Robinson, Wells, Halman, Saunders - these guys are certainly toolsy. Taro makes a good point about K rates and the minors. Certainly Z's brain trust - which includes Tango, knows this. I'm going to put him somewhere between Granderson, Adam Jones and Balentien, but closer to the former 2 than the latter.
We like to throw out Balentien as a cautionary tale, but the book is far from closed on poor Wladimir. Wladdie is still only 25 and at age 24 posted a .779 OPS for Cincy in his 125 NL PAs. Currently he's slugging .872 in Louisville, biding his time with that same skillset that suggests he can hit ML pitching, but probably doesn't have the tools to make it worthwhile to give him a regular job there. Robinson at CF has those tools. I ESPECIALLY like that he took the move from the Cal League to the Southern league and owned it wth a .404 OBP with 73 walks. We didn't see that from Peguero, or Chavez, Triunfel, Liddi or Poythress. I see a kid who's still young punishing AA and AAA.
But here's an idea. Toss out the blueprint we're working with. Robinson had a .404 OBP with 38 SBs as a 22 year old in AA. Why not make him a leadoff hitter? The kid looks like a young Lou Brock to me, a combination of speed and power to go with a lot of K's. Maybe less speed, but a better walk rate.
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