routine on Tuesday, and Rooker replied with a GIF of a person taking notes.

Miller is currently projected to be the Mariners' No. 4 starter in 2025 according to Roster Resource, and if he lands somewhere in the top four pitchers in Seattle's rotation, then we'll be able to get a glimpse of this matchup during the season's first series.

The A's will begin the 2025 regular season up in Seattle for a four-game set, beginning on Thursday, March 27.


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Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.