ewen21

I’ll call him soft and it is because I have been paying attention. This guy has played more than 92 games once and continues to have ailments such as this one. Everyone is hurting this time of year. The stronger-minded players play. Give me Torii or Jacque over Buxton.

730754/2024/08/28/twins-byron-buxton-rehab-update/?source=user_shared_article he’s talking about building intensity of workout I read the article. Where do you think I got the quote from?

I was not in favor of either signing, but I did not argue against Correa. I did argue against Buxton. I think he is a waste of time on several different levels and I do not think he has right mindset for major league baseball. I could go into detail, but then I might be accused of attacking his character or something. What he's doing right now is completely ridiculous.

He brings it on himself. How is he “trying to find the intensity” right now? Shouldn’t he have it healthy or not? If intensity is what he needs to get on the field then be a pro a find it.

I question Buxton’s current situation. He was put on the 10 day DL with a sore hip and got off it over a week ago. He’s not started rehab yet. In his most recent interview he spoke about “finding the intensity” which he just doesn’t have right now. He’s talking one day at time. I was expecting him in that Atlanta series. What exactly is that? It’s not the Twins mishandling him. It’s him not being a ballplayer. He could easily overrule any orders by simply working out, getting in reps and saying “I’m good to go” which what he needs to do. Guys all over the league are playing through whatever he has. I recall Shannon Stewart soldiering on when his heels were shot. Brad Radke pitched through the ‘06 playoffs with a torn labrum. Torii Hunter (who never comes around anymore). He’s going to go for month with the “sore hip” during the pennant run? It’s dubious to me knowing the extensive history. When is enough, enough? A player like this ruins accountability for all of its not dealt with. When is he going to “find the intensity”? Sheesh. It’s Labor Day and we are fighting for our playoff lives. What a teammate

Buxton said this the other day: "I've been out here and been going through the stuff, but the intensity for me is not there”, Buxton said. "You just have to find that intensity to push it but not overdo it. That's where the one day at a time comes in.“ I’m sorry, but he’s part of the problem, not part of the solution. If he needs to “find that intensity” during the playoff stretch then there is a HUGE PROBLEM. It’s an even bigger problem that it is viewed as normal and no one seems to be bothered by his lackluster attitude. He’s got a sore hip. Cry me a river. I’m certain there are guys all over the league playing through worse

Julien is not better than Todd Walker by any standard.

I agree. My main beef is when will this organization produce starting pitching? We have kids in the pipeline now, but I will not believe it until I see it. The main issue this team has had for years is its inability to draft and develop starting pitching. Mid and lower level payroll teams need to do this to be a contender with a reasonable shot to make noise in the playoffs. Johan and Liriano were not even drafted by us. You need to go back to Matt Garza to find a starting pitcher we raised that had success at the ML level and it goes back well before that. It’s extremely frustrating. And for all Rocco’s real faults and perceived faults I am past tired of people acting as though it’s his fault. Our lineup is not all that great, we don’t have a lot of depth and our pitching is mostly unproven. There’s some talent, but this is no playoff team. One only needs to look at our record against above .500 clubs. We’ve done well against KC but there than that we’ve been very bad

I wouldn’t say so. Lewis was a finished product offensively when he came into the league. Buxton is nowhere near the offensive player Lewis is and Lewis is five and a half years younger. I’m much more OK with the shiny happy talk about Lewis than I am Buxton. Buxton to me has had a disappointing career and he’s been constantly praised all the way though

Amen. There seems to be two camps with Buxton: 1) The camp that wants him to be great so bad they’ll do anything to reinforce the claim. 2) Those who just look at the numbers and the history and take it for what it is. it’s refreshing to see people who reside in the second camp. We don’t benefit spinning his achievements (or lack of them). He’s done this kind of thing his entire career and as we watch his tenth season unfold before our eyes there are certain facts I must confront the “optimist” with at this point: 1) His lifetime OBP is .300 2) His lifetime average is 241 3) He’s compiled more than 76 hits once in a season 4) He’s yet to score 70 runs in a season. 5) He’s never driven in more than 51 runs in a season These are all facts and yet the National media, local media and the blogosphere continues to put this guy on a lofty perch based on speculation and tools. That’s it. I am just about old enough to remember Dragnet. Just the facts. The facts and his history tells me to be careful making bold statements about this guy when he’s going through a hot patch. He’s facing some of the softest pitching in baseball right now and he was having a dreadful season all the way up until a few weeks ago. Have we learned nothing? Sorry, but I’m not buying it and as far as the contact goes whatever. It’s incentive laden for a reason. See 1-5 above. Talk to me in the middle of August and let’s see where he’s at

Cooperstown is great, but very touristy. I would recommend Oneonta, which is an easy half hour country drive to Cooperstown. Bring golf clubs and a desire to drink! Me? I can make a day trip to Cooperstown, Not sure if I am doing it though

The Bomba Squad might have been the worst thing to happen to him in hindsight. What we going to do, though? Max, don’t hit home runs? I am STILL expecting 20-75-.270 from him this year. It’s within reach

Fair enough, although I must say Kepler’s career statistics are not great and he had three down years in his late 20s when he should have been prime. I also think Buxton never really developed offensively. Ok, that’s all for me. Thanks for engaging

You have the correct perspective. I just am tired of us not being able to draft and develop starting pitchers. We have done a BRUTAL job there. We’ve also had a number of promising young players never quite develop. Sano? Buxton? To a lesser extent Kepler and Polanco. Five or six years people here would have projected them to pan out nicely. The bottom line for me is we need to have cost controlled starting pitching. That means you draft and raise pitching and we are among the worst at for the last two decades

I’m wary of FanGraphs. It’s useful in a lot of ways but there is a lot of fatuous gobbledygook there as well. I often seen an excess or misuse of Analytics. The article went on and on about some TV program called “One Tree One Hill” and it seemed like an excuse for the author to write about that for third of the article. What is the point of such a diversion? Onto the substantive part of the article: “The Twins own a high hit rate led by Royce Lewis, Mitch Garver, Edouard Julien, Ryan Jeffers, Luis Arraez, Nick Gordon, and Jake Cave,” Do we really have a “high hit rate”? This list isn’t as good as it looks, in my opinion. Lewis has barely played but he’s been a shot in the arm since he’s returned. Still…..he’s not doing us any good injured and there are valid concerns. Who knows if he plays 50 games? Given is track record am I wrong? Garver is hitting .173 in Seattle and he’s 33. Julien has been struggling all year. We literally have no idea which way he’s going as of now. Nice rookie year, but he’s a struggling player. Jeffers has given us the best production on the list and he’s done it from catcher. Arraez turned into Lopez and Lopez has 1.21 WHIP and .553 ERA. Not the kind of value you’d want for a hitter like Arraez. Nick Gordon? Jake Cave? Both are over 30 and barely in the league. What actual contribution did these players make this year? Forget the article. As of right now I don’t see a home grown product having a good offensive year on this ball club. Lewis could put up decent numbers but the rest of the home grown talent has a lot of work to do. This is to say nothing of the starting pitchers we have drafted over the last 25 years. I used to care about what the national media said, but I no longer do.

What are playing for if not to win big games in October? With the way the league built and with how many spots teams get in the postseason any team who can get hit can win it all, but why am I not buying into for THIS team? The teams above are teams we likely have to get past and thus far we’ve rolled over for them. Patterns are sometimes hard to fathom but you’d need to be a blind homer to not acknowledge a pattern when you consider the (over) two decade history of extreme futility in the playoffs (and against the Yankees). Not sure how anything about could be labeled “misinformation”

His slash numbers for last year: .231/.312/.399 He started this year hitting just OK and he was outspoken about the team not hitting the first months. To his credit, he started with himself. NO ONE needs to feel bad about criticizing Correa in the recent past. How about let’s just be happy with his recent performance and hope he has a career year?

Buxton will not evolve past what he is, and what he is can be found at baseball-reference. He is a .238 hitter who played more than 92 games once and his lifetime OBP is .298. The expectations should not exceed what’s he’s done historically. If one looks at his history one must surmise he is on the lower end of average as an offensive player. I don’t see greatness

To be fair, at 58 years of age with 50 years of watching baseball behind me, I’m now a skeptic when it comes to prospects, projections and rating systems for prospects. I don’t think Kiriloff is as good a player as the Twins hoped. I was optimistic last year but the current developments have me feeling skeptical. This is a crucial point in his career. He’s almost 27

Was there anything I said about the particular players I mentioned that was wrong? Start with the first four, all of whom wouldn’t apply to right now. With Julien, Wallner, and Kiriloff I suppose we will see but for right now they’ve regressed. Would you not agree with that?

Did you write the article? Otherwise I’m not interested

Liked for honesty. There is a problem with how players “ascend” through the pipeline in our system and there has been a tendency for anyplace talking Twins to talk up prospects. Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Polanco are recent examples of players who never really got to where the Twins and many prognosticators thought they’d be. A lot of people expected those guys to be part of a strong homegrown core by now. I never saw it because I don’t have a crystal ball and I don’t keep my fandom on default optimism. We now see players like Julien, Wallner and Kiriloff fall off or regressing this year. I know it happens but it seems to be happening a lot with this team. I do not believe Kiriloff will be an everyday player unless he starts turning it around fast. He doesn’t have speed, his power is suddenly off, he doesn’t hit for average, doesn’t get on base, isn’t a particularly good fielder. I think you’re right, bean

PM me if you’re serious about being constructive.

You aren’t understanding what I was getting at.

This isn’t hindsight. I felt the same way ESPECIALLY after his tantrum at the end of 2018 when he wasn’t a September call up. He hit .156 and had a variety of ailments that kept him out of the lineup. In Rochester he was hitting around .230/.240 until he had a couple of multi hit games just before September call ups. I think his reaction was unacceptable and at the point we should have known better than to give him that incentive loaded contract.