Soriano couldn't go more than 5 innings in the pros with his one-weapon approach. Robles can't do it because he's squat and heavy and becomes more erratic as time goes by. His max-effort approach to get the ball to go that fast at his height wears him out.
The arm injury and our depth at starter have allowed him to go to the pen.
Before the injury he was throwing 92-96 as a left-handed starter. I know we seem to grow those guys on trees now but it's actually pretty rare. In last year's camp guys were raving about his changeup, and the way he throws gives him deception and makes him extremely hard to square up. But it makes him erratic. I'm not sure what they've done to help his landing leg issues or clean up some of his motion since his injury, but I hope it doesn't mess with his deception.
Through the first 4 innings in his career he strikes out around 10.5 per 9 and walks 3.5. And he's unhittable.
WHIP and BB/9:
Age 19: 1.18 and 5.3
Age 20: 1.31 and 4.4
Age 21: 1.35 and 4.5
H/9, career: 7.3
That's a Jeff-Nelson sort of line. You can pitch in the bigs for a long time with that.
We get to watch him today, Doc. Or at least, he's scheduled. Time to see his mechanics + velo. I want to see if the change has bite and the fastball has hair.
Because they used to. George Sherrill throwing 95 would be a terror, and I compared Mauricio to Gagne in the past for that reason. 95 from a lefty is 98 from a righty, and Robles has a fascinating change. He also just turned 23 this week. He's that tantalizing kind of work in progress that will drive you crazy.
I wanna see what progress he's made, both in his recovery and approach. If he's the same dude he was in 2010, then he's an absolutely viable bullpen candidate.
But keep in mind he's been harder on righties than on lefties in his minor league career. LOOGY he isn't, or at least hasn't been.
He's just a scary lil guy when he's right, and he has ice-water in his veins when he's on the mound, even when guys are kicking the ball around behind him. I'd love to see him healthy and a contributing member of the 2012 Mariners.
~G
PS - Forrest Snow is gonna be hard to keep off this team, I agree. I feel like we put Super-Gro in the farm system's soil. It's crazy.
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