Roman Anthony is the No. 1 Prospect in all of baseball, but his numbers might not even be the most impressive thing about him.
Last month, I had the opportunity to speak with Roman Anthony in the WooSox clubhouse. He was impressive on many fronts: Physically, emotionally, intellectually, and even his ability to communicate insights on a variety of topics across the game.
One of the most interesting moments of the conversation came when I asked him about the upcoming MLB playoffs. With the season being such a long grind, it’s usually a topic that doesn’t go very far given the circumstances. Guys are tired, generally beaten down, looking to reset mentally, and will often want to get ready for next year once their season is over.
Not Anthony. Upon the mention of postseason baseball, his already sharp focus only intensified. The ultimate end goal of his long climb up the baseball mountain was now the focal point of the discussion, and he had some interesting things to say.
“I always watch postseason baseball. Just watching the games, the atmosphere, the electricity of it. There’s nothing like it.”
It quickly became clear he doesn’t just feel this way because he’s deeply passionate about baseball. He also views this time of year as a learning opportunity.
“You can learn a lot. Just turning on a game and watching a complete baseball game, there’s so many lessons. You can pick up a lot more than just going and watching highlights. Not enough people do it, and I try to do it as much as I can.”
The more you talk to Anthony, the more you realize how fiercely competitive he is and how he’s always hunting for ways or angles to improve his standing as a player, both on and off the field. He’s quietly relentless at it.
To his exact point, he won’t strike you as the overly competitive guy watching his highlights, because he’s not the most outwardly open rah-rah guy after making a play on the field. However, let him peal back what makes him tick for a few minutes, and you start to see the layers come into focus.
As he finished his detailed, thoughtful answer, he also explained that watching Major Leaguers go about their business during games isn’t something he’s able to do as regularly as he might like.
“During the regular season we’re playing every day so there’s less time for it. I try to watch the Sox as much as possible,” he said with a smile. And then his face got serious again and he finished with “But during the postseason, I definitely will be watching.”
Knowing this, I wanted to know what Anthony’s experience was eyeing other teams growing up. He’s from the south Florida area, so I worked the Marlins into the question, but overall, he genuinely came off as a kid who liked the game of baseball as a whole more than any one specific team. Again, he gave a detailed and thoughtful answer.
“I never really had a baseball team growing up. I just was just always watching as many games as I could. Yes, Miami was the closest, so I really liked Christian Yelich a lot. He was my favorite player. When we went to games, he was the guy that stuck out to me the most, but I always wanted to learn from all the best players around the game as they came in. Just try to take as much info as I could from all of them and apply it. Even now, just watching the stars of the game and seeing the things they do to in order to be successful, you can really learn a lot and take different things from everybody’s game. I want to take bits and pieces from everybody and apply it to my game.”
Roman Anthony is a sponge! I can count on one hand the number of players I’ve met who absorb information the way he does and applies it. He’s probably going to be a better baseball player when the World Series is over than he is right now simply by noticing something somebody does in a big spot during one of the games in the next few weeks, and figuring out how to apply it to his own game in the future.
Above all though, the conversation really underscored how much more goes into being great at baseball than just what we see at the surface. It’s not just the numbers. It’s the people and personalities inside those athletic bodies that can change trajectories or alter careers and drive the numbers. But of course in Anthony’s case, the numbers are pretty darn good too.