Luis Robert: Best in the World? (Fantasy Baseball)

You’ve probably read the glowing scouting reports about Luis Robert (pronounced Row-Bear), the big free agent name coming out of Cuba this summer and are wondering if they are legitimate. If you didn’t read them, these quotes from two different MLB scouting directors should catch your eye:

“(The 19 year old) is a five-tool guy that can be in the big leagues soon. He is second to only Shohei Otani among all the international talents in baseball.”

There are about 10 potential five-tool players in the minor leagues at any given point, and usually, 7 or 8 of them are only considered that from one or two hyperbolic sources. If Robert is, in fact, a five-tool talent, that would make him a top 20 prospect in baseball. Now, if the additional claim, that he will be ready for the big leagues soon, is true, then well, he just might be the top overall prospect in the game. It is rare for a 19 or 20-year-old to make his major league debut and it is even more rare for them to be major league ready. Otani, by the way, may be the best pitcher in the world and is the No. 1 prospect in our Worldwide Top 400 Prospects Rankings. So saying he is No. 2 behind a talent like that, doesn’t take anything away from Robert. Now let’s look at the quote by a second real MLB scouting director. Hold onto your pants:

“He is the best player on the planet, and that’s no exaggeration.”

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a second. Is this real!? Mike Trout is on his way to being one of the best players in MLB history and still in the prime of his career. Now, someone (at the top of his profession, mind you) is saying some 19-year-old is even better than Mike Trout right now. There are many things this could be:

1)A smokescreen to make some other MLB team overspend for his services
2)A Sidd Finch game with the media
3)An overzealous scout who went too far in his excitement
4)He wasn’t including the MLB when he mentioned the whole world
5)He is the real deal.

For what it is worth, Luis Robert is a 19-year-old outfielder who was long considered the best Cuban prospect once Yoan Moncada and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. were promoted to their Big Leagues. He seemed to be a disappointment at first, who might end up similar to Stephen Piscotty. When that is disappointing, by the way, you must be oozing with talent! Then last season, he realized his potential and ended up being far and away the best hitter in Cuba with a .401/.526/.687 stat line. In fact, if you spread his performance out over 162 games, he was an easy 30/30 fantasy asset….As a 19-year-old! That stat line is far better than Yasiel Puig at the same age or Yoenis Cespedes as a 24-year-old the year before he left the island to become an immediate all-star in the bigs. With that being said, Cuba’s talent-well is dried up after seeing all of their top players leave for America or Japan. Still, a stat-line like that in any league has to leave you wondering just how good the kid can be and already is.

Bottom Line

My not-so-bold prediction is that he is nowhere close to the best player in the world. More likely, I may have been too conservative in ranking him just outside my Top 50 Worldwide prospects and he is closer top a top-15 asset in the mold of a Bradley Zimmer, but with a more reliable hit-tool. If that assessment is on target, he could one day put together a season with 35 homers, 25 stolen bases and a .290 average, making him an eventual first or second-round fantasy pick. As with any other 19-year-olds, however, there are many ifs: