Michael Roth: Baseball Player

Remember back in 2010, when the Gamecocks faced UCLA in the CWS Finals en route to our first national championship? Remember how Trevor Bauer and Gerritt Cole got all the attention, but Michael Roth came out of nowhere (notwithstanding his previous excellent showing against Clemson) and helped Carolina take home the hardware? Roth's fortunes continued after that series, and they continued this weekend, when he got a surprisingly (at least, for those not familiar with the Los Angeles Angels' situation) early call up to the big leagues. As Houston Astros blogger and resident Gamecocks MLB expert Timothy De Block writes,

It's quite amazing and unique that Roth is in the majors so early. He's only had 27 innings in the minor but due to the Angels bad farm system he's in a unique situation in which the Astros are desperate for pitching and apparently have seen something in him to give him a shot in the major leagues.

Not to let a good chance get away from him, Roth pitched two perfect innings with four strikeouts and got a win in a come-from-behind effort by his club. Roth wasn't as fortunate tonight, giving up a run in two innings of work in a blowout loss to the Minnesota Twins. Still, he's got a 2.25 ERA, which is hardly shabby even if its is in only 4 innings of work, and it looks like Los Angeles is going to give him every opportunity over the next few weeks to carve out a place in the bullpen. At this point, you just have to shake your head in admiration for the guy. His career since 2010 has been a felicitous mixture of good fortune in opportunity and meeting every challenge he's faced with success. To top it all off, he seems to get more than the usual amount of enjoyment doing it. I'll have to admit, I was somewhat skeptical that his style would be successful in the big leagues, but perhaps we shouldn't bet against him after his positive debut. The guy is a winner.