The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

JAZZ Chisholm and Kristian Robinson find themselves in an unique position in the Major League pre-season with the Arizona Diamondbacks professional baseball organisation.

The two minor league players are in the top six ranking by the Diamondbacks in their 2019 Prospect Watch.

The 21-year-old Chisholm heads the Diamondback list, while Robinson, 18, is pegged at No.6.

Overall in the listing of players with the potential to crack the Major League this year, Chisholm is sitting in the 60th spot, but Robinson has not made the top 100.

By position, Chisholm is listed at No.8 in the shortstop category. Only the top 10 have been posted for outfielders and Robinson is not included.

Chisholm, an ambidexter player who bat as a lefty and throw with his right arm, starred for the Visalia Rawhide team last season. His credentials on his scouting report has been one to take notice off.

The 2015 international class produced a pair of Bahamian shortstops in Lucius Fox and Chisholm. But while Fox was the more touted amateur prospect and signed with the Giants for $6 million, it’s been Chisholm who has blossomed into the better pro prospect since signing for $200,000.

After a torn right meniscus derailed his first full season and limited him to just 29 games, Chisholm bounced back to club 25 home runs in 2018, leading all Minor League shortstops.

He finished his age-20 season with a torrid stretch in the California League, hitting 10 homers in 36 games following a promotion, and then tied a bow on his breakout year with an impressive showing in the Arizona Fall League.

Chisholm, a 5-foot, 11-inch, 165-pounder, posts impressive exit velocities from the left side of the plate with an explosive swing that has natural loft.

In 2018, he showed that he not only could tap into his plus raw power, but also apply it across the entire field, as some of Chisholm’s longest home runs were hit to straightaway centre.

Chisholm’s power does come with swing-and-miss tendencies, so he’ll need to refine his aggressive approach as he develops. He’s an above-average runner who receives praise for his instincts on the basepaths.

There is little question Chisholm can stay at shortstop with good hands and actions to go along with a strong arm and a knack for making highlight-reel plays on a nightly basis.

Those loud tools on both sides of the ball in turn give Chisholm an exceptional ceiling as a big league shortstop, but he’ll need to tighten up his overall game along the way.

Chisholm played in 76 games last year and finished with a .244 batting average after he ripped 75 hits with 17 of them doubles, four triples and 15 home runs with 43 runs batted in (RBI), 30 base on balls (walks) and eight stolen bases in 307 at bats.

Robinson, at 6-3 and 190 pounds, played for the Missoula Osprey last season. The scouting report revealed the following on the right hander.

Two years removed from their signing of shortstop Jazz Chisholm for $200,000, the D-backs tapped into the Bahamian baseball pipeline again in 2017.

This time, however, they shelled out big money to land Robinson, signing MLB Pipeline’s No. 15 international prospect for more than $2.5 million. He already looks like a worthy investment after hitting his way up to the Pioneer League at age 17 in his professional debut.

“Robinson generates massive raw power to all fields and showed in his first season that he could get to during games. That he already has a pretty good understanding of the strike zone and some plate discipline is impressive given his age and lack of experience.

“Those qualities, along with his explosive swing, give Robinson a chance to be at least an average hitter. He has the speed, range and instincts for centre field, though, with so much physical projection remaining, there is a chance he’ll outgrow the spot, in which he’ll fit nicely at either outfield corner.

A case can be made that Robinson has the highest ceiling of any player in Arizona’s system as a future slugger who could also stick in centre field. The D-backs, however, are preaching patience and caution when talking about Robinson, noting that coming from the Bahamas isn’t the same as coming from a place like the Dominican Republic in terms of experience.

They see Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts as a potential model, one who played in the Dominican Summer League for his first summer of pro ball, while Robinson was able to jump straight to the US for his pro debut in 2018.

Last season, Robinson played in 40 games and in 162 at bats, he produced 44 hits with 11 doubles, four homers, drove in 31 runs and scored 35 times.

He was also walked 16 times, struck out 46 times and stole seven bases for a .272 batting average.

Chisholm and Robinson are among a list of more than a dozen players in the minor league pipeline who are hoping to get the call-up to the major league.

The last of the six Bahamians to do so was Antoan Richardson with the New York Yankees in 2014 before he officially retired in 2016.

The other Bahamian Major Leaguers were Andre Rodgers, Tony Curry, Ed Armbrister, Wenty Ford and Will Culmer.

Armbrister was the only one to play in a World Series with the Cincinnati Reds in 1975 against the Boston Red Sox.

In the 10th inning of game three in the series, with Cesar Geronimo on base and nobody out, Robinson collided with Sox catcher Carlton Fisk at home plate while starting to run out a sacrifice bunt.

That led to a wild throw by Fisk to second base, allowing Geronimo to reach third and eventually scored the winning run. The home plate umpire did not make an interference call on Armbrister, which resulted in a heated debate after the Reds won the game 6-5.

Armbrister, 70, and Richardson, 35, are the only Major Leaguers still alive.