July 31, 20205 yr https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29549772/chicago-white-sox-rookie-outfielder-luis-robert-mlb-next-superstar This definitely deserves its own thread. And, for all the KW haters, they're probably not going to enjoy having to admit how integral he was to the entire process. Maybe some of the FutureSox writers can put together a collection of those homer video highlights that were referenced in the article? It's actually the first time I saw the one where he was falling down as he hit it off Rodon in the intra-squad scrimmage. Crazy. He's already been timed down to 1B at 3.4 at least once this season, fwiw. I mean, say what you want about Williams and Paddy, but they have always had the best eyes for talent in the entire organization. Sale, Alexei Ramirez, Abreu, Eaton, Quintana, Moncada/Kopech (over Benintendi and/or Devers), Jimenez/Cease, Lucas Giolito, Luis Robert, Marcus Semien, Frankie Montas, Eduardo Escobar....the FA decisions have been consistently terrible, but they've almost made up for it in other areas.
July 31, 20205 yr 21 minutes ago, caulfield12 said: https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/29549772/chicago-white-sox-rookie-outfielder-luis-robert-mlb-next-superstar This definitely deserves its own thread. And, for all the KW haters, they're probably not going to enjoy having to admit how integral he was to the entire process. Maybe some of the FutureSox writers can put together a collection of those homer video highlights that were referenced in the article? It's actually the first time I saw the one where he was falling down as he hit it off Rodon in the intra-squad scrimmage. Crazy. He's already been timed down to 1B at 3.4 at least once this season, fwiw. I mean, say what you want about Williams and Paddy, but they have always had the best eyes for talent in the entire organization. Sale, Alexei Ramirez, Abreu, Eaton, Quintana, Moncada/Kopech (over Benintendi and/or Devers), Jimenez/Cease, Lucas Giolito, Luis Robert, Marcus Semien, Frankie Montas, Eduardo Escobar....the FA decisions have been consistently terrible, but they've almost made up for it in other areas. Nice article! This quote though, certainly deserves a “yea right...” “In Robert, who stands 6-foot-3 with a chiseled, 185-pound frame”
July 31, 20205 yr Author 12 minutes ago, hi8is said: Nice article! This quote though, certainly deserves a “yea right...” “In Robert, who stands 6-foot-3 with a chiseled, 185-pound frame” Under Armour Man is a great nickname. He's closer to 210-215 from everything you read, 100% fast twitch muscles, lol. I keep reading comps to Eric Davis, Mike Cameron and Devon White, but he's somewhere between Davis and Bo Jackson in terms of body type. I wouldn't want to even attempt to tackle him on a football field if he was coming with a head of full steam.
July 31, 20205 yr He definitely is super fast, already beat out a few double plays and infield hits/errors. I'm impressed with him. He has chased quite a lot but he also took some tough pitches and took tough pitches the other way. And defensively he already is a leader out there taking command in the OF.
July 31, 20205 yr Author He's already on the short list for most exciting/can't miss players in MLB today. Byron Buxton, Javy Baez, Mike Trout, Lu Bob, Yoan Moncada, Acuna, Kolten Wong, Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani, Aaron Judge... https://www.mlb.com/news/most-exciting-mlb-players-at-every-position
July 31, 20205 yr The story of Luis Robert. FB% - second lowest in baseball SL% - second highest in baseball z-swing% (Inside the Zone Swing Percentage) - highest in baseball SwStr% (Swinging Strike Percentage) - highest in baseball swing% - 2nd highest in baseball contact% - 3rd lowest in baseball exit velocity - 84th percentile hard hit% - 81st percentile barrel% - 80th percentile Nothing too surprising, basically, he's seeing mostly sliders out of the zone, swinging at most everything and whiffing at an extremely high rate but when he does make contact he's barrelling the ball and hitting it extremely hard somewhere. This was the scouting report on him coming into the season and it's playing out exactly.
July 31, 20205 yr 29 minutes ago, Kalapse said: The story of Luis Robert. FB% - second lowest in baseball SL% - second highest in baseball z-swing% (Inside the Zone Swing Percentage) - highest in baseball SwStr% (Swinging Strike Percentage) - highest in baseball swing% - 2nd highest in baseball contact% - 3rd lowest in baseball exit velocity - 84th percentile hard hit% - 81st percentile barrel% - 80th percentile Nothing too surprising, basically, he's seeing mostly sliders out of the zone, swinging at most everything and whiffing at an extremely high rate but when he does make contact he's barrelling the ball and hitting it extremely hard somewhere. This was the scouting report on him coming into the season and it's playing out exactly. And now we wait for him to adjust, then he gets more fastballs...and...
July 31, 20205 yr Three of top 15 are White Sox. Eloy may not have enough appearances. Wonder if we lead league in fewest strikes thrown to our hitters?
July 31, 20205 yr 1 minute ago, BamaDoc said: Three of top 15 are White Sox. Eloy may not have enough appearances. Wonder if we lead league in fewest strikes thrown to our hitters? Tampa has 4 of the top 15.
July 31, 20205 yr Good article but FFS KW is such a goober. I don't mind him in this new role but everytime he talks it's like he thinks the one title and finding Luis Robert make him God's gift to team building. I thank him for the title but man we had a lot of shit years after that before he was moved upstairs
July 31, 20205 yr 3 minutes ago, BamaDoc said: Three of top 15 are White Sox. Eloy may not have enough appearances. Wonder if we lead league in fewest strikes thrown to our hitters? Sox are middle of the pack in zone% (% of pitches in the strike zone) 2nd in Swing% (not surprising) 1st in O-Swing% (out of zone swing%) 13th in O-Contact% (out of zone contact%) 4th highest F-Strike% (first pitch strike%) 4th highest Sw-Str% (swinging strike%)
July 31, 20205 yr Speaking of young Sox hitters, it's only 8 batted balls but holy hell check out Eloy's statcast numbers (please ignore the defense):
July 31, 20205 yr Kalapse thanks for finding that. #1 in swinging at balls out of zone. There is your culprit. No reason to throw strikes if you don't have to. Also #4 in getting a strike on first pitch. It seemed we were always batting 0-1. Maybe to passive on first pitches? We need to hit some first pitches the other way or to beat shifts. At worst we miss and are down 0-1 just like we are taking it but by trying you break defensive tendencies and could really get rallies going. We have a ton of natural power bats, I don't think we have to sell out for it. On the other side, I bet our starting pitchers are among the worst at throwing strike one.
July 31, 20205 yr 26 minutes ago, BamaDoc said: Kalapse thanks for finding that. #1 in swinging at balls out of zone. There is your culprit. No reason to throw strikes if you don't have to. Also #4 in getting a strike on first pitch. It seemed we were always batting 0-1. Maybe to passive on first pitches? We need to hit some first pitches the other way or to beat shifts. At worst we miss and are down 0-1 just like we are taking it but by trying you break defensive tendencies and could really get rallies going. We have a ton of natural power bats, I don't think we have to sell out for it. On the other side, I bet our starting pitchers are among the worst at throwing strike one. Sox starters are 25th in F-Strike%, #1 is the Indians. Sox starters are middle of the pack in pretty much all plate discipline metrics with the exception of Z-Swing% (#1) and O-Swing% (29th), so hitters are swinging at everything in the zone and nothing out of the zone against Sox starters, makes sense why they've struggled.
July 31, 20205 yr 1 minute ago, Kalapse said: Sox starters are 25th in F-Strike%, #1 is the Indians. Sox starters are middle of the pack in pretty much all plate discipline metrics with the exception of Z-Swing% (#1) and O-Swing% (29th), so hitters are swinging at everything in the zone and nothing out of the zone against Sox starters, makes sense why they've struggled. Think it shows that when our starters are constantly behind, batters can sit on a pitch and do damage. Also from games I have watched, a lot of our misses were bad misses. Thirdly, when you are not pounding the zone, the umpire is less inclined to give you a borderline pitch.
July 31, 20205 yr Quote Robert is one of four key White Sox position players who have been signed to extensions before reaching arbitration, along with shortstop Tim Anderson, left fielder Eloy Jimenez and third baseman Yoan Moncada. The contracts carry the inherent risk of guaranteed money to relatively unproven commodities, but because all four deals could buy out a couple of free-agent years, Williams sees them as his best chance of extending a contention window that begins immediately. Regardless of what happens with this team, this will always bring a smile to my face. I couldn't imagine a better way to build a team.
August 2, 20205 yr Can I pull out a Bo Jackson comp? The disgusting raw tools across the board almost aren't fair.
August 2, 20205 yr This is easily the best White Sox prospect I've ever seen and it's not even close. All this man has done is get overhyped and then EXCEED the hype. A couple days ago I was thinking "he swings too hard at sliders because he wants to blast everything across the Dan Ryan" but at the time he was hitting .348 with a OPS of .897 and it felt kinda silly to think that.
August 2, 20205 yr Author First time in MLB history the first four hitters in a line-up were Cuban-born. Cool fact of the day.
August 2, 20205 yr Robert is amazing. Will they start throwing the first two pitches in the dirt to him? lol
August 2, 20205 yr 49 minutes ago, black jack said: Robert is amazing. Will they start throwing the first two pitches in the dirt to him? lol Hes good enough to take them. His out of zone swings dont seem to be at pitches way out of the zone
August 2, 20205 yr Author Robert not getting fastballs Luis Robert led off for the first time in his Major League career Saturday night, but if the first seven games were any indication, fastballs from opposing pitchers still were not going to be prevalent. According to Statcast, Robert has seen the second-lowest rate of fastballs at 32.7 percent with a minimum of 50 total pitches. He also has seen the fifth-highest rate of sliders at 39.8 percent. “I definitely was expecting that, because pitchers knew that I have quick hands and can get to the ball pretty fast, pretty quick,” said Robert through interpreter Billy Russo. “They were going to try to attack me in a different way. “But everything looks good. I don’t think there’s anything else I need to change. You make an adjustment. I definitely was expecting that, and I was prepared.” Robert hit leadoff during his off-the-charts 2019 Minor League season across Class A Advanced Winston-Salem, Birmingham, and Charlotte. He started smiling before the question was even translated for him during Saturday’s Zoom when asked about being comfortable hitting No. 1. “My approach is the same. Just be aggressive,” Robert said. “Last year, I was the leadoff and I had very good results. There’s no reason for me to change.” “For me, it's actually an opportunity,” said Renteria of Robert leading off. “That window has opened, but this is not a set-in-stone position for him right now. I want to see how he does tonight.” www.espn.com
August 2, 20205 yr Author https://www.cbssports.com/mlb/news/who-are-best-mlb-players-to-watch-in-2020-fernando-tatis-jr-mookie-betts-headline-2020-all-fun-team/ Robert, Moncada, Anderson, Tatis, Jr. make "MLB ALL FUN" team
August 2, 20205 yr 11 hours ago, caulfield12 said: First time in MLB history the first four hitters in a line-up were Cuban-born. Cool fact of the day. Love the Cuban history with this franchise, probably helped land Robert Minoso, El Duque, Contreras, Alexei, Viciedo, Abreu, Moncada, Nieto, Robert, now Grandal and this teen pitcher 38 minutes ago, Dick Allen said: He seems to me to be a combination of Mike Trout and Vlad Guerrero. Always loved the Trout comparison for obvious reasons, but it makes a lot of sense
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