Mack - 2015 Prospect List - #14 – RHRP – Hansel Robles

My rankings is solely subjective and based on nothing more than what is in my head at time I’m writing this. I’ve followed the Mets minor league players for many years and I feel I can recognize talent at various levels of their development. What I have failed at is how to determine when this talent seems to diminish. It’s amazing how many first round picks never make it in this game.

I’m old school, so you won’t seem much SABR-discussion here, I do research and, when I find a good quote or two, I’ll add them to my analysis, but, like I said in the beginning of this post, most of this us subjective.

Let’s get started.

#14 – RHRP – Hansel Robles – 24-years old – Bonao, Dominican Republic

                       International free agent singing (2008) – 5-11, 185 – R/R

                       2009 – DSL – 15-G, 9-ST, 2.91, 1.07, 58.2-IP, 60-K

                       2010 – DSL – 14-G, 12-ST, 3.09, 1.15, 67-IP, 51-K

                       2011 – K/Port – 15-appearance – 2.68, 1.19, 37-IP, 42-K

                       2012 – Bklyn – 12-starts, 1.11, 0.78, 72.2-IP, 66-K

                       2013 – GC/St.L – 18-G, 17-starts, 3.78, 1.32, 95.1-IP, 71-K

                       2014 – B-Mets – 30-G, 18-starts, 4.31, 1.36, 110.2-IP, 106-K

                       Last 10 games in 2014 – 10-G, 16.2-IP, 1-ER, 0.56-ERA

Robles has ‘been around’.

Fans of his will point out his ++ change up while critics will say he’s had control problems at times.  He came into the system during the time that the Mets stocked their system with young, talented starters and the 2012 Brooklyn Cyclones, where he went 6-1, 1.11, in 11 starts, also included Rainey Lara, Gabriel Ynoa, Luis Cessa, and Luis Mateo.

He hit the starters wall at Binghamton (like so many others) in 2014, and, since he’s been around so long (6^th season in the minors) some started to question his future with the organization.

It was then that the pitching coaches in Binghamton asked him to become a full time reliever and the “new, improved” Robles was born. He could concentrate on this fastball control, knowing he wasn’t going to be out there on the mound as much each outing. It got better and better and, by the end of the season it literally became impossible to get a hit against him (Last 10 games in 2014 – 10-G, 16.2-IP, 1-ER, 0.56-ERA).

Outlook –

I rank Robles one notch ahead of Akeel Morris simply because of the work he has had to put in to get here. Scouts have always said that he had the talent, but just lacked the ability to duplicate the magic he found in Brooklyn.

He just might as a reliever, but he’s first going to have to live through the nightmare called Las Vegas.