Should Byron Buxton Shift to Designated Hitter?

[PDX Twin]

1 hour ago, Seth Stohs said:

100% agree... it's crazy to me that a respected national writer would even think of this, much less spend any time writing about it. 

Perhaps this is how "respected" writers start to lose respect?

[Squirrel]

28 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Yeah, it was a national talker due to who sent out the message. It's definitely good to point out those kinds of things, even if they're silly to most of us. 

I don't think we should be giving such idiocy a platform, personally. I think we can establish a line ... but ... such is life

[chinmusic]

1 hour ago, TheLeviathan said:

 Byron Buxton gets hurt doing pretty much everything involved with playing baseball. 

and even stuff NOT involving baseball.

Didn't he chip a tooth eating a steak?

I say let him do his thing. He's 10 games into a 7 year deal. How awesome is that? 

[Vanimal46]

34 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Yeah, it was a national talker due to who sent out the message. It's definitely good to point out those kinds of things, even if they're silly to most of us. 

It’s sad you feel like this is good content. Twins Daily is inching closer and closer to being Buzzfeed. 

[Craig Arko]

Clearly this writer is a White Sox mole.

[nicksaviking]

15 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

It’s sad you feel like this is good content. Twins Daily is inching closer and closer to being Buzzfeed. 

The cringe inducing take doesn't bother me too much; there's probably not a poster on this site with more than 10 posts who hasn't shared at least one truly terrible opinion. We as sports fans probably do take a game made for kids too seriously.

It's the clickbait-y, question mark headline that I disagree with.

[Seth Stohs]

10 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

It’s sad you feel like this is good content. Twins Daily is inching closer and closer to being Buzzfeed. 

Well, one thing we want to do is give voices to a variety of thoughts and opinions. As someone who does editing and scheduling, I fight myself often and have to keep reminding myself that just because I may think this topic or this opinion is silly or even out there, there may be other Twins fans who agree with whatever topic. Even something like this, that I think we can agree that like 95+% of Twins fans would find laughable, there are some fans who think it's worth consideration. That's what the forums are for, agreeing and disagreeing. I don't think even @Cody Christiethinks it's a good idea, but that doesn't mean it can't be discussed. In this case, 95+% of us think it's silly. In many similar articles, it may be more 60/40 or even 50/50. 

[Vanimal46]

8 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Well, one thing we want to do is give voices to a variety of thoughts and opinions. As someone who does editing and scheduling, I fight myself often and have to keep reminding myself that just because I may think this topic or this opinion is silly or even out there, there may be other Twins fans who agree with whatever topic. Even something like this, that I think we can agree that like 95+% of Twins fans would find laughable, there are some fans who think it's worth consideration. That's what the forums are for, agreeing and disagreeing. I don't think even @Cody Christiethinks it's a good idea, but that doesn't mean it can't be discussed. In this case, 95+% of us think it's silly. In many similar articles, it may be more 60/40 or even 50/50. 

If this is the type of content you want to give front page access to and promote on your social media channels, more power to you. I see the replies already on Twitter. Low effort articles will result in low effort, snark replies. The same direction Buzzfeed took and the reason for their decline.

I’ve said my piece about this particular author in the Questions section of Twins Daily. There are better authors to support on this site and I won’t contribute to this particular one moving forward. Thanks for your reply. 

[Dave The Dastardly]

10 minutes ago, nicksaviking said:

The cringe inducing take doesn't bother me too much, as there's probably not a poster on this site with more than 10 posts who doesn't have at least one truly terrible posted opinion. We as sports fans probably do take a game made for kids too seriously.

It's the clickbait-y, question mark headline that I disagree with.

I agree that TD produces enough terrible opinions (myself included) without going outside the realm, but I don't get the general umbrage over this outside opinion. Yeah, it's rather short-sighted and out there in a galaxy far, far away, but it does make you think; is there someway to keep Buxton in the game without making him wear armor? Or by making him "play" only through a video game console? Or is the article an attempt to stimulate "out-of-the-box" thinking? Little play on words there... you know, like keep Buxton in a box so he doesn't get hurt... get it?

That's my terrible opinion for the day. I'll have a new one tomorrow. I have a quota.

[TheLeviathan]

I am so over the defense of "all opinions should be heard".  No.  No they shouldn't.  If you're misleading, lying, vacuous, nonsensical, or any other form of "This isn't well intentioned or well reasoned"....screw that.  Not only do you not deserve to be heard, we should actively stop your nonsense from infecting otherwise reasonable and interesting discourse.

If my wife and I are discussing our plans for the weekend and I want a serious discussion about space travel to the Kepler system....she would rightly tell me to shut up.  We teach kids from a young age to have well reasoned, on topic discussions.  Then as adults we seem to think letting any inane, down right stupid, harmful, or malicious conversation happen out of some misguided notion of free speech is ok.  It's preposterous. 

[Mike Sixel]

This is a troll thread, right? Two in a row. Awful. 

[Mike Sixel]

53 minutes ago, Seth Stohs said:

Well, one thing we want to do is give voices to a variety of thoughts and opinions. As someone who does editing and scheduling, I fight myself often and have to keep reminding myself that just because I may think this topic or this opinion is silly or even out there, there may be other Twins fans who agree with whatever topic. Even something like this, that I think we can agree that like 95+% of Twins fans would find laughable, there are some fans who think it's worth consideration. That's what the forums are for, agreeing and disagreeing. I don't think even @Cody Christiethinks it's a good idea, but that doesn't mean it can't be discussed. In this case, 95+% of us think it's silly. In many similar articles, it may be more 60/40 or even 50/50. 

This is embarrassing. The last two articles didn't deserve front page highlighting at all. 

[Doctor Gast]

Thank you Cody for reporting this article and my remark isn't pointed towards you. I've heard a lot idiotic Twins ideas written but this absolutely takes the cake for all the reasons that my friends have stated. Besides this our OF absolutely sucks w/o Buxton. His recent injuries were not defense related and could have happened to anybody.

Buxton is the best CF, not having him out there for any amount of time is a crime against the sport.

[IndianaTwin]

1 hour ago, nicksaviking said:

The cringe inducing take doesn't bother me too much; there's probably not a poster on this site with more than 10 posts who hasn't shared at least one truly terrible opinion. We as sports fans probably do take a game made for kids too seriously.

It's the clickbait-y, question mark headline that I disagree with.

You're underestimating me. I'm pretty sure I've shared way more than one truly terrible opinion. ?

[Ex-Iowegian]

At least I learned something here.

Betteridge's law of headlines...

Never knew that. Thanks.

[Harrison Greeley III]

I really don't see the harm in sprinkling in 20-30 games of Buxton at DH. Do it on getaway days once a week or something like how they would do it with Joe Mauer. 

His bat is more important than his defense at this point. He's had the 3rd best SLG since the beginning of 2019. Buxton, Polanco, and Correa are the guys in the lineup managers fear and will continue to fear. I'd be fine if all 3 of them were in the DH rotation. They need to stay healthy and it's a very minor mitigation tactic in the grand scheme of things.

There's no true DH like Nelson Cruz this year, rest is good, and man do I hate having both Sano and Gary Sanchez in the same lineup. This seems logical to me. Just please don't put Jeffers back at DH again till we're confident he can hit at this level. 

[tarheeltwinsfan]

2 hours ago, Dave The Dastardly said:

I agree that TD produces enough terrible opinions (myself included) without going outside the realm, but I don't get the general umbrage over this outside opinion. Yeah, it's rather short-sighted and out there in a galaxy far, far away, but it does make you think; is there someway to keep Buxton in the game without making him wear armor? Or by making him "play" only through a video game console? Or is the article an attempt to stimulate "out-of-the-box" thinking? Little play on words there... you know, like keep Buxton in a box so he doesn't get hurt... get it?

That's my terrible opinion for the day. I'll have a new one tomorrow. I have a quota.

That is your one for the day, my friend.  

[tarheeltwinsfan]

No.

[deanlambrecht]

5 hours ago, JDubs said:

This has to be the most pristine example of Betteridge's law of headlines I've seen in a long time

Yep.  Exactly.  And more than that, it's clickbait and does not meet the criteria for good journalism.

[GeorgiaBaller]

Wow---what to say.  Although the some is better than none argument is understandable, the better answer is Buck in Center and let Gordon get used to left field.  these guys are major leaguers, but Gordon will get much better faster if he stays put and has a constant LF view and smaller field to cover.

Buck at DH is like only driving your Ferrari to the grocery store on Saturday, while you take the Caprice Classic everywhere else.  I think he has really turned a corner.  I am convinced this injury was a fluke.  When he plays---he is the heart of the franchise.  I think he understands he can't be the heartbeat of he is hurt in the dugout.  He really is a generational talent, you don't cut time for those players, you just help them understand when to throttle back and when to stay full speed.

[jmlease1]

Alex Fast is a moron if he actually thinks this is reasonable, and this article has a supremely click-baity headline. Disappointing.

[glunn]

I agree that the original post does not make much sense, but I do think that it's thought provoking.

My thought is that the Twins should re-evaluate the padding on the outfield walls to make it as safe as possible, and perhaps move in the warning track in center field so that Buxton has more notice time to prepare for hitting the wall.

 

[Monticore]

Bad idea. They need him in center.

[MTV]

Use him at DH every couple games, but use him in CF as much as possible without hurting anything

[PseudoSABR]

Are we gonna pinch run for him each time too? Sigh.

[gil4]

14 hours ago, diehardtwinsfan said:

 The team needs to figure out how to keep him healthy, and that is not going to be done by wrapping him in bubble wrap. 

I'm willing to try the bubble wrap.  Maybe line the walls with the stuff, too.  I prefer that idea to the DH suggestion.

[gil4]

3 hours ago, PseudoSABR said:

Are we gonna pinch run for him each time too? Sigh.

It would have to be a pitcher doing the pinch-running. The last I checked, we had two healthy non-pitcher subs. I think the next improvement at TF is going to be expanded bullpen seating.

[mnfireman]

Didn't read all the comments, but on the replay I saw he was jogging out of the box and kicked it down when he saw the ball hit the ground. Either run hard the whole way or stay at first and advance the old fashioned way (SB, WP, PB, E on throw over from P). DH'ing every day will not eliminate this. Let him roam CF and and whatever happens, happens.

[Trov]

I do not understand how shifting Buck to DH would fix the issue presented.  He got hurt, to what level it is, while running the bases after hitting.  So if the goal is to keep him in lineup hitting, how does just DH him help this, as it was hitting that led to the issue?  Last year as well, he hurt his hip running the bases, and he was hit by a pitch later on.  

Yes, he has got some injuries in the field over his career, but many has been from hitting and running bases too.  I believe he broke a toe on a foul ball, hurt a hand on a slide once, as noted hurt hip running bases, been hit by pitches.  

If he was routinely getting hurt running into walls or on dives in the field I would say this idea is worth entertaining, but the fact that a lot of his value is in his defense, and there is not evidence to suggest that making him just a hitter would reduce injuries to almost none, then why lose his value in the field? 

[chaderic20]

About the only thing more preposterous than the idea of moving Buxton to DH is the idea that just because someone has 26K Twitter followers means they're a voice that should be listened to.