Right here. Here are some excerpts:
Robinson has no specific pointer to the improvement. "I'm just starting to play to more of my potential," he said. "I didn't necessarily want to bat .300, I just wanted to stay consistent. It's not all about performance, it's consistency that moves you up."
Not that there weren't some changes, beginning with Robinson's bat. "I picked up a bigger bat this year, 35 inches," he said. "I was just using this little 33-inch one before�a little twig." Additionally, a change in roles led to the power increase. "I was never really trying to hit for power, I just want to put the ball in play and run my ass off, but then they started hitting me third at Inland Empire," said Robinson. "I started seeing more pitches�two years ago I was just a hacker�and realizing what I can drive and what counts I look to drive ball in." With the power also came a career high in strikeouts, but that doesn't overly concern Robinson. "I didn't even notice it until the end of the year," said Robinson. "Then I saw it and was like, 'Damn! I struck out 143 times?'," he added, while taking an almost sabermetric approach to the number. "Strikeouts will come, it's the same as a popup or a groundout, it's just an out."
As for the stolen bases, the more than doubling of his previous career high can be explained with one simple change. "I had the green light all year," Robinson noted. "They just told me to go, so I went." With those 47 stolen bases came 20 times caught, but that's part of the minors for Robinson. "Every time I got thrown out, it was a different situation," adding, "and every time I learned something." Clearly that's the case, as Robinson was safe on his last 12 attempts for the 66ers.
Asked for a scouting report on his game, Robinson pauses, stammers, and finally says, "Look, I don't know anything about those 20-80 scores or anything like that. You find a guy that has seen me the whole day, from the time I show up to practice to the game, and I want him to tell you I play hard - unbelievably hard - every second I'm out there."
Good stuff on his time in Mormonville, death of a friend, struggles with switch-hitting... I still don't know if he WILL succeed in a big way, but I know I'm definitely rooting for him to.
And he could wind up being really special. For our sake, I hope he is.
~G