It's going to be a riveting spring, with so many unanswered questions! What a treat.

 

Meyer, Chargois, Burdi, Reed, Melotakis, Pressly, Tonkin, Graham, Rosario, Landa while they're in the big league camp. And Zack Jones when he's sent back to us by the Brewers as a nonrefundable return.

 

Thanks Bob!

Bob, the vids are great, keep em coming.

 

Yes, Oswaldo's hip lingered for much of the 2015 year and it altered his swing.  Here is Arcia's swing so far this spring training

 

Arcia Video 1 2/12

Arcia Video 2 2/19

Arcia Video 3 2/26

 

Park can hit the ball very far and very hard, I've seen him hit a 500ft shot this spring already in BP.  The question is can he hit a MLB curveball or slider.

 

Park Video 1 2/12

Park Video 2 2/19

Park Video 3 2/26

 

Here's Joe Mauer working on turning on that inside fastball in the cage

 

Sorry only things I have on Buxton so far are:

 

Buxton Batting Practice 2/26

Buxton Bunting 2/26

Wow, thanks!

 

Arcia's hip doesn't look like it hurts, but we can't see the tissue, so we don't really know. His swing seemed okay, at least for now...

 

Doesn't Park have a gorgeous swing? I cannot imagine that he won't be able to hit MLB pitching with a swing like that, even though he opens up the cock just a little before the snap. Timing mechanism?

 

Walker just looks like a beast at the plate. Must be frightening for a pitcher. 

 

Mauer looked like he was pulling some pitches, but not lifting them. Maybe lifting the ball is just too different from his normal swing. 

 

I'm not sure where Buxton's power comes from, but he's go it. Rhythm and sweet wrist action. His bunts looked good. The guy's a real worker. 

 

Buxton's plate approach......Fangraphs has him as the number 2 defensive CF right now, but if he played 140+ games, he might be number 1 in the calculations (funny, another thread imploded when someone said they didn't like him defensively.......), so, I want to see if his hitting gets him here now, not in April or May.

With regards to Buxton's CF defense, I'll just leave this here:

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.com/article.php?articleid=28563

 

 

Whoa. PECOTA loves Buxton—sorta, anyway.

That 4.6 WARP figure is the 15th-best mark in the game heading into 2016, just 2.7 WARP off modern-day Trout, and ahead of established stars like Jason Heyward, Andrew McCutchen, and Alex Gordon. However, with a projected .256 TAv—in line with established non-stars like Ben Paulsen, Nick Castellanos, and Rhys Hoskins—almost all of Buxton's value is coming from his defense, which PECOTA pegs at +24 runs in center field . . . +24 runs in center field. Whoa.

When I first read that number, I emailed BP's Rob McQuown to make sure Aaron Gleeman hadn't hacked into PECOTA. He assured me that Buxton's projected FRAA was correct, although he also noted that it was a topic of discussion among BP staffers before PECOTA went live. It's the sort of number that jumps out at you, even given ample video evidence (see: The Catch) and scouting report after scouting report detailing Buxton's outfield exploits.

 

Edited March 2, 201610 yr by nytwinsfan