FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 26, 2013
Courtesy of Franklin Pierce Athletics Communications
RINDGE, N.H. - After wrapping up his collegiate career with a consensus All-America selection for the Franklin Pierce University baseball team, James Roche has signed a minor league contract with the New York Mets. He will report to extended spring training in Port St. Lucie, Fla. to begin his career in affiliated baseball in April.
The signing makes good on a move Roche made late in his collegiate career specifically designed to garner attention from Major League Baseball organizations. With a year of eligibility remaining after completing his undergraduate studies at fellow Northeast-10 Conference member Bentley, Roche transferred to Franklin Pierce to play for head coach Jayson King. Roche started all 58 games for the 2012 Ravens, batting third and playing center field, and had the most successful season of his career. He becomes the 23rd King disciple to sign a contract in affiliated baseball and will be one of an expected seven former Ravens taking the field in Minor League Baseball in 2013.
While it is still too early in the baseball year so be sure where he will be assigned, the expectation is for Roche to spend two months or so in extended spring training before being assigned to the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets’ short-season Class A, New York-Penn League affiliate. The assignment would keep Roche in the region, as the New York-Penn League has three New England members: the Connecticut Tigers, the Lowell Spinners and the Vermont Lake Monsters. New York’s full-season Class A affiliate is the Savannah Sand Gnats of the South Atlantic League.
“Jim is very deserving of this opportunity,” said Coach King. “He has been a proven performer during his four-year college career and has all the physical and mental traits to succeed at the next level.”
Roche had an electric graduate student season for the Ravens in 2012. Despite playing in one of only three wood-bat conferences in the country, he finished third in the nation in total bases (154), tied for sixth in home runs (17), tied for ninth in hits (84), ranked 13th in home runs per game (0.29), tied for 16th in runs batted in (61), tied for 28th in runs scored (57), tied for 29th in doubles (19), ranked 34th in slugging percentage (.661) and ranked 45th in runs batted in per game (1.05). His home run and RBI totals led the Northeast-10, while he finished second in the conference in slugging percentage, runs scored and hits; tied for second in doubles; ranked fifth in batting average (.361, 84-for-233); ranked eighth in stolen bases (22-for-30, 73.3%); ranked 13th in on-base percentage (.426); and tied for 20th in walks (26).
As one would expect, such a performance allowed Roche to haul in a veritable mantle-full of hardware. He earned an All-America First Team selection from the ABCA, as well as All-America Second Team selections from both Daktronics and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association. He was named to the College Baseball Lineup Division II All-Star Team. He was a consensus All-East Region First Team selection and an ABCA/Rawlings East Region Gold Glove Team selection. He earned an All-Star Team nod from the New England Intercollegiate Baseball Association, an All-Northeast-10 Conference First Team selection and a Northeast-10 All-Championship Team selection. For his work in the classroom, he was selected to the Northeast-10 Conference Commissioner’s Academic Honor Roll. The All-America and All-Region First Team honors were the first of his career.
His 2012 onslaught wound up as one of the top seasons in Franklin Pierce annals, led by his program single-season record of 17 home runs. In addition, he finished third among program single-season records in runs batted in, tied for third in hits, tied for eighth in runs scored, ninth in slugging percentage, ninth in doubles and tied for 10th in stolen bases. Though it would not necessarily show up in the stat line, another pivotal contribution by Roche in 2012 was providing lineup protection for then-sophomore first baseman Zach Mathieu, who finished as the consensus East Region Player of the Year.
“The season he put together for us last year was tremendous,” added King. “I am looking forward to seeing him carry that success into pro ball and am grateful to the New York Mets organization for giving him an opportunity I know he will take full advantage of.”
Roche was no stranger to the Northeast-10 before coming to Rindge, as he was a three-year starter at Bentley from 2008-10. Combined with his Franklin Pierce accolades, he finished a four-time All-Northeast-10 selection, a three-time All-Region selection and a two-time NEIBA All-Star Team selection. Roche opened his career with a bang in 2008, when he started all 47 games for Bentley and hit .342/.403/.521 (AVG/OBP/SLG) on his way to Northeast-10 Freshman of the Year honors. He is one of an exceptionally small minority of college signees who spent the entirety of their collegiate careers hitting with a wood bat, and Roche will not have to adjust from the aluminum bats used by most college conferences.
Roche will not be the only recent Northeast-10 product in the Mets’ organization, as he will join Jim Fuller, a 21st-round draft pick (644 overall) out of Southern Connecticut State in 2008, and Jack Leathersich, a fifth-round selection (162 overall) out of Massachusetts Lowell in 2011. Fuller enters his fifth professional season in 2013 after missing 2011 due to a shoulder injury and posted a 5.72 earned-run average with 44 strikeouts (8.7 per nine innings) and a 1.401 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) in 2012, primarily for the Sand Gnats, though he mixed in 4.2 innings with the St. Lucie Mets of the Class A-Advanced Florida State League. Leathersich enters his third professional season and logged 72 innings in 2012 between Savannah and St. Lucie, posting a 3.00 ERA, 113 strikeouts (14.1 per nine innings) and a 1.153 WHIP along the way.
Though examining such a small sample is frivolous, Roche faced Fuller and Leathersich in one game each during his college career, both while with Bentley, and faced neither after his sophomore season. As a freshman, he went 0-for-3 with two strikeouts against Fuller in a game at SCSU on March 29, 2008. As a sophomore, he went 1-for-3 with a single through the left side, a walk and a strikeout against Leathersich in a game at home on March 28, 2009.
Presuming Roche is assigned to Brooklyn, he will become the fifth Raven to log time in the New York-Penn League. Most recently, Jose Macias tossed 22 innings with Vermont in 2011, posting a 3.27 ERA, 21 strikeouts (8.6 per nine innings) and a 1.182 WHIP. Macias spent 2012 with the Class A Burlington Bees of the Midwest League. Current Franklin Pierce assistant coach Mike Chambers ’06 spent the 2006 season in the New York-Penn League with Lowell, where he hit .250/.349/.335 over 196 plate appearances.
Roche’s former teammates opened up the season at 5-0 after sweeping through their time in Myrtle Beach, S.C. over the weekend. The Ravens head south again this weekend for two games against perennial NCAA Championship East Regional participant Wilmington (Del.) and two games against Indiana (Pa.). All four games will be played at Wilmington’s Wilson Field at Jim Sherman Sr. Stadium.
