There R Giants #36: Sean Roby
Photo Credit: Chris Pietsch | The Register-Guard
We’re into the There R Giants Top 50. Over the next few months, I’ll write a post on each of the fifty players in my rankings, leading us back to spring. So far, we’ve covered:
I’ve noted previously in this series that everybody on my Top 50 has a path to provide big league value in some way or other. The unstated, underlying flip side of this, is that every one of these players also has a myriad of ways to stray from that path and fall short of their best case outcome — and that risk of falling from the path is more pronounced the further back in the list we are. It doesn’t take much for a hard throwing reliever to miss his ceiling — the throws get just a tad less hard or the control doesn’t firm up quite enough. The margin for error at this end of the list is a cavern with a steep cliffside for an entrance. It’s so hard to find the way and so easy to get lost in the difficulties inherent in the game.
I don’t talk about that side of this list all that much for obvious reasons — we’re in the positivity business here. I like to think of myself as an advocate: I genuinely want every one of these players to fulfill their dreams and aspirations. These players need fans and advocates because they’re living in a reality of constant, omnipresent failure and the odds are always stacked against their success. Today’s subject, our #36 prospect Sean Roby is a pretty clear case in point. The basic tools are in place: legitimate, big time power, big exit velocities, a strong arm and solid set of defensive tools at 3b. But so, too, are the red flags: sky high strikeout rates and some questions about the hit tool.
For much of the 2021 season, it appeared for all the world as if the red flags were going to be the story of his year. Midway through his season’s journey, he found himself in a darkling wood, because the path which led aright was lost. And then came an extraordinary six-week push to the finish line that changed the tenor of his year. What are we to make of his season of downs and ups? Did Roby find the straightforward path that could lead him aright at the end of his long struggle? Is he on the upward path to glory, or will 2022 return him to his darkling wood?
His was a season that leaves us with many questions, as well as tantalizing visions of a paradise to be gained in some future day. Let’s talk more of these things, shall we?
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