Couple of BP Guys talkin' Buxton

[big dog]

I move like a young Willie Mays too. Unfortunately, I move like he did when he was 3 years old.

 

Very cool to read all this about Buxton. It definitely seems like what we would have been like in 1983 if we'd had the internet to check on Gaetti/Herbie/etc instead of the St. Paul Pioneer Press-Dispatch.

[DaveW]

It's certainly not fair to lay that kind of expectation on him.

 

That said... After watching the first Kernels workout on the day they were introduced in CR, a sportswriter friend of mine who has been around much longer than I (didn't think that was possible, but it is) told me pretty much the same thing... that the way Buxton moved reminded him of a young Willie Mays. I just grinned at him because at the time I was already just shaking my head at the expectations he would be as good as Trout was when he was in CR.

 

After watching Buxton for two months, I'll just say the Mays comparison is not as over-the-top as you might think it is. Just sayin'

 

I'm not trying to rain on his parade or anything...but Mays is prob one of the best 3 or so all around players in baseball history, it almost seems like the comp is more lazy then anything else. Trout I think is sorta lazy as well since he is so "recent", I'd like someone to come up with a good floor-mid-likely-ceiling-super ceiling (which is where Mays comes into play) comp list.

[Turd Furgeson]

I'm not trying to rain on his parade or anything...but Mays is prob one of the best 3 or so all around players in baseball history, it almost seems like the comp is more lazy then anything else. Trout I think is sorta lazy as well since he is so "recent", I'd like someone to come up with a good floor-mid-likely-ceiling-super ceiling (which is where Mays comes into play) comp list.

 

Andrew McCutchen is a player he's often compared to. But honestly, who cares about comps? They never really fit very well because every player is unique in some way. That said, the Trout comp isn't very far fetched. At least he'd compare well to the Trout we thought we'd get before he started hitting 30 home runs his rookie year. Buxton has a much stronger arm than Trout, and is probably faster but he doesn't have the power that Trout does now.