Robinson Cano could have been one of the biggest surprises of 2005. Cano didn’t make minor league guru John Sickel’s Top 50 position players prospect list and he got a rather mediocre grade of B- in Sickel’s 2005 Baseball Prospect Book. Now this isn’t meant to discredit Mr. Sickels because he’s right much more then he is wrong. I’m just using it to illustrate that Cano even slipped past an expert like Sickels, as he did a bunch of other people including me.
Cano was called up in early May and never looked back. He hit .297 and while he has to work on his plate discipline (16 walks, .320 OBP) he did hit fourteen homeruns for the Yankees (and four for the Columbus Clippers for a total of 18). The most homeruns he ever hit in a season was 15 when he belted fourteen for the Greensboro Grasshoppers (the Marlins Single A affiliate) and then one later in the season when he belted one for the Yankee short season affiliate, the Staten Island Yankees.
Regardless, Cano gave the Yankees consistency at a position where the Yankees were lacking just that since trading Alfonso Soriano. And this MLB.com column talks about how Cano hopes to perform even better in 2006. Thie Yankees fan hopes he can follow through and provide the Yankees with yet more offense.
