Shane Robinson Profile

Shane Robinson is a small, quick, right handed centerfielder that the Cards drafted out of Florida State last year. Actually, to tell the truth he's very, very quick. He was rated as one of the fastest players in the draft. He's also exactly the kind of player you'd expect a 5'9", 165 lb speedster to be, Joey Gathright part deux. Robinson had a pretty good career at FSU, starting all three years he was there and throwing up some impressive numbers.

And he didn't do terribly in his professional debut.

He wasn't fantastic either. The limitation that this kind of slap hitter runs into is the fact that if the worst thing that the pitcher has to worry about is a sharply hit single, they're not going to risk the walk and just pound the strike zone, thus cutting off the walks that a hitter needs to draw in order to be an effective OBP source. Hitting .290 with no walks and no power is counter-productive. You don't have to hit 15 home runs a year to necessarily keep them from doing that, just get it out of the infield enough to pepper the stat sheet with doubles. If Robinson can do that, then his history of good plate discipline should make his OBP presentable. It works for David Eckstein, but it didn't work for Jason Tyner.

As to the other parts of Robinson's game, he's an exceptional base-stealer as you can see above. There's little chance that he'll be an Alex Sanchez copycat who looks fast, but gets bad jumps and gets caught as often as he's successful. I tend to think that's a skill that translates pretty seamlessly through all levels, even against better catchers and smarter, more experienced pitchers. His defense is good, but not as good as you'd think for a player with his speed. His arm is also weak so he's not going to with gold gloves. Nevertheless, even if his presence at the plate is more like Tyner than Esteban German, he still might find some time in the Show courtesy of being a good candidate for 5th outfielder status.