I don't think I'd ever seen a significant pro hitting prospect swing and miss nine times in a game before Tuesday night; maybe I saw Joey Gallo do it in the AZL in his first summer in pro ball, but I can't recall seeing anyone else who was good do it since I started this job. Luis Robert, who seems to hit only when I'm not in the ballpark, did that for me Tuesday night in a Triple-A contest against Scranton when he struck out three times in an 0-for-5 night, which means I've still never seen him get a hit in a professional game.
Robert stands out the moment you see him in uniform; he's 6-foot-3, athletic, very well put together, with infinitesimal body fat, and most of his actions are quick, including his bat speed. On Tuesday night, though, he was a mess at the plate, and the RailRiders -- the Triple-A affiliate of the Yankees -- had a pretty good idea of how to attack him: velocity in, sliders down and away. Robert swung and missed mostly at those sliders, ranging from down toward the low outside corner to way off the plate, many of them in the dirt, and swung and missed twice more on fastballs in at 92 and 94 mph. Even 95 more middle-in that got too much of the plate was a challenge for him, and the two balls he put in play were not well squared up.
I've now seen Robert go 0-for-14 across three looks this year, while also going to three other games during which he was out of the lineup due to minor injuries; and while I understand the hype around him -- and ranked him rather aggressively at midseason for a prospect I'd never seen play well -- I am absolutely concerned about his ability to hit. He has the power, speed and fielding ability to still be a good big leaguer -- maybe even a star -- but scouts always have questioned his ability to cover velocity inside given how his hands work. That seems to be playing out right now and will be a challenge for him whenever he reaches the majors.
• Nick Madrigal, a first-round pick in 2018 (fourth overall), batted second behind Robert and was 0-for-4 before a 10th-inning walk. Madrigal is tiny by baseball standards, with a short, very direct swing and grade 30 power, so while he never strikes out, he doesn't show any extra-base potential, either. He also ran average twice on ground balls and also just average at second base. I have seen him three times this year, as well, and keep coming back to David Eckstein -- another diminutive middle infielder with a short swing and a great eye at the plate, although Eckstein was a better fielder and runner. Madrigal is going to have to hit for a pretty high average to be more than a soft regular, and I'm not sure he'll make enough high-quality contact to do that.
• Deivi Garcia started for the RailRiders but threw just four innings, as he wasn't very sharp and the game was delayed by rain for about a half an hour. He was 90 mph to 94 mph, leaning heavily on his 85 mph to 87 mph slider, mixing in the curve and change. But his command wasn't great, and I noticed him rushing his delivery in the second inning, at which point he had some trouble finding the strike zone. He still missed some bats with the fastball and worked up with it against lefties to generate those swings and misses.
• Right before the trade deadline, I caught Boston's low-A affiliate, Greenville, at the Lakewood Blue Claws, to get a look at the Red Sox's top pick from 2018, left-handed-hitting first baseman Triston Casas. Casas has a good swing with the strength to eventually hit for power, with just average bat speed but good plate discipline in this particular look. He drove a pair of balls out to center field when he was better able to rotate his hips and get power from his lower half; when the Lakewood pitchers attacked him up, he could get to many of those pitches, but his swing flattened out. He gets extremely wide with two strikes, similar to Juan Soto's stance, and chokes up on the bat like a Little Leaguer, although in this case it seemed to make it harder for Casas to adjust to a slider from a lefty.
• The Red Sox have been excited by the progress of third baseman Brandon Howlett, their 21st-round pick from 2018 out of a Florida high school, moving him right to full-season ball this spring. But I couldn't have seen him worse: three punchouts and a soft lineout, all of which involved him getting badly fooled by sliders.
• I've mentioned Phillies shortstop prospect Luis Garcia a few times, but he looked in this game like he might be regressing. He is only 18 and doesn't belong in the Sally League, but his left-handed at-bats in particular seem to be getting worse; he is down to .178/.254/.267 on the year when batting left-handed, doing the little damage he has done while batting from the right side. It probably is too late in the year to consider demoting Garcia to short-season -- and he has had a nice start to August, at least -- but this is a lost year for one of the Phillies' top prospects coming into 2019, and I hope they consider starting him back at Lakewood in 2020.