Kevin Ginkel Has a Connection with Alice Cooper

The Arizona Diamondbacks have a strong reliever that often works in the 8th inning of games that are close or where the D-backs are up. He's having a breakout season in his first full season at the major league level. Plus, he's very active in charity work and working with a rock'n'roll legend. His name is Kevin Ginkel. Ginkel was originally drafted by the D-backs in the 22nd round of the 2016 MLB Draft out of the University of Arizona. He's since appeared in the MLB as a reliever with the D-backs in each of the last five years. However, he's never thrown more than 29.1 innings until this season. This season, he's one of the best relievers in the MLB.

Ginkel has appeared in 54 games and finished 18 of them. He has a 9-0 record over 59.2 innings with four saves, 38 hits, 18 walks, and 62 strikeouts. His ERA is 2.26 and his FIP is 2.79 indicating he's having a strong season. His ERA+ is 193 (league average is 100). He's been by far the Diamondbacks' most valuable reliever with 1.3 bWAR. He's been even better since August 15th with just four runs allowed in 12.2 innings with 18 strikeouts and a 1.91 FIP. 

At home, he has a 2.73 ERA over 28 games with 29.2 innings and 30 strikeouts. Why do I mention how he did at home? Well, that directly ties into his charity work that he's been doing very quietly without much fanfare. Kevin Ginkel appeared on MLB Now and spoke about how it feels being in a playoff race with the D-backs and how he's been doing. 

However, he also spoke about his connections with Alice Cooper, a music legend who lives in Phoenix, Arizona. Ginkel got into contact with Cooper a few years ago and began a charity campaign with Cooper's charity, Teen Rock Center. This charity is focused on outreach and helping underprivileged teen youth "by inspiring teens (12-20) to grow through music, dance, and art. We provide vocational training in sound and recording, lighting and staging, video production, as well as a computer lab and a cool, supervised facility for the teens to engage with their peers."

Ginkel decided that he wanted to help these centers help even more children and get them into music rather than other avenues that could be worse. Give the teens a safer space to unwind be a kid and learn about music. 

 "I wanted to develop a really cool idea to help underprivileged teens in the Phoenix area, and a couple of years ago, every home strikeout I would get, I would donate a guitar, and I'm continuing to do that again this year. It's a really cool thing to help kids stay off the streets, stay out of rough neighborhoods."

He continued with his reasons for helping the center.

 "A lot of these kids can have a place they can go to after school and whether they're in rough backgrounds or wherever they're at, it gives them something to do, create a sense of community, and for me, it just helps me and makes me feel good knowing that a kid is getting helped."

Catching up with Kevin yesterday at Chase Field we had a chance to speak with him about the work further. He talked about hoping to be a good example and role model for the kids. 

"I think for me it's just helping a kid that maybe is not in a good environment.  You see all these teens, I'm a little different, I'm an athlete, they're more creative and artistic. Hopefully my platform can give them something to look up to. Not necessarily aspire to be, but look at and think that's someone who I respect and look up to, like he does it the right way. I think it's just giving kids a model, whether it's in sports or in whatever background to get into, I think a lot of these kids can use some positive influence around them. "

Ginkel spoke about Randy Spencer, who runs the teen centers, and how much he's helped him understand what some of these youth go through and their difficult stories. It's helped lend perspective to Kevin in his own life as as well. 

"It just puts into perspective how grateful I need to be to be in this position. Not everybody gets this chance obviously. It brings me back down to earth a little bit."

The draw for Kevin in this direction was due to Alice Cooper's presence in the Phoenix area and all he's meant to the valley over the years. 

"I love music. I think that was what drew me. I think Alice has a big influence not just here in Phoenix but around the world. Everybody knows the name and the brand. This was maybe a symbol for kids to think... Hey, go to Alice Cooper, maybe learn how to play guitar. There's going to be a few guitars in there."

So far, Ginkel has already donated 30 guitars with eight more home games to go. Hopefully, he can keep piling on that strikeout total. Below is a picture of him and Alice Cooper playing the guitars together along with showing some of his time at the Teen Rock Center. Here is the link one more time if you would like to donate or get involved. https://www.alicecoopersolidrock.com/teen-centers/