Buxton the last month (22 games)

[launchingthrees]

He had a .600 OPS, that's not historically bad, certainly not good but a number of Minnesota Twins players do that each year. Writing a player off because of half a season of poor production in his first taste of major league action. Its been Hick's general modus operandi to struggle a bit in his first year of a league and then adjust and improvement with time. As I mentioned before, Dozier had similar struggles last year. Another example of a guy who struggled significantly in his early career as well and has put together a very fine last couple is Chris Davis, he had negative WAR's(both f and 3/4 of his seasons in the majors. Raw guys with tools sometimes take awhile to put everything together, giving up on them, especially when your team is already bad is extremely foolish.

 

How many players with Hick's production at 23 with 300+ PAs have become good over the past 20 years?

[iastfan112]

How many players with Hick's production at 23 with 300+ PAs have become good over the past 20 years?

 

Guys like Brandon Crawford and Carlos Gomez are other examples of guys who's been pretty lost at the plate and turned it around. Hick's value lies mostly in his defensive ability, he wasn't great in his first taste of the majors in that area either but I'm not going to let a few months of struggle outweigh years and years of universally positive defensive reports.

[Beezer07]

He was one of the worst players in baseball this year. His fielding was bad, and his hitting was historically bad. Players who have a season like he had don't go on to do well.

 

Are you being serious when you say this? A bad 1/2 season = will never be good?

[kab21]

There should be no issue sending buxton to AFL unless he is getting worn down. It certainly doesn't look that way considering the way that he is playing. I don't remember who suggested but the AFL is not for flawed players. It's like a AA all-star league and the Twins usually have to send flawed players because they don't have much for talent in the upper minors.

 

Hicks had a historically bad month and followed by 3 decent months although there are some big concerns in the plate discipline area. He will be option A for CF next year with Mastro as a backup and Buxton probably being a midseason callup.

[glunn]

 

1) "Buxton isn't Hicks". This needs to be drilled and re-drilled into Twins fans' and Twins managements' heads. Buxton has at least twice the work ethic as Hicks- there's absolutely no sense of "entitlement" around him- a usually inevitable character trait of most ultra-talented people, at least 3X the talent of Hicks, 5X the internal drive to succeed and looks to be at least 10X faster at adjusting to new challenges and circumstances.

 

 

This comment about Buxton having "5X the internal drive to succeed" is unsupportable and inflammatory. Understandably, some people called you out on this then you got defensive and the thread got sidetracked.

 

Let's all try to be more careful not to make comments that are unsupportable and inflammatory. And if such comments are made, then please report the offending post by clicking on the triangular icon with the exclamation point in the middle. If this post had been reported, I would have deleted it.

 

This could have been a much more fun and interesting thread if not for the hijacking. There are lots of interesting things to say about Buxton without casting unfounded aspersions about Hicks.

[AlwaysinModeration]

To update this thread, Buxton has now hit over .400 through 24 August games, with an OPS over 1.000, despite not hitting any homers this month. His K/BB is 11/13 on the month. He's also been moved down to batting third in the lineup.

 

To defend jokin a bit, I think there is truth to the point that there are athletes who have natural talent who don't have the continual drive to always improve because everything has always come easy to them. Players who are fast moving prospects in the minors have been the best hitters and pitchers on their teams for years (as well as likely the best football players, soccer players, and golfers).

 

But I think attributing that to Hicks is extremely hard to do, though, and I'd stay away from it with a ten-foot pole.

 

I hope Hicks is the Twins CF next year until Buxton arrives in late 2014 or 2015, and then slides over to LF and puts up Carl Crawford-like defensive performances in a corner OF spot for years...with more HRs and higher OBP than Crawford, albeit lower average.

[Shane Wahl]

Buxton should not be in the AFL. What's the point of that? The AFL isn't a place for prospects like that since Buxton has nothing to prove. James Beresford? Something to prove. Matt Hauser? Something to prove.

[Shane Wahl]

My apologies . . . I consistently forget that Beresford is an Aussie and will play winter ball there. I wish there was a way to get around that.

 

Anyway, there is little justification for doing anything with Buxton besides starting him next year at New Britain.

[kab21]

Buxton should not be in the AFL. What's the point of that? The AFL isn't a place for prospects like that since Buxton has nothing to prove. James Beresford? Something to prove. Matt Hauser? Something to prove.

 

I don't think you really understand the AFL. It's full of top prospects.

[Bob Sacamento]

Here's a view from an outsider. I'm a Cubs fan but live in Ft. Myers and have had season tickets for the Miracle this year. Buxton is the real deal, there is no Twins hype, he is honestly one of the best prospects I've ever seen. Not only is he a legit 5 tool player but he's extremely refined and polished on the field especially when you consider his age. But off the field, he is usually the first player to the facility and one of the last ones to leave; his work ethic is off the charts plus he's very humble and approachable. Buxton is a once in a lifetime talent, you guys should all chip in and send Houston a card for not drafting him first overall!

 

As for sending him to the AFL, he's already logged a whole season, did plenty of work in Instructionals and has the FSL playoffs ahead.

[ashbury]

I'm a Cubs fan but live in Ft. Myers and have had season tickets for the Miracle this year.

 

Please keep the FSL reports coming. Well, the season's almost over, but you know what I mean.

[iastfan112]

Buxton should not be in the AFL. What's the point of that? The AFL isn't a place for prospects like that since Buxton has nothing to prove. James Beresford? Something to prove. Matt Hauser? Something to prove.

 

Stasburg, Harper, Trout, Stanton, and Heyward(among others) all passed through the AFL all in positions, in the prospect rankings, as Buxton is now. I could see the justification behind not sending him but to say that prospects with nothing to prove(I would argue all prospects have something to prove) don't go there is demonstrably false. It's a great place to send him because so much talent goes down there, most the pitchers Buxton sees at Fort Myers won't make the majors, a significantly higher proportion in the AFL will.