Shane Robinson still didn’t make BA’s Prospect Hot Sheet, but I think they are getting tired of Cardinal fans saying “why no Robinson?”, so they begrudgingly put him under the “Helium Watch” section of the list.
A fifth-round pick in 2006 out of Florida State, Robinson didn’t show much ability at the plate in his first two professional seasons. Robinson hit .282/.346/.333 in 252 at-bats with low Class A Quad Cities in 2006, then followed that up with a .253/.321/.355 performance in 166 at-bats last year with high Class A Palm Beach. One thing Robinson did always show was plate discipline, compiling 38 walks and 37 strikeouts entering the season. This year, Robinson has been one of the Texas League’s finest hitters, batting .408/.453/.577 in 148 plate appearances. There are plenty of reasons to doubt Robinson—he’s 5-foot-9, 160 pounds, he’s limited to left field, and he hasn’t hit well in the past since turning pro. But as long as he keeps hitting well, we’ll acknowledge the results.
There. Was that so hard?
Friend of the blog Bryan Smith is leaving Baseball Prospectus. Well, sort of. He’ll still be around there from time to time, but he’ll be now working for Major League Baseball Advanced Media. Congrats to Bryan, we’ll definitely miss his Wait ‘Til Next Year columns at BP, but we’ll be sure to enjoy his work at MLB.com. He’s already had a hand in MiLB.com’s Player of the Week articles.
QC splits a double dip, and Memphis wins. Losses everywhere else.
- Josh Phelps went 4 for 4 with a double and a HR. He’s slugging .638 for the month of May.
- Bryan Anderson went 3 for 4 with a double. He’s hitting .309 in AAA so far.
- Jarrett Hoffpauir doubled and walked. Ditto for David Freese. Freese was also charged with a throwing error, his 5th error of the season.
- Colby Rasmus has himself a 2 game hit streak now, going 1 for 4 with a K. It’s a start.
- Mitch Boggs has a “myeh” kind of outing. 5 IP, 4 runs, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 K. 10 groundball outs.
- Mark Worrell recorded his only out via the K, but gave up 2 hits. Kelvin Jimenez picked up the save, much to my chagrin. Whither Jason Motte?
- Mark McCormick allowed 1 unearned run on 4 hits and 3 walks over 4 innings. He struck out 2.
- Nick Webber threw 2 innings, with only 9 of his 19 pitches going for strikes, but 5 of his 6 outs came via the grounder.
- Jon Mikrut allowed 3 runs, 1 earned in 1 inning with 1 K.
- Brandon Yarbrough went 1 for 3 with 3 errors. He had 2 throwing errors and a missed catch. Yikes. For some reason, this makes me think of that scene in Full Metal Jacket where the mercilessly beat Pvt. Private “Pyle” in the middle of the night because of his jelly doughnut swiping antics. (Please, no quotes from the movie in the comments, or at least not the profanity laced ones. And that would be about all of them. Great flick,though.)
- Tyler Greene went 2 for 3 with an error.
- Allen Craig went 2 for 4. He has a 1.062 OPS for the month.
- Shane Robinson went 0 for 4 with 2 K’s, dropping his average under .400.
- The PB Cards drew 7 walks against top Twin prospect Deolis Guerra, but weren’t able to muster much else.
- Former UC Davis Aggie Daniel Descalso doubled twice and walked.
- Daryl Jones went 0 for 2 with 2 walks and threw out a runner at home. He can run, he can hit and he can throw. Hurray for tools.
- James Rapoport went 1 for 5 and stole his 9th base.
- Arnoldi Cruz doubled and walked.
- Non-drafted sinkerballer Brandon Dickson allowed 3 runs, 2 earned over 5 innings. He gave up 6 hits, 2 walks and struck out 3.
- Josh Dew struck out 2 of the 3 batters he faced in his perfect inning of work.
Quad Cities 3, Kane County 4 (7 innings)
- Pete Kozma went 0 for 4.
- Charles Kingrey went 3 for 4.
- Osvaldo Morales struck out in all three of his at bats. He may not be long for A ball, or for pro baseball for that matter. He’s struck out 34 times to 3 walks in 69 at bats.
- Josh Wilson allowed 3 runs on 8 hits (including a HR) over 4.2 innings.
Quad Cities 7, Kane County 2 (7 innings)
- Pete Kozma went 1 for 3. After a smoking April, Pete’s just hitting .217/.308/.261 in the month of May.
- Jose Garcia doubled twice in 3 at bats.
- 19 year old OF/1B Francisco Rivera went 2 for 4. Formerly known as Angel Rivera, he was signed January 2007 as a non-drafted free agent out of Mexico. Keep an eye on him.
- Paul Vasquez doubled and drove in 2 runs.
- Brian Broderick allowed 2 runs on 5 hits and a walk over 5 innings. He struck out 3.
VSL Cardinals 2, VSL Tigers 3 (10 innings)
- Geney Rios struck out 5 over 5 innings, and gave up 4 hits and no runs.
- Osmir Medina went 2 for 3.
- Yorbel Alcala went 2 for 2 with a double.
Filed under: Daily Farm Reports
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Pretty solid article by Strauss about Colby and last weekend’s confusion.
It seems incorrect of Baseball America to claim Robinson is limited to LF. He played CF at Quad Cities and Palm Beach, while Jon Jay played LF. This year the Cards have flipped the men, so as to give Jay experience in center.
If Robinson were limited to LF, then he is less interesting. But he could become a right swinging, speedier version of Schumacker.
>He could become a right swinging, speedier version of Schumacker.<<
But I guess that is BA’s point. If Robinson’s upside is to become a right-handed Schumaker, he doesn’t belong on a BA prospect hotsheet. It’s not that Robinson can’t become a solid major leaguer, the point is that he lacks the potential to become something special.
Robinson may be able to hit for a higher average than Skip.
Skip’s advantage is a stronger throwing arm. Robinson’s advantages are hitting and running.
Baseball America’s undervaluation of Robinson is based partly on a factual error. BA is taking his present assignment, LF, as Robinson’s highest value position. If so, then he is indeed ill-suited to their Prospect Hot Sheet thing. But actually Robinson can play CF, which is a big asset. He can be a useful 4th ML outfielder, like Taguchi or Schumacker, only he runs and hits better than both. So Robinson probably does deserve to be on the Hot Sheet, not a future all star, but a useful Ryan Freel type.