This is What a Successful Austin Martin Was Always Going to Look Like

28 minutes ago, Wedman13 said:

Career OPS

Gallo:.775

Arraez: .776

useless comp to the question? Seems pretty comparable to me.  Gallo better defender but to the question asked....I'd take Arraez.

Neither of us are Casey Stengel friend so we can have opinions to questions posed.  If you find someone asking something you find useless, I'd say keep scrolling.  I found it an interesting question.

Career numbers are pretty meaningless on Gallo’s career arc 

1 hour ago, old nurse said:

Career numbers are pretty meaningless on Gallo’s career arc 

Or Wallner's.....?

but done with the apologists who just love the long ball..  I love this article.  Doubt AM's success lasts, but I find a buck, AM, Keaschall 1-2-3 really entertaining.  That's just me, doesn't have to be you.  Brings me back to how great baseball (they have 4 bases for a reason) is played.

3 hours ago, Nshore said:

It's the same reason they have Outman on the team - psychological warfare - luring the opponent into a false sense of security.  And before they know what hit them, the Twins have won the series.

This is so well played nice job! 😁😁

In general, the Twins line-up has been much better with seeing pitches - a breath of fresh air from previous seasons. And Martin looks to be spearheading that approach. 

7 hours ago, arby58 said:

Martin played far more in the outfield than at second base at Vanderbilt. He didn't play 2B at all his freshman year (but played 18 games at 1B, 9 at 3B and 28 in the outfield, as well as 2 at SS and 4 at C). His sophomore year, he was primarily at 3b (51 games) but also 18 at 2B and 4 at 1B. His final year at Vanderbilt, he again didn't play games at 2B and played primarily in the OF. 

In the minors for Toronto, he split time about evenly between SS and OF, with no time at 2B. 

So, it's hard for me to accept the premise that Martin is primarily a 2B and was 'forced' into the OF by the Twins.

Is that what they call bringing the receipts?  That's for the info!

Don't recall which of the games in Toronto, but Buxton, Martin and Keashall led off the game with pressure on the Jays.  Don't recall if that was the game they got three in the first, but loved what this threesome can do.  Or was that game against Detroit?  Anyway, I loved it.

Add me to those who are eager to see Martin begin playing more, especially against right-handed pitchers.  I also am from the camp who want to see Martin playing with the Twins for the next 5+ years.  There aren't a lot of guys on this team I can say that about.

6 hours ago, ashbury said:

Small Sample.  Small Sample.  Small sample.  He's drawing walks right now at a higher rate than Aaron Judge and Juan Soto, who led the majors last year - power has something to do with their success at that.  Martin's  batting average on balls in play is like Aaron Judge's last year.  Without power, these numbers won't be sustainable - pitchers will just start throwing him strikes and take their chances on a more typical non-HoF BABIP, and the overall value will start to normalize.  Two SB and three CS add to the picture of "less value than apparent."

I listed him as one of the bright spots of the early season but you have identified the other shoe that will drop. Teams are soon going to quit walking him and make him swing the bat, that’s when the rubber will hit the road. I think he’s played well in left but not so much elsewhere. He can make things happen on the bases but he also makes plenty of mistakes as well. So I hope he gets a steady run to see if he can get some hits, build on some solid D in LF and clean up his baserunning. Let’s see what we got. 

I am waiting for the mods to choke on carrots for their bashing of the Caratini signing. Talk about rubes running a site SMH. Do they have Alec Jackson huggy dolls? 

It makes no sense to do a retrospective on minor league OBP.  In the minors, OBP is a consequence of relative passivity, almost always, and the pitchers' lack of control.  A guy like Martin might be able to walk because of a "good eye" but the only reason he's walking in MLB, ultimately, is because pitchers are afraid of him.  Or noise in an early sample size.

There's a pitch recognition, it seems, and that does translate, but right now there's little reason for the pitchers to mess around with him.  Throw the ball over the middle and see if he hurts you.  Too lazy to do a AAA statcast analysis of Austin Martin, so I won't.

23 hours ago, jmlease1 said:

what a useless comp. Why not say runner on 3rd in the top of the 9th with 1 out and the Twins ahead by one run, who do you want in RF? Unless you're talking about super-duper stars, you're pretty much always going to be able to find a scenario where one player is "better" than the other. How is this helpful?

Martin's a useful player, as long as he can keep getting on base: avoiding outs is incredibly important to having a good offense. For him to be more impactful, he'll need to be able to apply his speed better on the basepaths and in the OF. He's shown flashes.

I don't have a problem with the Twins looking at adding some power to his approach in the minors. That's what the minors is for: to try and perform player development to maximize their success. It's difficult for players with basically zero power to make it and sustain it; it's why we talk about them like they're unicorns. If you're not a threat to turn on a ball and punish a pitcher for throwing a meatball or hanging a curve, you need to get on base a LOT to compensate for it, and if you're not adding another tool to the bag, then the floor might be ok, but the ceiling is not very high. If they could have added a little more pop to his bat, maybe we're looking at more of a Shannon Stewart type on offense.

There's not a lot of comps for what Martin is doing right now. He's not going to maintain the .500 OBP; even a .400 OBP is elite. 

My hypothetical point was there are times, a guy that will get a single at higher rates has more value than a power guy.  Yes, there are times you will want the power guy over the single hitter, but my point was having all of one type, regardless of type, is not a good way to build a line up.  I was not saying one is always better than the other.  I also agree that there are times you would rather have a better arm in case you need to cut down a run, never said Martin was better than Wallner, just comparing the type of hitters they are. 

In terms of trying to add power in the minors, no fault there of Twins either.  If you can add power but still have good results then great, but clearly it did not help him.  Martin will never be a super star, but having a guy that can get on base a ton is always going to be good for a team.   

Yes it's a small sample, but still, what Martin has done from a plate discipline perspective is pretty crazy. Below is the MLB leaderboard for everyone over 20 PAs. Martin is #1 by far and would be borderline top 5% if his chase rate *doubled*.

Now, some of this is platoon advantage, along with sample size. But still, hard to ignore an outlier like this. 

I'm happy to see Martin performing well so far this season. Keep him in the outfield for sure. I'd still love to see him as a regular starter, but with this logjam in the outfield I guess he will have to take what playing time he can,