By Kiley McDaniel

As mentioned in the earlier Tyler Robertson first look, he is a bit of a polarizing figure as a prospect.

Now that I’ve given you plenty of time to peruse the video of his motion (that’ll be my excuse for the delay in posting the report), I’ll drop in with my thoughts on what I saw from the big lefty.

The outing wasn’t bad from a statistical perspective, but we all know better than to judge ability from a low-minors pitcher purely from their stats.

I saw some good things that bode well for projecting the lefty into the big leagues, and some thing that make me and others think he could fizzle in the minors.

So, this makes for a perfect opportunity for you, the reader, to take the information at your disposal to make your own call on what Robertson will become, with a SaberScouting first, a reader poll.

Come look at our shiny new toy, oh, and a scouting report too, after the jump…

See SaberScouting’s Scouting Tutorial for an explanation of this jargon and numbers.

Tyler Robertson, LHP, Ft. Myers Miracle (Twins)

Pitch - Present/Future Grades

Fastball - 40/40

Slider - 50/55

Curveball - 45/50

Changeup -50/55

Command - 45/50

Physical Description - Physical, XL frame that’s more athletic than bulky. Not too much projection left, room for about 10 lbs, but more of a lean body type. Square shoulders, a little stiff as an athlete, average bulk throughout. Resembles Jon Garland.

Fastball - Dipped as low as 84, topped out at 88 and sat in the 86-87 area. The 84-85 pitch was more of a true cutter that was effective, but usually higher in the zone. The 86-88 fastball had some natureal cut as well, but moreso because Robertson tends to throw across his body. He showed some average sink at times, and mixed in some two seamers with good run. This is just a pitch he uses to get to his off-speed stuff and he needs the movement and command to stay out of trouble, but today his command/mechanics faltered at times and his fastball got hammered at times.

Slider - Worked with this pitch at 74-76 mph and flashed above-average two-plane bite with late movement. More times than not, it was a lazier fringe-average cutter-type pitch with some depth that lacked the late bite and was either hit or out of the zone. If he cleans it up some, it probably still isn’t a swing-and-miss pitch, but a good weapon in conjunction with other pitches

Curveball - A 67-69 slow, overhand bender that has some tightness to it, but is average at best with the lack of bite. It’s more of a rolling pitch that he telegraphs somewhat with his higher arm angle. He also has a more awkward finish than usual when he throws it, hooking his arm to the body. For me, it’s no more than just a show-me pitch early in the count to change the eye-level.

Changeup - This was his go-to off-speed pitch for the night that ranged from 76-79 mph.  Robertson maintains his arm speed and angle to create some good deception and shows good late depth with some fade. He used it very often and still got some weird swings. He’s able to spot this pitch well and bury it as a chase pitch late in the count.  Robertson also mixed in a few splitters at 80-81 mph that he didn’t have quite as good feel for, but was similar in effectiveness when he spotted it.

Mechanics - There’s a lot of things I could say here, but judging from the outcry from the readers, you guys see that these are the type of mechanics that hinder an upside, turn scouts off, and apparently make a few of our readers hold their arms and cringe (their words, not mine). From a simplistic viewpoint, Robertson’s arm action is stiff, and is out in front of his body too much during the motion. Whether this impacts his command and/or lower velocity is out of the scope of my expertise, but there appears to be a connection.

Notes - If the fastball gets to 90, the command is working, and he develops his off-speed stuff, then this is an effective big league starter. But that’s more than a few ifs, and the thing about a stuff arm action and motion is that they aren’t conducive to adding velocity or honing command.

I’m not a huge fan, but if he can make the motion and command work for him and continue to develop, he could be a solid back-end starter.  I wouldn’t be surprised if his off-speed stuff and left-handedness gets him a cup of coffee in the big leagues, but anything beyond that depends on improvements to velocity and/or command.

See SaberScouting’s Scouting Tutorial for an explanation of the jargon and numbers.

Adjusted Overall Future Potential: 50
Present Group: P, Future Group: D
Projected Role: Long/Middle Reliever, Spot Starter
MLB ETA: 2011
Overall Comparison: Ron Villone

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