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Otto von Ballpark

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Everything posted by Otto von Ballpark

  1. Otto von Ballpark
    I am getting lost here. I am not saying those things. What I am saying is that, Buxton's struggles right now are pretty big for a top prospect. This doesn't look like the usual adjustment period for top prospects, of which Trout is a good example. He's still young and could benefit from some more experience, but it's not like he's THAT raw -- 22 years old, 4 pro seasons, 1200+ pro PA. Barring a sudden turnaround, I think it's fair to downgrade his future projection to something closer to solid or even average MLB regular, rather than future star like McCutchen. Not that it's impossible for him to achieve that level, of course, but I'm having a hard time projecting it for him, especially in any near-future term. The idea that he will be McCutchen level by September, as posited by gunnarthor on this thread, seems especially optimistic. (And to be fair, the original poster's invocation of the word "flop" was equally pessimistic, although the content of his post clarified he was using a much stricter threshold for invoking that term.)
  2. Otto von Ballpark
    My point isn't buried in the stats. It doesn't take any stats at all to see that Buxton is pretty over-matched in MLB right now. The numbers just help quantify it. Find me a prospect that had a career start like Buxton's, but quickly reversed course to achieve McCutchen performance levels. It's not easy to find. I hope the numbers have shown you Trout doesn't fit that mold (he wasn't great in his first MLB season, but he was nowhere near present Buxton level at the plate).
  3. Otto von Ballpark
    Sorry, age and experience compared to Trout is what I meant. I just invoked McCutchen as a "Trout lite" upside as was referenced by other posters. Although McCutchen came up and held his own right away at age 22, same as Buxton is right now. And with the degree of Buxton's MLB struggles thus far, I don't know if it is prudent to write them all off as a temporary result of past injuries.
  4. Otto von Ballpark
    Look at the numbers again. Trout had good power, reasonable K and BB rates, bad BABIP luck, overall near league average bat in 2011. Buxton is nowhere close to that. In fact, here is Trout's 2011 season broken down a little further: July, 47 PA: 6.4 BB%, 21.3 K%, .116 ISO, .182 BABIP, 34 wRC+ Sent back down to AA for a few more weeks and had his 20th birthday in August. August/September, 88 PA: 6.8 BB%, 22.7 K%, .200 ISO, .286 BABIP, 115 wRC+ Trout did kind of a classic progression: initially struggle but some decent rate stats and bad BABIP luck , sent back down briefly, came back much better right away. A pretty quick adaptation to league-average or better bat. I think we can all agree that Buxton hasn't done any of that yet, right? I didn't think that was a controversial point.
  5. Otto von Ballpark
    Put another way, the degree of Trout's breakout was unexpected, even given his top prospect status and holding his own around his 20th birthday before playing a single game in AAA (or even the AFL). I think it's fair to say that a McCutcheon level breakout in the near future for Buxton would be equally unexpected, given that he's a bit more advanced in age and experience and he's not particularly close to even holding his own in MLB yet. Not impossible, of course, but it would have to be a pretty optimistic forecast.
  6. Otto von Ballpark
    The poster obviously compared them in relative terms -- Trout was a top prospect who scuffled in his first taste of MLB. I think my response was perfectly appropriate -- read the last sentence again. It's all relative.
  7. Otto von Ballpark
    Trout 2011: 6.7 BB%, 22.2 K%, .171 ISO, .247 BABIP, 87 wRC+ Buxton, MLB career to date: 3.7 BB%, 34.8 K%, .111 ISO, .309 BABIP, 49 wRC+ There are degrees of struggling to adapt to MLB play, and Buxton's seems particularly severe for a top prospect.
  8. Otto von Ballpark
    Not far behind:
  9. Otto von Ballpark
    Actually, while he used the word "flop" in the thread title, the original poster said he expects Buxton to be "around league average at the plate but stellar in the field". That's about what you describe, and I think that might be a fair forecast for him right now. To those that say he will be far better than that with a little work, it looks like he will need that work just to get to average. Still possible, but probably not quite what most forecasters had in mind when they made him a perennial top prospect. So I think it's fair to downgrade the forecast, no?
  10. Otto von Ballpark
    You just did.
  11. Otto von Ballpark
    1983 Astros, interesting. Looking at B-Ref, it appears Nolan Ryan was injured, didn't appear until game 12 of that season. Might have been a factor?
  12. Otto von Ballpark
    Do you have any appropriate musical selections from Gordon Lightfoot, Anne Murray, Bryan Adams, Alanis Morissette, Justin Bieber, etc.?
  13. Otto von Ballpark
    Thanks, yeah, I've done the VPN thing, as well as other tricks. Smart DNS actually worked pretty slick, and I didn't have to worry about the service's speed like you do with a VPN. But ultimately I don't bother circumventing the blackouts, I can rarely sit and watch a live game anyway. Just curious why the audio overlay feature wasn't working for me (or other posters).
  14. Otto von Ballpark
    I don't think region would matter. I'm blacked out for the Twins on MLB.TV so I just clicked around to some other games, but did not see the audio overlays working anywhere. Windows 7 and Mac 10.9, but again I wouldn't think that mattered as I was using the latest Chrome....
  15. Otto von Ballpark
    Out of curiosity, what operating system and browser do you use? I just tried a bunch of different ones on Windows and Mac and couldn't get that option to display.
  16. Otto von Ballpark
    Sling is including regional Fox Sports networks, including Fox Sports North, in their new "beta multi-stream" service for $20 per month -- probably the cheapest way to get in-market Twins broadcasts now: http://blog.sling.com/announcements/sling-tvs-beta-multi-stream-service-brings-fox-broadcast-hit-shows-and-local-sports-with-three-streams-1/ Sony's Vue service also allegedly has Fox Sports North, but only in their "Core Slim" package for $35 per month: https://www.playstation.com/en-us/network/vue/ I haven't tried either, but I thought I'd share.
  17. Otto von Ballpark
    Sadly, if I want to watch the game, I have to listen to Hawk Harrelson, which is the ultimate poisoning of senses.
  18. Otto von Ballpark
    Good questions. It's weird all around.
  19. Otto von Ballpark
    If your cable/satellite provider supports it, you can stream MLB Network (including its live games) online: http://m.mlb.com/network/live
  20. Otto von Ballpark
    Today's game isn't on FSN, but it is being shown (streamed) on MLB Network for me in Minneapolis. MLB.TV should really lift the blackout rules for such games, but apparently not (maybe the regional MLB Network broadcast counts as "national").
  21. Otto von Ballpark
    Maybe they should sign Murphy to be an assistant GM, to light a fire under TR's ass?
  22. Otto von Ballpark
    I think they see Mauer hitting well, and want him back in the #3 spot. Who occupies the #2 spot is of less concern to them, although it appears they have defaulted to Rosario (and previously Santana) based on speed and.... bunting ability? Sadly not OBP.
  23. Otto von Ballpark
    Ervin was born Johan, and apparently used the name into his pro career (but ditched it before reaching the majors): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ervin_Santana
  24. Otto von Ballpark
    You may lead in some polls, but you still trail after considering superdelegates.
  25. Otto von Ballpark
    I wouldn't say "fully capable", but as capable as Arcia, in any case.
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