Is Byron Buxton the Top Prospect in the Twins Organization?

[Turd Furgeson]

Buxton is great, but I don't think it's clear-cut that he's the best prospect in the organization. What Sano's doing in the FSL is insane. He is Babe-Ruthing that league at age 20.

 

Buxton's the best prospect in our system and very close to the best player in all of the minors, if he isn't already. Sano has the 80 power, but Buxton has the louder tools overall and projects to play an up the middle position.

[Turd Furgeson]

Huh?

 

SS> C >CF > 2B > 3B >LF/RF/1b

 

Catcher is ahead of Shortstop, and 3B might be ahead of 2B but otherwise I agree.

[ashbury]

Catcher is ahead of Shortstop, and 3B might be ahead of 2B but otherwise I agree.

 

Bill James was the first I saw to point out that you can construct that ordering of positions based on how low a player's offense can go before he loses his starting job there. Catcher is so different from all the other positions that it's hard to picture it being on any spectrum at all, but in a world where a Drew Butera doesn't get DFAed it says a lot toward putting C all the way to the left. I don't think a manager will put up with as low an OPS from his third baseman as from his second baseman, so I can't go along with you in putting those two close or in opposite order.

[cmb0252]

Parks over at baseball prospectus wrote a poem about Buxton.

 

 

Baseball Prospectus | BP Unfiltered: Buxton-ing (a poem)

[cmathewson]

Bill James was the first I saw to point out that you can construct that ordering of positions based on how low a player's offense can go before he loses his starting job there. Catcher is so different from all the other positions that it's hard to picture it being on any spectrum at all, but in a world where a Drew Butera doesn't get DFAed it says a lot toward putting C all the way to the left. I don't think a manager will put up with as low an OPS from his third baseman as from his second baseman, so I can't go along with you in putting those two close or in opposite order.

 

I'm not that keen on the James calculation because it is mostly based on offensive value. A lot of teams put big guys at first base because it's the only position they can play, especially in the NL. That doesn't mean the position is less important defensively than, say LF.

 

Catcher is the most valuable position despite the fact that the numerical analysis of catching effectiveness is less accurate than any other position. The only other guy on the field who has more to do with preventing runs is the pitcher.

 

That's how I define defensive value; How many outs does the position typically influence? If that's the criterion, I'd rank it this way: P>C>SS>CF>2B>3B>1B>RF/LF

 

Part of that is tied to level of difficulty. 3B is tougher than 1B because of the throw. But part of it is how often a guy touches the ball. I put a higher value on 1B than most because he touches the ball a lot and can either save or cause a lot of errors.

[johnnydakota]

Anything else is asinine.

 

Look who is running the asylem, same guy who kept Drew Butera over Joe Benson...

[amjgt]

On Keith Law's chat today he reiterated the Eric Davis comp after someone asked if he'd like to revise that comp.

 

Law said "if Eric Davis stays health he would have been a HOFer." Now, Eric Davis is a bit before my time (especially since he was NL), so I went to good old Baseball Reference and looked up Davis.

 

Holy Crap.

 

1987 was quite a year (even with 30 games missed).

[Shane Wahl]

At 6 months older, Willie Mays was Willie Mays-ing it (1.300+ OPS) in AAA, not 1.000+ OPS in A. That's a big difference. I'm a Buxton fan but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

 

My post was in response to the "Babe Ruth" comment about Sano. Is Sano as good as Babe Ruth at age 20? Obviously not, but you would rather respond to the Mays-Buxton comment. Gotcha.

[Shane Wahl]

If I had the knowledge to construct a list for all prospects, I bet Buxton and Sano would be separated by no more than 5 spots. So it doesn't really matter, as Seth says.

[drjim]

If I had the knowledge to construct a list for all prospects, I bet Buxton and Sano would be separated by no more than 5 spots. So it doesn't really matter, as Seth says.

 

Law recently did an update with Buxton #2 (behind Taveras of StL) and Sano #6.

[Turd Furgeson]

The spots may be close, but within the rankings of prospects, there are also tiers. Buxton is likely in a different tier than Sano. Trust me, Sano has been one of my favorite prospects for years now. I remember arguing with Kab21 over at a different site about his Miguel Sano-Angel Villalona comp a few years ago. Buxton just has some very loud tools that project to be better than Sano's tools.

[ashbury]

My post was in response to the "Babe Ruth" comment about Sano. Is Sano as good as Babe Ruth at age 20? Obviously not, but you would rather respond to the Mays-Buxton comment. Gotcha.

 

Fair enough. I missed the forest for the trees.

[Thrylos]

Part of that is tied to level of difficulty. 3B is tougher than 1B because of the throw. But part of it is how often a guy touches the ball. I put a higher value on 1B than most because he touches the ball a lot and can either save or cause a lot of errors.

 

The easiest position to play is second base, not corner OF, not 1B, not 3B.