Over here.
So where does his surprising power come from, the strength that allowed him to hit 26 home runs at Albuquerque this season before the Mariners acquired him?
"I think it's the size of my bat," he said. "I started swinging a 35-inch bat in '09, and the home runs started coming around. But it's still me. I'm one of the smallest guys in this locker room."
Robinson was still soaking everything in on Saturday, still smiling and enjoying his new surroundings. It didn't hurt that he made a great catch and got a hit off All-Star starter Jered Weaver in his debut.
He won't soon forget that first hit, either, a single to left in the sixth inning.
"Right when he released the ball, I said, 'There it is.' I just threw the bat at it," said Robinson. "When I was running, I was thinking, you'd better not catch it, Vernon [Wells]."
As for facing Weaver?
"His arm comes out so far. The first at-bat, it felt like the ball was coming from third base," Robinson said. "I was thinking, 'Well, it's going to cut.' But it stayed straight. Then he threw the front-door sinker that struck me out, and I was like, 'Wow, I've never seen that before.' It was kind of 'Welcome to the big leagues, rook.'"
35 inch bat for a 5'10 guy? Wow. He's got lots of plate coverage and a longer swing simply because of the lever he's using. I wonder what Matt Kemp swings. He strikes out 160 times a year but with good, leveraged power. He's a bigger guy but the principle is the same.
And I love that he can tell what he CAN hit - now we just need to expand the number of pitches he can do something with. Maybe the bat has something to do with it. Watching his game evolve should be fun.
~G