Photo courtesy of Andrew Ross for TalkNats
All you have to know is that any time Mike Rizzo says “he loves the team he has” you better look around because he sent a loud and clear message today with calling up the Washington Nationals #1 prospect Victor Robles. The 20-year-old Robles is better than advertised if you have seen him play. He is a 4 ½ tool player now as he still has to fill out that frame of his, and Robles needs more seasoning to hone in his tools as he will many times frustrate you with baserunning and defensive mistakes of aggression — which will remind you of the young Bryce Harper. The first lesson that his coaches must tell him is that you can’t ignore your base coaches and try to take the extra base and don’t try to throw behind baserunners or over your cut-off man’s head.
Many of Robles tools are raw — But this kid is as good as they get. He will turn singles into doubles and doubles into triples. He has a beautiful swing that some liken to Andrew McCutchen and my choice has always been Alfonso Soriano.
Robles played in this years All Star Future’s Game and was already chosen as one of the Nationals representatives in this year’s crop for the prestigious Arizona Fall League. There are no guarantees that Robles will make the post-season roster as the first step is to see if he is the 2011 version of Mike Trout or the 2016 version of Gary Sanchez. What Robles gives Dusty Baker and Mike Rizzo is a chance — because the outfield is thin now as we wrote yesterday the numbers are not working now and we don’t know what the future will be.
When will we see Victor Robles play? Most likely in a low leverage spot later in tonight’s game. The Nationals starting pitcher tonight is Tanner Roark and the Phillies have their team’s ace in Aaron Nola who is the former LSU teammate of Andrew Stevenson.
Philadelphia Phillies vs. Washington Nationals
Stadium: Nationals Park
1st Pitch: 7:05 pm EDT
TV: MASN, Comcast – Philadelphia, MLB.TV
Nats Radio: 106.7 FM The Fan; SiriusXM® Sirius 205 XM 186 (Internet 869)
Line-up subject to change (without notice):
Here's how we're lining up to start the homestand. pic.twitter.com/xbXImnrxH0
— Washington Nationals (@Nationals) September 7, 2017
