Akil Baddoo-What a Difference a Year Makes

[zwiefz]

Baddoo was optioned to the minors yesterday.  

A year ago at this time the sky was falling in Twins Territory because they had let another future MVP get away for nothing.

No real point to this thread.......just one more in a never ending string of examples of 'small sample size', rushing to judgement(good and bad), players needing different lengths of time to really adjust/counter adjust to the major leagues, etc.

At least it gives us all a reminder to 'take a breath' as we evaluate the performances of all these new/young players early in the season.

[Trov]

42 minutes ago, zwiefz said:

Baddoo was optioned to the minors yesterday.  

A year ago at this time the sky was falling in Twins Territory because they had let another future MVP get away for nothing.

No real point to this thread.......just one more in a never ending string of examples of 'small sample size', rushing to judgement(good and bad), players needing different lengths of time to really adjust/counter adjust to the major leagues, etc.

At least it gives us all a reminder to 'take a breath' as we evaluate the performances of all these new/young players early in the season.

I was thinking of making a similar post today myself.  I remember a few posters last year saying how much the FO missed the boat on Badoo and should have protected him.  That still could be the case, but as pointed out, he is doing terrible this year and sent back down to AAA.  He is still young and may have a fine career, but some on here had Badoo on his way to MVP seasons to come, replacing Buck in CF and firing the FO because of not protecting Badoo.  

I wish all the best for Badoo, but like you said, we need to take breath on some of these guys, both good and bad.  

[wabene]

This is pretty funny and illustrates that letting things work themselves out is always prudent. It was recently posted that Gil and Ynoa are having a rough go of it as well. Same with the platoon outfielder in San Francisco, Wade. You can't keep them all. We have quite the 40 man crunch coming up again which is why it is so encouraging that we are getting extended looks at so many young guys. It will be fun to watch it all play out.

[LastOnePicked]

Yeah, I was certainly a part of that near-panic. I had lost confidence that the FO knew how to keep the best talent, and many of us still had Ortiz PTSD from the previous regime. Could be I was wrong, and that Larnach + Celestino are better for this team than Wade + Baddoo.

That said, I was very happy for Baddoo and I hope he can find his groove again. I think he's a competitor, and while the Rule 5 helped him get a jump on his MLB career, he probably did need some time at AAA. Here's hoping he comes back and plays well against everybody but us.

[Rosterman]

Akil would still be starting in AAA for the Twins. If he wasn't taken. Remember that.

And, as others say, we shouldn't get to excited about any player. It takes a helluva a lot of at bats, hard work, and the wanna be a major league guy to succeed in baseball. Injuries also play a part.

We were excited about Kirilloff last season. We salivate looking at the improved work of Celestino and Larnach, both unexpected for this season.

We hope Ober and Ryan and Winder will be mainstays.

[Monkeypaws]

1 minute ago, Rosterman said:

Akil would still be starting in AAA for the Twins. If he wasn't taken. Remember that.

On top of that, our opinion of him would be based solely on how he had performed vs. minor leaguers up to that point.

I'm glad he got the chance with the Tigers honestly. He'd be battling Kiriloff, Larnach, Celestino etc. for one or two OF spots.

Still only 23, he could still have a bright future in Detroit.

[Trov]

1 hour ago, wabene said:

This is pretty funny and illustrates that letting things work themselves out is always prudent. It was recently posted that Gil and Ynoa are having a rough go of it as well. Same with the platoon outfielder in San Francisco, Wade. You can't keep them all. We have quite the 40 man crunch coming up again which is why it is so encouraging that we are getting extended looks at so many young guys. It will be fun to watch it all play out.

Both Luis Gil and Huascar Ynoa have struggled this year, after having decent stints at majors last year. Neither was dominate last year but with how bad we needed starting pitching we saw how guys we traded away or let go started doing better than what we were putting out there.  Similar to Badoo both are still young and can be something still in future, but maybe we were a little ahead of ourselves regretting letting them go.  

Wade has not played much this year at all with only 3 games played.  He would still be at best our 4th OF.  I always liked Wade but we just had better overall talent than he gave us.  Wade just out performed what was expected last year so he looked better than what he did for a team not expected to compete. 

Like many have pointed out, we cannot keep everyone on the roster.  Sometimes when guys get through and do well it is not that you failed to see the talent, but that you had so much at a particular position that someone had to go.  

[Dman]

28 minutes ago, LastOnePicked said:

Yeah, I was certainly a part of that near-panic. I had lost confidence that the FO knew how to keep the best talent, and many of us still had Ortiz PTSD from the previous regime. Could be I was wrong, and that Larnach + Celestino are better for this team than Wade + Baddoo.

That said, I was very happy for Baddoo and I hope he can find his groove again. I think he's a competitor, and while the Rule 5 helped him get a jump on his MLB career, he probably did need some time at AAA. Here's hoping he comes back and plays well against everybody but us.

Yep I was pretty hard on the FO as I had him as someone to protect on my list but I did understand them trying to see if he would slip past teams in the Rule V draft.  He had been injured and hadn't played in a while it seemed like a solid calculated risk. I was pretty disappointed though when he was doing so well with a highlight every week and the Twins had kept Celestino on the 40 man who looked horrible last year. 

To me the reason there was no room to add Baddoo is because they had to add Celestino early because he was an International free agent signing and he wasn't likely to slip through Rule V.  They had to protect Larnach and Kirilloff so just no more room for another outfielder that they were not sure was ready for the 40 man.

What a difference a year makes though with Celestino starting off well and Baddoo back to AAA.  I still think Celestino is the better defender in center and if his righthanded bat is for real that helps balance the lefties in the outfield in Kepler, Larnach, Kirilloff and if bullish on Wallner then Wallner as well.  

Yes, like you I panicked but trends make you do that even if they are relatively small in size.  I still think Baddoo will be a very good player.  The cold weather seems to have stunted lot's of bats.  He has a good eye at the plate and can make contact.  He is going to be a good player.  Hopefully Celestino will be just as good or better. 

[4twinsJA]

I agree with Rosterman, Badoo would have played AA last year for Twins, and Twins would have been faced with same decision whether to put on 40 man roster this year. He would be playing at AAA this year. The question is did moving up to MLB so soon affect his development. 

[Squirrel]

I was in the 'Oh darn it!' camp, but also understood the crunch and the rationale behind not protecting him and taking a chance he wouldn't get taken. He was also behind several others on the depth chart and (likely) wouldn't have made it to the majors last year, and (likely) not this year, either, maybe. So ... it worked out for the best for all concerned I think, but especially Baddoo. I hope he finds his way back up to the majors.

[cHawk]

I couldn’t have said it better myself. Goes to show that sample size matters when analyzing data.

[goulik]

I have never been that upset with losing either Wade or Badoo but I have also been mildly irritated that we clung to Cave and Garlick. In the end, Cave and Garlick may be the better talents to be fully honest but I usually would prefer to err on the side of young prospects over borderline waiver claims. 

In the end, hind sight is always 20/20. When Big Papi was sent packing, there were plenty of us fans willing to help him pack. But me? I'm the type of guy that enjoys seeing Mientkiewicz catch the final out or Rosario win an MVP. Big Papi? that one just kept hurting...