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ashbury

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Everything posted by ashbury

  1. ashbury
    There are other forums at TD for discussing the Twins. Please keep baseball out of this serious topic. J/K mostly
  2. ashbury
    When he had his productive season in 2016 he hit 23 solo homers and 18 with someone on base. That's about in line with the major leagues as a whole that season. He had at least one homer in every combination of men-on-base. Whether he has those same skills to offer today is another matter, and he's been a low-average strikeout-prone hitter throughout his career, but there's no particular reason I can see to question his RISPiness.
  3. ashbury
    baseball-reference.com's Play Index feature locates quite a number of qualifying batters with BA lower than Buxton's. Most played in the 19th century, and that's a mixed bag that maybe isn't worth exploring for this purpose. Going back to only 1901, legendary all-glove no-stick catcher Bill Bergen hit .139 in 1909. That was hardly his only putrid season, as he's also second on the list with .159 in 1906. His manager knew what he was getting when he penciled him into the lineup, and kept doing it anyway - altogether Bergen shows up 6 times in the bottom 16 in this dimension. Buxton should be so lucky. Note that Buxton himself doesn't yet have enough PA this year to qualify. Among 2018 batters who do, Dexter Fowler is hitting .155, Baltimore's Chris Davis is at .158, and Lewis Brinson and Kole Calhoun are each at .160. Bad hitters don't usually get enough chances to qualify for a batting title over a full season. So that somewhat skews this way of looking at it, since Buxton is at only 76 PA (when you asked). If you relax the search to allow for players with that many PA since the expansion era, guys like Ron Karkovice (arguably the Bill Bergen of his day, except that teams were by now smarter) show up with a BA of .071 - and Buxton doesn't even crack the bottom 200. So while Buxton's numbers are gag-inducing, at this stage of the season he is hardly alone. Maybe that provides some perspective, maybe it just brings more misery.
  4. ashbury
    Goodrum's glove is not good enough for middle infield duty. Until such time as the team decides Sano isn't their third-baseman, Goodrum doesn't make sense on their 40-man. He had no trade value. So, I don't know what good option there was.
  5. ashbury
    I usually preach against mind-reading, but in this case you read one moderator's mind, at least.
  6. ashbury
  7. ashbury
    From a site moderation standpoint, it would be well for this round of bickering to end here.
  8. ashbury
    All these other teams... have a grand total of 2 hitters in the majors at the moment who are younger than Kiriloff, and 1 additional guy a few days older but still in his age-20 season. And none of these players missed a season due to arm surgery. Next year you say, but still, the narrative that the Twins slow-play their prospects is questionable.
  9. ashbury
    Then that gives us three MI who profile best as starters at 2B, and everyone else who profile as backups (on a contender). Polanco's suspension raises a shadow of doubt for me, depending on how far back his illicit usage went during his development. If he loses just a tad of arm strength, or a smidgen of power in the bat, my amateur scouting opinion of him changes greatly. I agree with never ruling out a SS high in the draft. They are just too valuable and you never know who will pan out and stick at that position. Gordon looks MLB ready, and Lewis has the chance to advance quickly, otherwise MI help is far far away in the low minors. Plenty of talent to follow as fans, but with a long lead-time.
  10. ashbury
    If only there were some way to put something in the article title to clue readers in for what's coming.
  11. ashbury
    Got kids? Been through teen years in particular? I'm in agreement with most of the thoughts expressed here and above if the words "try to" are sprinkled here and there, but there's a limit to how much responsibility I would hold any parent to. My three kids never gave me trouble, but, there but for the grace of God go I.
  12. ashbury
    Allright, I'm arriving late, and I see we must be down 9-0 or something. I'll try for a better game tomorrow. Are we at 100 losses yet? We must be close.
  13. ashbury
    If McCann's not blocking the plate, he's sure impeding progress toward it. I agree it's good to re-think strategies, but this picture suggests to me that Kepler's a larger and (more importantly) higher target to swipe at if he doesn't slide.
  14. ashbury
    Baseball's version of Evel Knievel fails to make it to the upper deck as planned.
  15. ashbury
    Ish and ick, both.
  16. ashbury
    I'd hold off until he's back from his current injury.
  17. ashbury
    I was already wordy enough, but yes part of the delay/conservatism had to be doing every possible bit of due diligence to reduce the odds of a revolting development like this. More due diligence than for a player who had no track record of success at all, for instance. You and I can eat our own shorts, but the actual decision makers might have to pay a higher price than that (hard to believe, but yes).
  18. ashbury
    We need to bring up another left-handed bat pronto, and platoon Kepler with him.
  19. ashbury
    Here's a small additional angle, irrespective of matchups. It's well known that, in the long run, the home team scores more runs than the visitors. It was only recently unearthed that the biggest meaningful differential is accounted for in the first inning. (Innings after the eighth are a different and opposite story, since the home team is done if they achieve a walk-off.) Both teams score more runs in the first than in any other inning, no doubt due to getting to choose who bats. Article is here, for anyone interested. So, for the visiting team, it's an interesting experiment, to try having one of your best one-inning guys give it a go in the first; maybe you can neutralize the home advantage to some degree. If you're the home team, it's also your best opportunity to stunt the opposition's scoring. It will take a long long time, longer than Kevin Cash's tenure probably, to develop enough results to tell.
  20. ashbury
    Good. His fastball's better. / Sorry Phil, the mourning period is over. // Oh, and good pun. "Fill Hughes".
  21. ashbury
    "Say, Eddie, you might want to turn that Sleep Number bed up a couple of notches for better firmness. Also, place it horizontal."
  22. ashbury
    I think this Rosario fellow has a chance of sticking.
  23. ashbury
    The $$ are a sunk cost regardless of their decision. (That's not a new observation of course.) However, a team will want to exhaust all opportunities with players who are out of options, and/or have enough service time to refuse a minor league assignment, before making a move that can't be reversed. That's why young inexpensive talent gets jerked around like they do. Add to that the uncertainty involved in Hughes coming back from another surgery, and a track record of success. These factors all happen to correlate with good salaries, so people tend to point to the salary and not be far wrong in drawing conclusions, but it's still the wrong logic. I guess the only way the salary plays in, is a PR calculation - will it harm marketing? And can they withstand the PR hit if Hughes goes 13-8 next season and starts in game 3 of someone's postseason? A conservative approach to the decision was warranted, but not because of the contract.
  24. ashbury
    I think not enough credit has been offered to the catcher, McCann, who made a very fine play, one that might be considered bread-and-butter at the position but gets bollixed up often enough. Nice throw by JaCoby Jones, as well, unless you are adamant about hitting the cutoff man in every situation.
  25. ashbury
    It's not a bad thing until a second person comes along who also claims to know what goes on between the player's ears but has a different conclusion than yours, and then endless bickering is the likely result, with no hope for a resolution.
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