April 8th

[Jason]

Link

 

Rochester at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 5:35 PM

ROC: Albers (0-0, -.--) SWB: Bootcheck (0-0, -.--)

New Britain at Harrisburg 6:05 PM

Fort Myers Off-Day

Cedar Rapids vs Wisconsin 6:35 PM

CR: Hurlbut (0-0, -.--) WIS: Gainey (0-0, -.--

[cmb0252]

A walk and a HR for Buxton already.

[jokin]

A walk and a HR for Buxton already.

 

Might have to hurry up to actually go see Buxton playing at Cedar Rapids, at this rate, the young man looks to be punching that ticket to Ft Myers very soon.

[kab21]

Unless there is an injury (ow two) that really shakes up the Ft Myers roster buxton isn't going anywhere until midseason imo. he is hot right now though.

 

Arcia 2/3 to start the day. He just keeps hitting at every level he's been at.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Arcia 2/3 to start the day. He just keeps hitting at every level he's been at.

 

Two singles. His OPS is sliding downward.

[SydneyTwinsFan]

Arcia 3/4. Scampers out an infield single just to break the line drive monotony.

[Jim Crikket]

Buxton ended up with 3 Ks on the night, which brought his BA down to an even .500 on the year.

 

Kernels pitchers with 10 Ks tonight in a 10-2 win on a very cold Wisconsin evening.

[jokin]

Unless there is an injury (ow two) that really shakes up the Ft Myers roster buxton isn't going anywhere until midseason imo. he is hot right now though.

 

Arcia 2/3 to start the day. He just keeps hitting at every level he's been at.

 

Angel Morales isn't exactly blocking Buxton's progression. If Buxton keeps this up another month or so and shows he's really ready, it would be foolish not to put Buxton onto the same team with his future teammates, Rosario and Sano.

[kab21]

It's not about anyone on Ft Myers blocking anyone. It's about Ft Myers not having enough OF'ers to field a team and they need to promote people to handle that. The fact is that the Twins typically promote at midseason if they are going to promote someone during the season.

[Ncgo4]

You're right, that's what the twins typically do. If, however, Buxton stays hat for 3 or 4 weeks more, they need to scrap what they "normally" do and recognize that with Buxton they have an extraordinary prospect.

 

in fact, I feel the same way about Sano. I think it would be ideal to get the two of them paired ASAP, since the are about the same age and let them fly through the minors at their own justifiable speed.

 

We're one week into the season and it's way too early to make pronouncements, but this is the first time I can remember looking up minor league box scores and now I'm doing it for Sano, Buxton, Arcia & Rosario. Last night I felt cheated when I saw that Ft. Myers was off for the night, how crazy is that? Potential is only potential, but can you imagine the twins with a 1-4 line up all hitting for really high average with power and all stealing bases?

[Jim Crikket]

Call me crazy (you won't be the first), but in the event that Fort Myers does need an OF due to injury or promotion in the near future, I think the first guy sent up from CR may just be JD Williams. He's off to a good start and just looks so much more comfortable and confident at the plate than what I remember seeing from him last summer. And he's already had a full year of A ball in Beloit.

 

I just think the Twins are going to want to see Buxton stay in CR for at least half a season. There's more to that decision than just what goes on for 3 hours during the game and it won't hurt Buxton to spend a little extra time with Mauer & Watkins.

[jokin]

Call me crazy (you won't be the first), but in the event that Fort Myers does need an OF due to injury or promotion in the near future, I think the first guy sent up from CR may just be JD Williams. He's off to a good start and just looks so much more comfortable and confident at the plate than what I remember seeing from him last summer. And he's already had a full year of A ball in Beloit.

 

I just think the Twins are going to want to see Buxton stay in CR for at least half a season. There's more to that decision than just what goes on for 3 hours during the game and it won't hurt Buxton to spend a little extra time with Mauer & Watkins.

 

JC -Are you sure it's not having him to all to yourself in selfish close proximity that's clouding your judgement a little?

 

If he's close to a Harper/Trout prodigy, the "world" will demand that you "share"!

[Jim Crikket]

JC -Are you sure it's not having him to all to yourself in selfish close proximity that's clouding your judgement a little?

 

If he's close to a Harper/Trout prodigy, the "world" will demand that you "share"!

 

I think that's a fair question.

 

As a Kernels fan and someone who's reporting on the team, I'd naturally love to see Buxton in town all season long.

 

But part of the fun of being a fan of an affiliated minor league team is seeing "our guys" make it to the Show and realize their dreams. On top of that, I'm obviously a Twins fan, so whenever he's really ready to help the MLB club, I want him to be there.

 

I'm just saying there are other things to consider. How well does he deal with fans? Does he handle himself well in community outreach programs? How does he deal with media sticking recorders in his face after a big game... or after a bad game? How will he deal with adversity and criticism when it comes?

 

I'd rather see him learn to deal with those things now than having to do so when he gets to Target Field. Keep in mind, a year ago he was playing high school baseball in Georgia.

[jokin]

I think that's a fair question.

 

As a Kernels fan and someone who's reporting on the team, I'd naturally love to see Buxton in town all season long.

 

But part of the fun of being a fan of an affiliated minor league team is seeing "our guys" make it to the Show and realize their dreams. On top of that, I'm obviously a Twins fan, so whenever he's really ready to help the MLB club, I want him to be there.

 

I'm just saying there are other things to consider. How well does he deal with fans? Does he handle himself well in community outreach programs? How does he deal with media sticking recorders in his face after a big game... or after a bad game? How will he deal with adversity and criticism when it comes?

 

I'd rather see him learn to deal with those things now than having to do so when he gets to Target Field. Keep in mind, a year ago he was playing high school baseball in Georgia.

 

All very fair points, and we're only dealing with an admittedly very small amount of performance data to optimistically project of things to come- but Harper and Trout have blazed and carved out a new "phenom trail" that might prove irresistable for the Twins to follow. And thus far, Buxton seems to be a pretty well-grounded and hard-working kid. I tend to think you are going to be a valuable go-to/on-the-ground guy the next few years, JC!

 

It might just be me, but it seems like there's more buzz about Twins prospects potentially knocking at the MLB door than ever before. Now, if only a couple of them could play SS or C...

[Jim Crikket]

Keep in mind, the Angels seem to have a very different philosophy these days regarding their prospects than the Twins do. Even so, Mike Trout was still 17 years old when he signed with them in July 2009. Before the end of that first summer, he was in Cedar Rapids for a handful of games. Buxton signed earlier in the summer than Trout did, but finished his first season a level lower than the Angels advanced Trout.

 

In 2010, he spent more than half a season in Cedar Rapids (81 games at A, 50 games at high-A). His "phenom trail" didn't really start serious blazing until 2011. Even then, he spent more than half of a minor league season at AA. It's just that the Angels had him skip the AAA level altogether that season and promoted him to the Majors. And don't forget, he started last year at AAA, so he didn't really end up skipping that level altogether, either.

 

IF (and it's a big if) the Twins allowed Buxton to follow the same path from this point forward, it would mean he's in CR through roughly the end of June and finishes the year in Fort Myers. He'd start next season in New Britain and get his call up around the MLB All-Star break.

 

That would be remarkable, but I wouldn't bet against Buxton being able to do it. I just think that it would be very uncharacteristic for the Twins to have him spend very little time at Class A. Having him spend the July 4 holidays in Cedar Rapids wouldn't exactly inhibit his career path.

[kab21]

You're right, that's what the twins typically do. If, however, Buxton stays hat for 3 or 4 weeks more, they need to scrap what they "normally" do and recognize that with Buxton they have an extraordinary prospect.

 

in fact, I feel the same way about Sano. I think it would be ideal to get the two of them paired ASAP, since the are about the same age and let them fly through the minors at their own justifiable speed.

 

We're one week into the season and it's way too early to make pronouncements, but this is the first time I can remember looking up minor league box scores and now I'm doing it for Sano, Buxton, Arcia & Rosario. Last night I felt cheated when I saw that Ft. Myers was off for the night, how crazy is that? Potential is only potential, but can you imagine the twins with a 1-4 line up all hitting for really high average with power and all stealing bases?

 

waiting 2.5 months to move a prospect is not slowing a prospect down at all. It allows him to move 2 levels in a year which is pretty fast for pretty much any team. The only reason to move him up is if you wanted him to play at 3 levels in one season. If he is as awesome you think then he could be in New Britain to start 2014 and be a midseason callup. that's pretty unlikely but that is that the 1/2 season/level promotion schedule allows for since skipping AA is not uncommon.

 

And Jim brings up an important development point. Buxton is still learning a lot in Beloit off the field and I think it's nice for a young player to get settled for a couple of months in one place.

 

It's surprising that a couple of weeks ago there were several dropping lame comments on here that it would take Buxton 4-6 yrs to reach the majors and now others are complaining if the Twins wait until midseason to promote him. Let's see how he does for a couple of months before going crazy.

[ashbury]

Buxton is still learning a lot in Beloit off the field

 

If nothing else, he's probably learning to recognize that the "hey, where are all my teammates" feeling means he should find the nearest bus station and buy a ticket to Cedar Rapids.

[TRex]

I think the only comparable for a pre-July 'promotion' from low-A was Arcia, and even that is a bad comp since he went on the DL before going to FM (and FM needed an outfielder). However, even with all those caveats, here are the monster numbers that even made this a consideration.

 

AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO SB CS OBP SLG OPS

.352 20 71 18 25 8 1 5 18 50 9 16 2 2 .420 .704 1.124

Note especially the relatively low strikeout rate (20%) and this high BB:K rate.

 

I personally think the Twins like to see how batters come out of their first slump before promoting. We have seen lots of examples (e.g. Aaron Hicks in '11 and Daniel Ortiz in '12) where prospects get off to a hot start, but never fully recover after their inevitable first slump.