Austin Martin

[thelanges5]

Martin everyday at St Paul in the OF to get him ready for when we need him again. 

[tony&rodney]

3 hours ago, Schmoeman5 said:

So who is that worst outfielder on this current team? 

Line them up and choose for yourself. It isn't a very good group aside from Max Kepler and Byron Buxton. I would take the others in this order: Castro, Martin, Margot Larnach, and Kirilloff.  Martin made some poor plays and I expect him to go back to St. Paul soon, but I'm not sure why folks are acting like he cost us a game or is horrible at baseball. 

[ashbury]

1 hour ago, tony&rodney said:

Line them up and choose for yourself. It isn't a very good group

I started to reply, but decided to post a separate thread instead of doing a possible threadjack here.

https://twinsdaily.com/forums/topic/67054-rate-the-outfielders/

Spoiler alert: I come to the same conclusion you do. Laboriously.  😀

[Greglw3]

11 hours ago, USAFChief said:

Martin has been among the worst outfielders I've seen in 60+ years of Twins baseball. Absolutely awful. He's been directly responsible for multiple runs already and that is tough to do in a few weeks.

And that's on top of a mid-.600s OPS with zero power.

Get him back to St Paul, ASAP.

This Austin Martin? https://x.com/GregAll73910735/status/1788048412631323135

 

[Greglw3]

12 hours ago, stringer bell said:

I think Martin will be headed back to St. Paul after the Yankee series, barring a disabling injury for a current Twins player and I think the demotion is fair, if not deserved.

At the plate, Martin has performed pretty much as expected—good contact skills, little power. The batting average and OBP are low, but for essentially a maiden voyage in the majors, he’s done okay.

Defensively, Martin has divided his time between left and center field, with just a cameo at second base. From what I’ve seen, the results are disappointing and I missed seeing the game last night and the one on Easter Sunday—two games where Martin’s play in the OF was panned.

Teams have taken extra bases on Martin’s arm and he’s made that problem worse by throwing to the wrong base. His route running has been at best adequate.

Austin has good speed and has been able to easily swipe bases, but from my observation that good speed hasn’t converted to great range in the outfield.

Martin has played about twice as many minor league innings in the infield, but it does seem like opportunity with the Twins is in the outfield. If he wants to thrive, he needs to be a much better defensive outfielder and perhaps he will make better decisions with more experience, but it doesn’t make his arm an asset.

So far, Martin looks like a marginal player with minimal upside. Unless his assets (base running, OBP) become elite or he improves his outfield defense significantly, his role in the majors will remain limited (IMHO obviously). 
 

I'm not sure if you saw this Austin Martin play but it made a big impression on me even though he does have some communication issues at times. https://x.com/GregAll73910735/status/1788048412631323135

 

 

[Riverbrian]

Performance issues aside.

Martin has 15 PA's since he was called back up 12 games ago. 

He needs to be in St. Paul immediately. Buxton returning should do the trick.

After that... I'd be hesitant to call him up when the next injury strikes if 15 AB's in over 12 games is all that he is going to see.

 

[tony&rodney]

10 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

Performance issues aside.

Martin has 15 PA's since he was called back up 12 games ago. 

He needs to be in St. Paul immediately. Buxton returning should do the trick.

After that... I'd be hesitant to call him up when the next injury strikes if 15 AB's in over 12 games is all that he is going to see.

 

I thought the same thing. Also made me wonder who makes the playing time decisions. Sometimes players have forces opposed to their usage or so it seems. Nevertheless, Austin Martin and others need to prove they must be in the lineup. Baseball is a brutal profession.

[Riverbrian]

9 minutes ago, tony&rodney said:

I thought the same thing. Also made me wonder who makes the playing time decisions. Sometimes players have forces opposed to their usage or so it seems. Nevertheless, Austin Martin and others need to prove they must be in the lineup. Baseball is a brutal profession.

I wish I could tell you that the team is just performing so well that Austin just can't get work because we are loaded beyond that consideration.  

While we are winning just fine... from an individual player performance standpoint... we have individuals who could yield some playing time. Kirilloff is slumping terribly at the moment, Miranda is just doing barely OK. Santana is playing every day!  

There is opportunity to work Martin in. They are not working him in. Buxton can't get here soon enough. 

The absolute commitment to the left/right split remains the playing time decision maker. Martin is simply on the short side of that thing.  

[USAFChief]

7 minutes ago, Riverbrian said:

I wish I could tell you that the team is just performing so well that Austin just can't get work because we are loaded beyond that consideration.  

While we are winning just fine... from an individual player performance standpoint... we have individuals who could yield some playing time. Kirilloff is slumping terribly at the moment, Miranda is just doing barely OK. Santana is playing every day!  

There is opportunity to work Martin in. They are not working him in. Buxton can't get here soon enough. 

The absolute commitment to the left/right split remains the playing time decision maker. Martin is simply on the short side of that thing.  

Not sure what Santana or Miranda have to do with Martin's playing time.

That said, what has Martin done to deserve more playing time?

[Riverbrian]

4 minutes ago, USAFChief said:

Not sure what Santana or Miranda have to do with Martin's playing time.

That said, what has Martin done to deserve more playing time?

Sentence 1 - Martin could play LF while Kirilloff plays 1B. Martin can play 3B if necessary. 

Sentence 2 - He hasn't really but the larger point is that we have some players on the roster who also don't deserve large amounts of playing time so we need someone who actually deserves it and can push those players who are struggling. If Martin isn't going to be utilized to push players who need pushing... he's a waste of a roster spot.

So send him down yesterday. Buxton can't get here soon enough.   

[KBJ1]

I had high hopes for Martin, but so far he & Kiriloff & Wallner have been hugh disappointments. I still have hopes for the latter two, but Martin seems to have a long way to go in order to make an impact.

Fortunately Lanarch & Miranda have rebounded nicely. Let's hope the others do or some new blood breaks through.

[Jeff K]

On 5/15/2024 at 12:00 PM, FlyingFinn said:

Exactly my reaction. Again, we waste all that time at SS when everyone knew he wasn't going to play there in the future. He gets so little time in the OF that it's almost lucky that he didn't get injured like Royce Lewis. The Twins need to change their philosophy in the minors so athletes like Martin are ready to play well in the majors (it was obvious, that there wasn't an infield opening for him with the Twins the past two years).

Love his hustle but don't like his decisions on throws from the outfield. He really has narrowed his possible roles in MLB to LF and 2B and Utility (not super Utility like Castro). Castro isn't great in CF but he is appropriately ahead of Martin there (what does it say about Margot that Martin is ahead of him in CF!). I believe the 2nd best defensive CF in the Twins organization is Keirsey with the Saints.

I do think I heard on the Twins radio broadcast that Martin's barrel % is the best on the Twins team (someone correct me if I'm wrong). 

I'd like to see Margot exit the team and bring back Wallner.  And I agree that Martin should be sent down when Buxton is back.

[FlyingFinn]

13 hours ago, Greglw3 said:

I'm not sure if you saw this Austin Martin play but it made a big impression on me even though he does have some communication issues at times.

Just on the communication issues, I don't get it with Martin because he played a lot of SS. I was always taught at SS that you go for the pop up until the OF calls you off (if you collided, the OF was always to blame). Whenever we got an inexperienced OF, I would remind him of that because I didn't want to get creamed by him. When I rarely played OF, I would always communicate because I knew from playing SS that it was a key job of mine. 

[RpR]

1 minute ago, Jeff K said:

I'd like to see Margot exit the team and bring back Wallner.

As Bill the Cat used to say: THBTT - ACKth - BLECH...

[USAFChief]

nm

[jorgenswest]

The best OF option on the 40 is Rodriguez. They should have called him up when Buxton went on IL and batted him 9th. If Buxton isn’t ready to play everyday in CF they need to bring him up now and be patient with the bat. They also need to get Lewis ready for the outfield.