Game one (over) reactions.

[adorduan]

Well the title of this thread is spot on.  Holy cow people, it's one game. Relax.

[h2oface]

 

Well the title of this thread is spot on.  Holy cow people, it's one game. Relax.

 

Game one (over) reactions. Yup. One game. I think we are spot on topic. Relaxed (over) discussion. That is what we do here.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Well the title of this thread is spot on.  Holy cow people, it's one game. Relax.

 

Over reacting is literally the point of the thread........so, some of us are doing that. Some probably would over react w/o the invite.....

[Craig Arko]

 

Over reacting is literally the point of the thread........so, some of us are doing that. Some probably would over react w/o the invite.....

Probably? You've become an optimist in your old age.

[jokin]

 

My plan A would have been to trade Plouffe, keep Hicks and have an elite OF defensively.

Sano would have taken his lumps at 3rd, but other than that the D as a whole would look preeeeettttty pretttttty good.

 

Yup. And Sano's cannon somewhat does make up for his lack of agility at 3rd.

 

The question remains, who could the Twins have gotten at catcher in exchange for Plouffe?

[jokin]

 

Over reacting is literally the point of the thread........so, some of us are doing that. Some probably would over react w/o the invite.....

 

Nawww... really?

[jokin]

 

Well the title of this thread is spot on.  Holy cow people, it's one game. Relax.

 

 

Game one (over) reactions. Yup. One game. I think we are spot on topic. Relaxed (over) discussion. That is what we do here.

 

I think the important take out of this thread is that we (finally) all have the opportunity to discuss aspects of a meaningful baseball game.

[jokin]

 

I'm guessing only a dozen or so folks know the reference, so I'm not sure it's trolling, but 'season over' isn't all that much different than 'kill and fire them all' to some at least

 

Back to the main point though, I think your observations were pretty spot on.  It's Casey Fein that probably concerns me more than most.  The weather certainly poses a bit of a problem here, Perhaps we should start Santana again tomorrow, since for all intents and purposes, it was a bull pen game.   I'm not sure I'm too worked up about pinch hitting just yet, though I can see the merit given that Murphy is hardly a defensive drop off from Suzuki.  That's an excellent opportunity to pinch hit for Kurt.  Same goes with Buxton, though there's going to be a defensive drop off..

 

As to Buxton, I don't think he should have headed north.  He wasn't ready last year, and his spring this year certainly didn't scream ready either.  Yeah, he may get there, but I think I'd have rather had Sweeney in center or rolled with DanSan for a few months until Buxton started doing a better job at the plate.

 

We very well may soon get our wishes on all fronts.

 

* I hope they cut bait on Fien sooner rather than later if he can't get it together quickly. (IOW, break the pattern of previous years and wait until June to see if an ineffective pitcher can break out of his funk).

 

* "perhaps we should start Ervin tomorrow." I was thinking the exact same thing on E-San. (Would Showalter have the guts and insight to start Chrsty Mathewson... err, Tillman?)

 

* (Buxton) "he may get there..." He will get there! I don't think there's a bigger pusher for getting Buxton up to the majors and on the field full-time than myself..., but it seems pretty obvious he's going to struggle at the plate for the time being, ala Carlos Gomez when he was brought up prematurely. With D-San obviously waiting in the wings, it might be the best thing for Buxton to go to Rochester and get at least 100-150 PAs under his belt.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

"Here's my (over?)reaction... as much as we all want Buxton to succeed - he clearly is not ready. He especially had several very hittable pitches during that AB with a guy on second"

 

Concur, in a larger sense.

 

What concerned me most about Buxton last year, and in an extremely small sample yesterday, wasn't so much the K's, or the tendency to not recognize breaking pitches. It's his inability to do much with hittable pitches inside the strike zone.

 

So far, he rarely makes loud contact.

 

Lots of young hitters come up to the big leagues, and often get fooled at the plate, being made to look foolish at times. But they also show the ability to punish pitches that should be hit. Buxton simply hasn't shown the ability to do that. I hope it changes, but so far, he's not shown the talent to hit at the big league level.

Lol

Its been one game

[ScrapTheNickname]

 

Got to add that:

 

May looked great.  Most composed Twins' pitcher out there.

 

The delay helped the Twins more than the Orioles

 

Concerned about the Twins swinging and striking out at garbage pitches in general

 

Buxton sucks with the stick but is really good with the glove, so I would keep him in as long as the game is close

Answer: He's so good with the glove he should try hitting with it. Or is that illegal? (Sorry, I just got out of bed in AZ).

[USAFChief]

 

Lol
Its been one game

47 games, but yeah, it's a small sample size.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

47 games, but yeah, it's a small sample size.

Yeah it is. People gotta give the guy a chance, he's not just gonna step up and shred the league apart. The fact that people want him in the minors is baffling.

[ScrapTheNickname]

Watching the first game reminded me all over again how fluid this lineup is going to be in the long haul.

 

"Experiments" - such as Sano in right field, or can Buxton hit MLB pitching - I felt I had no business criticizing too harshly in the offseason because I wasn't there in the room with the people making the decisions about players whose performance I don't know intimately.

 

That said, here we are, "meaningful games," so we may, as fans, begin our critical assessments.

[DaveW]

 

Yeah it is. People gotta give the guy a chance, he's not just gonna step up and shred the league apart. The fact that people want him in the minors is baffling.

It isn't that baffling, those 47 games are all very important for a team trying to compete. Eventually a guy with a .575 OPS will start costing you ball games.

[Foghorn Leghorn]

It isn't that baffling, those 47 games are all very important for a team trying to compete. Eventually a guy with a .575 OPS will start costing you ball games.

Lulz okay how many players just tear the league up 47 games in? Horrid logic..

[DaveW]

 

Lulz okay how many players just tear the league up 47 games in? Horrid logic..

Sano?

 

Nobody is saying/expecting him to "tear up the league" or expecting anything close, however at some point you need to decide if a guy who has 33.3% strikeout rate, 4.3% BB rate in those games is really "worth" keeping on the big league roster for not only the overall teams benefit, but Buxton's development as well. Overall he has already put up -0.6 WAR in those 47 games, that is -2.0 WAR over the course of the season, you can't keep him up for very long if those are the results you are going to get.

 

I would prefer they sent him to AAA for a month or two, let him get his confidence then bring him up, having him up with a 33.3% k rate and a .575 OPS isn't helping anyone.

[Vanimal46]

 

Sano?

 

Nobody is saying/expecting him to "tear up the league" or expecting anything close, however at some point you need to decide if a guy who has 33.3% strikeout rate, 4.3% BB rate in those games is really "worth" keeping on the big league roster for not only the overall teams benefit, but Buxton's development as well. Overall he has already put up -0.6 WAR in those 47 games, that is -2.0 WAR over the course of the season, you can't keep him up for very long if those are the results you are going to get.

 

I would prefer they sent him to AAA for a month or two, let him get his confidence then bring him up, having him up with a 33.3% k rate and a .575 OPS isn't helping anyone.

I'm surprised the Fangraphs or 538's of the world haven't done this kind of analysis. It's an argument that almost every team in the majors has. Whether it's keep the top prospect in the MLB to get seasoning, or send him to AAA against less talented players. 

Personally I've always thought that the best way to get better is to face better competition. So that's why I'm not concerned a bit with Buxton struggling while facing MLB pitching. But I don't know if that's the right answer, and it's probably a case by case thing for each prospect. 

[DaveW]

Mike Trout (who Buxton gets compared to) came up his rookie season and struggled (but not as much, he had a .678 OPS a 25% k rate)

 

They sent him to the minors for about a month to start the 2012 season and he tore it up with a 1.000+ OPS, they then brought him back to the majors and the rest is history.

 

As mentioned all players are different, but I would have preferred this approach.

[h2oface]

 

Yeah it is. People gotta give the guy a chance, he's not just gonna step up and shred the league apart. The fact that people want him in the minors is baffling.

 

Yeah..... for sure. How unreasonable for anyone to expect the number one prospect in baseball for so long to actually be one of the ones that really is as good as all the pundits say he is, and actually be one of the special ones that waltzes right in and performs like everyone has said he would forever and a day. Like Jose Fernandez did, for instance. Or Liriano did. Or Sano did. It is just crazy to think that Buxton could be the one, and then he would actually be the one. So silly.

[USAFChief]

 

Yeah..... for sure. How unreasonable for anyone to expect the number one prospect in baseball for so long to actually be one of the ones that really is as good as all the pundits say he is, and actually be one of the special ones that waltzes right in and performs like everyone has said he would forever and a day. Like Jose Fernandez did, for instance. Or Liriano did. Or Sano did. It is just crazy to think that Buxton could be the one, and then he would actually be the one. So silly.

He's no Trevor Story.

[Linus]

Well he's now hitting 400 so I guess everything is right in the world.

[DaveW]

Buxton looked much better at the plate overall tonight with the two doubles, he had 2 K's as well but he got kinda screwed on some bad calls. Hopefully this gives him the confidence moving forward.

 

Gibson, man oh man, this kids inconsistency shined through again tonight, a very disappointing start for him across the board, he can't be walking 5 guys.

 

Sano, yikes, this RF experiment is going to be painful for sometime.

 

Lastly, I would love to hear anyone defend letting Suzuki hit in the 9th inning down two and representing the tying run.

 

 

[DiscGolfer]

 

Lastly, I would love to hear anyone defend letting Suzuki hit in the 9th inning down two and representing the tying run.

He's a contact guy?  I dunno.

[DaveW]

 

He's a contact guy?  I dunno.

When you are the tying run you don't need contact guys! You need guys that can get on base! Or guys that can get XBH!

 

A SF or moving the runner over to third on a ground ball is just as worthless as a strikeout in that scenario!

[bluechipper]

I thought for sure Nunez or Santana was going to hit in the 9th. I don't understand the thinking there. Not sure it would have mattered, as Britton basically threw one hittable pitch the entire inning.

 

 

[DiscGolfer]

 

When you are the tying run you don't need contact guys! You need guys that can get on base! Or guys that can get XBH!

 

A SF or moving the runner over to third on a ground ball is just as worthless as a strikeout in that scenario!

I agree with you I was just trying to come up with some sort of counter argument.  I got nuttin

[bluechipper]

 

Gibson, man oh man, this kids inconsistency shined through again tonight, a very disappointing start for him across the board, he can't be walking 5 guys.

 

Sano, yikes, this RF experiment is going to be painful for sometime.

 

Yeah Gibson was terrible with his command.

 

Sano's dive was a really bad play, but I though he was decent besides that. He had a couple nice running catches.

[DiscGolfer]

Can we R-E-L-A-X on Buxton now and just let the kid play.  He will have some rough at bats but he turned a single for anyone else into a double and ended up scoring in the inning.  Then another double. He had much better looking AB's tonight.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Instead if sacrificing Dozier's at bat, why didn't the just let Buxton advance on whatever out Dozier might have made? Or was Molitor that concerned about Dozier striking out in that situation? Confused.

[Hosken Bombo Disco]

Gibson had a rough April last season too.