Robbie Grossman was huge a steal for the Pirates in the 6th round of the 2008 draft. He was rated the #49 prospect in the entire draft and was projected to go as high as the first round by some. He fell all the way to the 6th round due to a strong commitment to Texas and a down-senior year.Thankfully, the Pirates were able to buy Grossman out of that college commitment and signed him for $1 million the day before the deadline of August 15th.
Grossman was sent off to the GCL for a couple games where he compiled 16 AB. He only batted .188 in those 16 AB, but his OBP was .381, thus showing the guy had pretty good plate vision and plate discipline.
This year, Grossman was sent to West Virginia at the age of 19, which is very young for the South Atlantic League. He has gotten off to a good start for the Power posting a line of .278/.377/.387. Once again, Grossman is showing good discipline at the plate with an OBP about 100 points higher than his batting average.
Grossman is the starting center fielder for the Power and bats leadoff, where his OBP suits him perfectly. He's swiped 24 bases in 29 attempts this season. The switch-hitter has even shown a little bit of pop with 4 homers this year.
However, the one thing that has become pretty noticeable about Grossman are the strikeouts. He has 100 of them in just 284 AB, which is a very high number. There really is no way of knowing if that has to do with him being a strikeout guy, or if him playing his first year of pro ball against pitchers 2 years older him takes its toll. It could be a little of both. At this point, though, it is something that shouldn't really worry people quite yet.
Grossman has drawn a lot of comparisons to ex-Pirate, Nate McLouth in the way he plays and the way he is made up. I would say one major difference between the two is that Grossman should develop much faster than McLouth did.
The fact that Grossman is more than holding his own for West Virginia at such a young age is a great sign. Expect him to stay there the entire season, though, as there really is no need to rush him. Because of his age, he will probable move up through the system just about one level at a time.
Expected time to be in the 'Burgh: 2012
Current Top 10:
1) July 18th
2) July 17th
3) July 16th
4) July 15th
5) Robbie Grossman
7) Bryan Morris
8) Jeff Locke
10) Daniel McCutchen
