La Pantera is ready to pounce
Friday's game wasn't even finished when the message came from White Sox media relations about a Saturday sit-down with Luis Robert. To be fair, it's not a complicated appointment to have to figure out; pretty much any game Robert plays is worthy of having him talk to the media.
Obviously yesterday's tilt, when Robert flattened two baseballs — the first crushed to the center shrubs, the second nearly to the left-field concourse — was something special. And while La Pantera was rather matter-of-fact about his clubbing, he did note that the CF shot was the better blast of the two.
But, simply a home run hitter. Nay nay, say Luis.
"I see myself as a complete hitter," he says. "When I think of hitting homers, I get too anxious and I don’t do too well ... My plan is always the same: Good contact, try to hit my pitch. I’ve been doing that in Summer Camp. That’s the only thing I can control."
Bobbing back and forth as he talked, Luis again credited Eloy Jiménez with providing a bit of a rookie primer for him in 2020, although he could probably do without Eloy as hype man.
"I try to not pay attention to people comparing me with different players," Robert smiles. "Eloy already told the media I was supposed to be next Mike Trout. But I don’t try to think much about that."
"Damage" has been a pretty good theme of Summer Camp, perhaps the rallying cry of this revamped White Sox offense. And Robert sees the offense as the key to playing deep into this short season.
"I think we have good chemistry right now," he says. "You see our lineup, it’ll be our strength. We have power hitters, contact, a lot of speed, which we’ll try to take advantage of. You combine all that, we’re going to be able to do some damage."
For the full Robert media session, courtesy of the White Sox, watch below:
Actor (final credit: murdered by Albert Einstein in "Carnage Hall"), musician (Ethnocentric Republicans), and Nerf hoops champion, Wiffleball aficionado and onetime bilingual kindergarten teacher, Brett Ballantini also writes about baseball, basketball and sometimes hockey, for the NBA, MLB, NHL, and Slam, Hoop, Sporting News, the Athletic, SB Nation and others. He was CSN Chicago’s Blackhawks beat writer when their 49-year Stanley Cup drought ended in 2009-10, and took over the White Sox beat after that. He currently is the editor-in-chief of South Side Hit Pen and beat writer for Inside the Rays. He also wrote a book about Ozzie Guillén but is running out of space, so follow him on Twitter @BrettBallantini and he'll probably tell you even more about himself than you ever wanted to know.