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ewen21

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Everything posted by ewen21

  1. ewen21
    First base! Jim! Holt! My brother and I used to get a kick out of the way Casey announced him. I had a bunch of him in that '74 set
  2. ewen21
    In 1975 I think I got ten freakin Vic Albury cards. Grrrr!
  3. ewen21
    Incidentally, I believe both occurred in Chicago
  4. ewen21
    Maybe it was pursued and he wanted nothing to do with the Twins. We did not have the best relationship with him (even though that was with the old guard, not sure if he would feel like coming back)
  5. ewen21
    Ok. There is a positive slant, but understand for every Arrieta there are dozens of others with these numbers who are out of baseball before they turn 30
  6. ewen21
    I remember Joe giving that "do you know who I am?" glare to Joe West. West just shot back with his "do you know who you're dealing with?" gaze. It was hysterical
  7. ewen21
    Some guys did a bat flip when they knew they crushed one. Not Joe. When he "crushed it" he unhooked the shin guard. …...And he did better than anyone
  8. ewen21
    Kiriloff to me is the guy to be excited about because he has hit like a house on fire wherever he goes. I am not terribly interested in hearing about how "athletic" a guy is if he is hitting .275 in A ball. The ability to run fast is a nice trait to have, but if you aren't a great hitter in the minors then......sorry.....I am just not getting that excited until you hit. The hardest thing to do in sports is hit a baseball. There are tons of athletes who cannot hit. We need a few HITTERS. Not sure if Lewis is there, but he is still young.
  9. ewen21
    Very good.
  10. ewen21
    I am just going to say this about Buxton and then bail on this for now...... WIth regards to how much of a leash, he can't do what he has typically done in the first two months of the year. This isn't what I would call a small sample size. Patterns are hard to fathom sometimes, but in the case of Buxton I can say with 100% certainty he has sucked out loud in April every single season. If it gets to Mother's Day and he's hitting .190 then I send him down. He can get as mad as he wants this time. There is something wrong with a guy who just cannot come ready to hit the first half of the season. We don't need him to be half a player, nor do we need to try find ways to prove he is still "fine" when he isn't. Simply put, he HAS TO hit. This has gone on long enough. The team has exhibited enough patience and it is up to Buxton not to put them in a position where they need to act. As with any player in his position he needs to hit in order to stay in the lineup. I have never heard of a guy being held to no standard offensively just because he can run around. It is crazy
  11. ewen21
    Oh OK
  12. ewen21
    Buxton had a miraculous season in the field in 2017. He had 24 defensive runs saved, according to the metric used on fangraphs. The worst CF in that category was Denard Span with (I guess) 27 runs lost or a -27 DRS. The difference between the absolute best and worst is 51 runs. Take a look at the offensive numbers for runs created. Trout had 181 wRC+ and Billy Hamilton was the worst with 65 wRC+ which is a difference of 116 runs. There is not a way on God's green earth you or anyone can prove that offense and defense are equal parts of the pie. Centerfielders typically make slight more than 2 putouts a game on average historically. There is no way Buxton can control where balls are being hit. It could take a few weeks before he makes a catch worthy of being called a web gem (and he isn't the only player who makes them). Meanwhile he gets 4 at bats a game where he can strike out and pop up, ruin rallies and make outs come easier for the other team. Besides just the numbers behind it that has a demoralizing affect on a baseball club. You cannot keep a guy in the lineup and give him an endless amount of rope. There needs to be accountability and if we are not going to hold Buxton to some kind of bottom line standard that that blurs accountability for all the other players. People here suggested that quite a bit over the last couple of years with Buxton. I say NO WAY. He needs to meet a standard and if he can't then that is tough luck for him and for us. A .672 OPS is not what I want in my everyday lineup.
  13. ewen21
    But he doesn't counterbalance his poor offense with speed and defense. Not when he also has a .285 OBP and all those strikeouts. He makes up for it part of the way, but not all of the way. No way in the world Buxton gets enough opportunities to make great plays so as to offset horrible offense. There simply aren't enough balls hit into those tiny zones where he can make a play other good CFs don't make. There just aren't enough opportunities. He cannot control it. You can throw any defensive metric out there and I still won't be convinced. They simply do not measure as accurately as offensive statistics do. I think 2017 was somewhat of a lucky season for him defensively in that he had an inordinate amount of opportunities. Those opportunities are not a given like at bats are We know for a fact, he gets up 4 times a game and there are have been long stretches where he is about as bad as any hitter I have seen come through our system. I am willing to put up with him around his fictional 162 game average. Then again, if he does that I try look for another option in CF for 2020. Honestly.
  14. ewen21
    Machado would be a nightmare here. We'd need to outbid the entire market for one player who was discarded by the Dodgers rather quickly for character issues. He is the new A-Rod only his numbers are not nearly as good. I agree with you and I hope Machado remains unsigned for another month or two (or more). Add Harper to that list as well.
  15. ewen21
    Buxton has nothing to do with Hicks. There are far more players who had bad offensive numbers in their first four seasons and ended up being nothing. Not sure what the point of the comparison is. It is far too simplistic. Hicks doesn't have nearly the issues Buxton has with injuries. This is a very real concern and will have a profound amount of influence on how he develops (or doesn't develop). If Buxton crashes into a wall and gets carted off the field he leaves just a little bit more of himself out on the field. There will come a point that the mounting injuries will be detrimental to his development. This must somehow be averted, although with the dialogue Buxton provides running into walls seems to be his trademark. Good luck with that. Hicks doesn't have a concussion history or migraine issues. One similarity both Hicks and Buxton had was that the Twins wanted to throw them out there and let them take their lumps when they were not actually ready. Between Buxton and Hicks our CFs have been absolutely horrid in April. These abysmal starts affected Hicks and it might be affecting Buxton's confidence even more. So when you say, "play this out" what exactly do you mean? Do we allow him to hit .200 and strike out twice a game through the month of June? The game is not played on paper and this gets ignored far too much.
  16. ewen21
    But he asked does KEPLER really need a different WAR calculation for CF and RF. What he meant is that Kepler is different from Palka in that it wouldn't have much affect on his WAR if any. He isn't assuming Palka would gain anything moving to CF. He actually said he would be liability. You are basically correcting him for something he never said
  17. ewen21
    Bottom line is he should not be given an entire season to flounder. If he isn't hitting his weight over the first 3 or 4 weeks the heat is on him. He was the one who said he didn't want to "sugarcoat" things. This is the major leagues. He cannot start off looking completely pathetic again. It kills the lineup to have him doing that and it starts us off on the wrong foot. It is up to him to turn that around. Not up to the Twins to bring him along and give him an over-abundance of patience. He has to meet a standard offensively and he better not start off like he has in other seasons. He just might panic
  18. ewen21
    What? Do I really need to explain it to you or are you intentionally misinterpreting what I said just to make me seem silly? The guys who actually work with him would be the ones doing that. Not saying you are making excuses for him either. I just think your rationale is off. Also, how in the world does stating a fact about his 162 game average understate anything? It states the reality and that is what I am interested in first and foremost. OF COURSE the injuries and horrible starts are a huge concern. I have discussed that already in other posts about him, but you challenged what I said about his 162 game average OPS. As far as your Knoblauch rookie season comparison goes you are comparing apples to trout. Knoblauch had a .351 OPS, was a second baseman, was 21 years old and at a different stage in his career. He also had an OPS of .701 (which for a second baseman with and OPS in 1991 is fine). Furthermore, looking through the league over the last 20 years I tried to find CFs with a OPS lower than .672 with 2,000 plate appearances. Those players would be: Billy Hamilton, Willy Taveras, Ben Revere and Jarrod Dyson. That is all and Buxton's OBP is worse than all of them. Not by a little bit either. In the case of Revere, Tavares and Dyson 35 points. All of them have much higher batting averages. How long exactly does he get? That is my bone of contention. I don't think he should have a whole season starting in the outfield. He can't go on being the one the absolute worst offensive CF in baseball over the last 20 years and remain in the daily lineup. It is wrong on several levels. What message does it send to other players in the system? We are going to give Buxton more rope than anyone even after he publicly moans about his situation? We are miles apart, I think. If he is hitting .190 by Mother's Day I send him down to Rochester. Here is hoping he doesn't give us his career average .464 OPS April (even worse than .550). Dude has had almost 1.000 at bats at the major league level. HOw much further do we continue this apprenticeship?
  19. ewen21
    Is the most important question to ask? The real question needs to be: "do we invest in these guys long term?" As of right now, I am only interested in extending Berrios and Rosario. The others need to show me more.
  20. ewen21
    Precisely what I think on all points.
  21. ewen21
    The idea that we need to give Buxton an endless amount of rope to hang himself this year doesn't wash with me. Not after last year, not after his "I'm not gonna sugarcoat nothing" speech at the Children's Hospital. Sugarcoating things, coddling him and saying his defense and speed bails him out is exactly what needs to stop happening. There needs to be accountability. He is screaming for it.
  22. ewen21
    Once again. Hunter was not THIS bad, nor was he THIS fussed over. No player should have the latitude to play with an endless amount of rope. When you say give him "the whole season" what does it mean? Does it mean he can hit .194 and play everyday? That to me is utterly ridiculous. It shows everyone there is no standard and certain players have certain rules. We cannot operate like this. If he is hitting .190 on Mother's Day he goes back to Rochester. Ultimately it would be nice not to have this problem.
  23. ewen21
    And conversely, if you subtract out those 7 weeks at the end of 2017 you have some historically dreadful numbers for a player with over 800 plate appearances. That burst boosts his numbers unbelievably. If we are going to brush aside 5/6 of his numbers in favor of 1/6 of this numbers then we really need to take a step back and be a little more objective. I* am not saying he is a bust just yet, but he sure is skating on the edge of it if he doesn't start showing some competence as an offensive player.
  24. ewen21
    If you are posting a .672 OPS as a centerfielder in the American League that is pretty damn bad. Name me the CF who had an OPS below .700 with 600 plate appearances. The answer is NO ONE. Take it down to 500 plate appearances and you have some scrub on the Padres, Dee Gordon and Billy Hamilton. If this team aspires to reach higher than they need to stop lowering the bar with Buxton. His bat is a black hole in the lineup if he strikes out nearly 200 times, can't get on base and has an OPS of .672. Whether you agree with me or not a .672 OPS for THIS PLAYER and this point in his career is unacceptable. Can we at least agree on that?
  25. ewen21
    That, to me, is just another illustration of how WAR isn't the end-all/be-all
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