wegner Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 I was surprised to see that MLB Pipeline had given Luis Robert a grade of only 55 for fielding. I guess that they thought he needed work with his reads and routes? I did not see him play, except for highlights, in the minors so has he improved that much or did they not realize how much his speed would make up for his routes/reads? Although he seems like he gets a tremendous jump and reads balls really well off the bat. Is it that it is difficult to evaluate such an OF talent when they are playing in the relatively smaller minor league parks? The most amazing thing for me about his defense so far is how he has made difficult plays look so easy. His talent is other worldly!! Terry Francona might have given Robert the best compliment that an opposing manager can give a player..."I'd rather see him play on television." Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EloyJenkins Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 His range is SO easy. And with the current setup of him and Engel...there will rarely be gappers. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wegner Posted July 30, 2020 Author Share Posted July 30, 2020 9 minutes ago, EloyJenkins said: His range is SO easy. And with the current setup of him and Engel...there will rarely be gappers. Pitchers have to love to see him out there....our pitchers, not opposing pitchers that is!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chetkincaid Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 I don't think it's a positive that he's covering so much of the outfield. I'd like to see the White Sox get some competent outfielders to play on either side of him. I'm afraid that Robert is going to get hurt trying to cover so much of the outfield. Plus if he was allowed to just focus on CF, he could be god-like. 1 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blackout Friday Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 I’ve been as skeptical as anyone about his offense translating long term. but he can play CF. Nutso range and a cannon arm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 (edited) The only thing he lacks is an elite arm. He has a very strong one, especially for CF, but that's a minor quibble to say he's not elite in one of the five tool areas. The player he reminds me of in terms of the way he glides after balls in CF is either Devon White or Eric Davis....but he's much stronger physically than both of those guys. He's also getting into some bad habits about how he catches the ball and eventually that will come back to bite him and one will drop embarrassingly and that will be that, but that swagger's always going to be part of his game, and that's a strength, too. He's not quite showboating out there, but eventually he's going to learn how to give way to the corners and infielders and not try to take every single ball hit in his direction. Fwiw, can't even imagine what it would have been like to have a team with Robert, Moncada and Tatis, Jr., (Jimenez is capable of being a great hitter, but lacks the overall athleticism/coordination/agility those guys possess) all on the field simultaneously. But who knows, maybe Elijah will hit a growth spurt just like his older brother did and fill out and develop enough strength to hit 15-20 homers from the middle infield, becoming our own version of CJ Abrams. Edited July 30, 2020 by caulfield12 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 His reads have been 5 star, on top of his natural tools. Many elite speed CFs use that speed to cover up mediocre reads, but I have yet to see him turning the wrong way or bending a route to adjust. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalapse Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-rookie-luis-robert-showing-off-lots-of-tools Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EloyJenkins Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 1 hour ago, Kalapse said: https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-rookie-luis-robert-showing-off-lots-of-tools I read this article 30 minutes ago. Why did my pants get so tight? I feel funny. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ron883 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 2 hours ago, chetkincaid said: I don't think it's a positive that he's covering so much of the outfield. I'd like to see the White Sox get some competent outfielders to play on either side of him. I'm afraid that Robert is going to get hurt trying to cover so much of the outfield. Plus if he was allowed to just focus on CF, he could be god-like. My greatest fear is a Robert-Eloy collision out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chitownsportsfan Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 https://www.mlb.com/news/white-sox-rookie-luis-robert-showing-off-lots-of-tools?t=mlb-pipeline-coverage Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jack Parkman Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 24 minutes ago, Yearnin' for Yermin said: My greatest fear is a Robert-Eloy collision out there. Mine too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mqr Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 3 hours ago, chetkincaid said: I don't think it's a positive that he's covering so much of the outfield. I'd like to see the White Sox get some competent outfielders to play on either side of him. I'm afraid that Robert is going to get hurt trying to cover so much of the outfield. Plus if he was allowed to just focus on CF, he could be god-like. Well he has been calling guys off who were already camped under the ball. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Look at Ray Ray Run Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 7 hours ago, wegner said: I was surprised to see that MLB Pipeline had given Luis Robert a grade of only 55 for fielding. I guess that they thought he needed work with his reads and routes? I did not see him play, except for highlights, in the minors so has he improved that much or did they not realize how much his speed would make up for his routes/reads? Although he seems like he gets a tremendous jump and reads balls really well off the bat. Is it that it is difficult to evaluate such an OF talent when they are playing in the relatively smaller minor league parks? The most amazing thing for me about his defense so far is how he has made difficult plays look so easy. His talent is other worldly!! Terry Francona might have given Robert the best compliment that an opposing manager can give a player..."I'd rather see him play on television." I think I've posted this before, but via gameday data - which is really the only "data" we have for a lot of minor leaguer defense - Robert was the second best defensive player in the minors last year. "ZiPS projects Robert to be a +4 defensive player in center field, a solidly average contribution at a position where there are lots of excellent defensive players. But there’s perhaps more reason to think that could be wrong in this instance than with the typical player. ZiPS was ambivalent about Robert’s defense over his first two minor league seasons, both of which were hampered by injuries. In 2019, using the probabilistic estimates I used for minor leaguers based on Gameday hit location data, zDEF really liked Robert’s defense. Of all minor leaguers at all positions, ZiPS had Robert as the second-best defensive player, at +20.9 total defensive runs in the outfield (+20.5 range, +0.5 error, -0.2 arm), behind only Michael Siani of the Reds. That comes down to +4 because it’s just a single year of less-than-ideal defensive data. But what if Robert’s a +14 defensive player rather than a +4 one?" https://blogs.fangraphs.com/the-white-sox-playoff-road-is-parallel-to-the-luis-robert-expressway/ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Look at Ray Ray Run Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 6 hours ago, caulfield12 said: The only thing he lacks is an elite arm. He has a very strong one, especially for CF, but that's a minor quibble to say he's not elite in one of the five tool areas. The player he reminds me of in terms of the way he glides after balls in CF is either Devon White or Eric Davis....but he's much stronger physically than both of those guys. He's also getting into some bad habits about how he catches the ball and eventually that will come back to bite him and one will drop embarrassingly and that will be that, but that swagger's always going to be part of his game, and that's a strength, too. He's not quite showboating out there, but eventually he's going to learn how to give way to the corners and infielders and not try to take every single ball hit in his direction. Fwiw, can't even imagine what it would have been like to have a team with Robert, Moncada and Tatis, Jr., (Jimenez is capable of being a great hitter, but lacks the overall athleticism/coordination/agility those guys possess) all on the field simultaneously. But who knows, maybe Elijah will hit a growth spurt just like his older brother did and fill out and develop enough strength to hit 15-20 homers from the middle infield, becoming our own version of CJ Abrams. Please, stop. It's not swagger. Two hand catching and catching the ball above the bill of your cap does not help you catch a ball more often. We're not teaching 8 year olds who are scared of the baseball. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kalapse Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 This, IMO, is a good start https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/savant-player/luis-robert-673357?stats=statcast-r-hitting-mlb 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
southsider2k5 Posted July 30, 2020 Share Posted July 30, 2020 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiSoxJon Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 Such an exciting player, Gold Gloves have to be in his future Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caulfield12 Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 1 hour ago, ChiSoxJon said: Such an exciting player, Gold Gloves have to be in his future He's got to beat out Bradley, Trout, Kiermaier and Mercado. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jose Abreu Posted July 31, 2020 Share Posted July 31, 2020 3 hours ago, caulfield12 said: He's got to beat out Bradley, Trout, Kiermaier and Mercado. Kiermaier will be tough. Not so sure about the others. Robert is just a different beast Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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