ewen21

There are three things I can site. These are MY reasons and you may not feel they are valid reasons and that is your right. Everyone would have to remember these three things,, but I will go through it anyway..... The first time I saw Buxton act out was when he was not called up in September of 2018. He stormed off, left Rochester and didn't take calls for a while. When he came Gillette Children's Hospital in December he still harped on it and was saying "I ain't sugarcoating nothing". Oh really? He had a horrible 2018 and didn't do well in Rochester until just before callups when he had a couple of multiple hit games. He'd barely played all year and he hit terribly when he did. THere was a laundry list of ailments he went though and it made no sense to have him play meaningless games in September after a year like that. Who is he to storm off from his teammates in Rochester, go radio silent for a few months and then come back to criticize his bosses at an event at a children's hospital? Many here thought he was mistreated and screwed over, so I am guessing you felt that way as well. Whether he was or wasn't his crybaby routine didn't go over well with me. Not after that horrendous 2018 season which occurred right after I thought he figured it out. He clearly had not. Buxton says lack of September call-up 'didn't go over well'; Twins say he's starter in center field (startribune.com) The we have the batting practice banter from him. Buxton was the one who said: Why make such a proclamation? I do not care that he hits in the cage indoors. Whatever he is doing it isn't working. He cannot seem to settle on any kind of sound and repeatable mechanics. His career lifetime OBP is .298 and he isn't a good hitter major league hitter by any standard and he has to say that? He has horrible hitting mechanics and has for his whole career. Twins' Byron Buxton hasn't taken outdoor batting practice 'in probably two years' (startribune.com) From this article above: He seems to have autonomy to do what he wants. I do not like that for any player who isn't even a lifetime .240 Finally, there was that absurd Twitter exchange he had with fans last year after someone made a joke about him being careful to not get injured at the uniform reveal last winter. He had "rabbit ears" on social media with fans calling them "clowns". THAT is a clown move by a professional athlete. I am not for social media. This is the extent of my "social media" and I think it is a clown move for a pro athlete to engage with and get mad at internet trolls. Whether the trolls are clowns or not, a pro athlete has to be smarter than that. I am guessing you probably do not feel that way, but I do. I have a pretty high profile public job and I do not engage my critics online like he did because it is stupid to me. It achieves nothing and it shows that he might not have the temperament to hold up to the rigors are life in the majors. So, these are three examples where i think work ethic, mindset and commitment to the craft are questionable.

I agree with everything except the great guy part.

If there was something there that you said in the other post that was unreasonable, I didn’t see it. It’s not what people want to hear, but then that’s reality. By the way, anyone who missed the last two games should feel lucky. They looked much the roll over and die version of this team we’d get in NY when Gardy was on the bench. Count your blessings that your Twins addiction is cuffed for this series

I don’t think that statement was meant to be taken literally. It’s more a statement where he is as an offensive player. He is oneon the low end of average offensively. He strikes out a ton and gets on base less than 30 percent of the time. The article was totally warranted, but he has always been this player. He has his hot streaks and these deep chasms where he couldn’t hit water if he fell out of a boat. He’s not “one of the best” and he really never was

I liked this post for its honesty, not for how his career unfolded. He’s vastly overrated. Simple as that.

If you look at his lifetime numbers what is different this year from his past seasonal average? This year is almost the median of what he is at this time of year. We are seeing pretty much the most accurate representation we could have expected. 230something, 3 homers and 15 runs batted in on June 5th? Sounds like the OVER/Under

He doesn’t have to, because he never actually said that.

Not surprisingly, Buxton goes into a tailspin about a week after the 2 home run game in Washington. He’s obviously not working at the craft because he looks horrendous

I live in upstate NY, far out of market, so I’ve not been affected. Those who can’t watch don’t sweat it for the remainder of this week. This team has reverted to “it’s hopeless” mode. I’ve seen this rerun a million times. I’ve taken the two hour trip to the Bronx well over a dozen times in the last twenty plus years and I seem just TWO wins. One those wins was in May 2001. Eric Milton was pitching and Dougie Mint was hitting over .400. Since that game they’ve gone something like 1-13 at Yankee Stadium and it’s beyond pathetic that this team seemingly is in the mindset of simply assuming they can’t win in NY. And don’t give anything about payroll. The Rays do just fine against the Yankees. Cleveland and Detroit beat them in the playoffs multiple times and the Marlins beat the Yankees in the series back in ‘03 I watched the game last night and it reminded me of one of the many playoff games I’ve watched them play in NY. Part of me started to wish I was Riverbrain. I’m so hopeless that I watched that garbage because I can, and I’ll watch tonight and tomorrow. Does that make me better? That’s the question I had for myself when that games wrapped up and I set my alarm for 4AM. For those of you upset about not being able to watch? Be happy you don’t have a choice for the next couple of days. Do something else with that time. Don’t waste a second while I watch them on the YES Network laying down like lambs.

This isn’t hindsight. He was an excellent player for the money. In many ways the dual GMs have done well with FA (when compared to TR), but they made a mistake with him and Polanco. We can quibble about infield defense, but when you have a roster so thin on offense like this one it’s like worrying about a broken finger when quadruple bypass surgery is needed. Building a solid lineup needs to be priority number one next year as far as I am concerned. I like Ryan, Lopez and Ober. Maybe add a FA arm

This team is last in baseball in team batting average. We are also in the bottom five in OBP, SLG and OPS. I think more emphasis needs to be put on that. The main reason isn’t that this lineup is slumping. It’s that these GMs grossly overestimated what we had offensively. There isn’t a single player other than Correa (apart from a 38 year old Santana) with a track record for being a solid offensive player. They should have known that going into the winter and they should have done something about it. infield defense is only an issue if we are looking to make hay in the playoffs. It’s nice to have it, but if your offense is as bad as this one has been then that ought to be the main concern

You said what a lot of people don’t want to hear, but this offense is brutal. I saw someone say it’s early and there are a lot of low batting averages around the league. All I have to say in response is that this team is at the bottom for team batting as of today. Dead last. I don’t see many guys with track records to make me feel optimistic either. Good analysis here by Nick, but we’ve seen this show before. This is a guy with a lifetime battling average under .240 and a lifetime OBP of .300. He doesn’t save nearly enough runs with his glove with an offensive history like that. This is a guy openly admits he doesn’t like batting practice. That would be like an accountant saying he doesn’t like math. With Buxton, I think he has a questionable work ethic when it comes to the offensive part of the game. It’s like he’s learned nothing over the last five or six years. Maybe that’s harsh, but then maybe he needs to start learning how to deal with negative feedback and commit to improving an obvious weakness

What is a successful season for Buxton? I guess it depends on how low you want to set the bar. The fact that threads like this keep getting written and that we have had discussions like this for years says a lot about him. The guy has played in more than 92 games once and he is now 30 years old. In his last six seasons he has had more than 75 hits ONCE. What are we really talking about here? I predict he has about 250 at bats and hits .221 with an OBP under .300. That is what he is.

I’m sorry to have to go there, but enough already.. Besides all the trips to the DL, I’m not sure if he has the temperament for the game. Major League Baseball is a grind and the true pros play it for about 7 months every year. This guy does not even get in half the games his team plays. There is no WHY for that any longer, in my opinion. Availability might be the most important skill and he just doesn’t have it. He’s given us sufficient evidence for me to say that. If anyone wants to “think positive” and dream of a best case scenario go ahead and be my guest. It’s just I am not going to expect something different from him when he hits 30. Could he have another 2017? Yeah. Just as well as he could repeat last year’s performance. The cold reality is we signed him long term so we are stuck for at least two or three more years. if we learned anything Buxton isn’t essential to the Twins having success. It’s best that we just think of 2024 without him in the picture. He’s not a central player in this and that is just kinda sad. it is what it is

I hear you, but we are on the hook with Buxton for five more seasons. The guy is still up on a pedestal for a lot of people and some whom still insist "if not for injuries" he'd be a Hall of Famer. A mere critique of the guy sets off anger in some people and I find that kind of amusing at this point. Where does that anger come from? I have no idea. I for one never saw him as an elite player. I think he is a very spotty offensive player and that is easily more than half of a position player's game, save the catching position. He had elite speed and yet he was not a good base stealer. He strike out a ton and his lifetime OBP is under .300, which is kind of pathetic for someone who is supposed to be "elite". His defense, while great, reached mythically stupid proportions. No, he was not saving boatloads of runs...not ever. He made a lot of good plays look spectacular and there are never more than several plays (maybe) in any season he made that no other center field could make. There aren't large ranges on the field where Byron Buxton or any other centerfielder only makes the play and no other centerfielder does. The average CF makes about 2 put outs a game and Byron Buxton is not the only one who makes great plays. The Twins overvalued his speed and defense and ignored his offense and inability to stand up to the rigors of major league baseball even when it was obvious. We signed him and I thought it was a stupid signing from a baseball standpoint. So many people had drunk the Kool-Aid (including teammates) that we literally had to sign from a PR/marketing standpoint. So much was already bestowed upon him and he didn't deserve it. The Twins need to learn a lesson here. Now the guy can't even play the field and he is exposed for what he is. He never was a good hitter. He had moments where it looked like he was turning into a better hitter, but we had a center fielder that was a whole lot better than he is and that man is Torii Hunter. Give me Torii Hunter ten times out of ten over Buxton and I have said this all along. Buxton is a mirage. He simply is not wired to play a full season of major league baseball. You can chalk it up to whatever you want, but that is a proven fact. If we could hit the eject button and launch him into baseball outer space we ought to. Then again, we are committed to him for another five years so we have no other choice than to hope for the best for at least another two years while he gets paid to remain in limbo while people speculate about his availability. At this point it is hard for me to care much about whether he is in the lineup or not. He doesn't help very much anyway.

No offense, but I had to use my first disagree ever on your post right here. Delmon Young is a playoff hitter and Max Kepler is not. This goes way beyond their performance. The overall vibe and body language of both in playoff situations says to me Delmon is a "playoff hitter" and Max is not. There idea of "there is no clutch" is completely absurd. These are humans and they care about how they perform. Some are like Kepler and go completely catatonic. Others are like Delmon and they wake up and are dialed in. I respectfully disagree 100% with your opening sentence. Outcomes in baseball are not random samples. It takes a heart, a brain and talent. There is a psychology behind it and they psychology of it is a big reason while this organization lost 18 games in a row. It was not because the other team was THAT MUCH better. A good percentage of it was mindset.

I felt the same exact way, sorry to say

All in all a horrendous performance by our offense. You cannot win games if you get six hits in two games at home. Lack of hitting lost this

I do not want to hear about a bad call.

Kepler was 1 for 18 in postseason play going into this season. That counts for something with me. In very big spots he has done NOTHING. Not a single RBI in 37 postseason at bats. You are OK with that? He has been unclutch in the postseason. He can erase it all next time up with something big. I would like to see him do it. HOWEVER, I will not say he has been good in the postseason or even this series. Not in my opinion,

This is why we lose in the playoffs. Year after year, game after game. We have seen so many games like this one where it looks like scoring a run is darn near impossible.

This has been the case in the playoffs forever with this organization. Many of the hitters look catatonic.

To be honest, Kepler was dreadful for a long time and had a nice run for a couple of months. Jeffers and Wallner are not proven commodities and Taylor never was a good hitter. They look REAL bad in a lot of their at bats. but my expectations for these players in bigtime baseball games just was not that high.

Mostly horrible at bats so far in the two games played at Target. I do not want to hear about pitching and defense wins for a long LONG time. Wanna know what loses? Not hitting at all. It was why we lost most of the games we lost during the playoffs losing streak. Terrible at bat after terrible at bat with the exception of Julien and Lewis.

That was the worst take of the game. What was he hoping for? A walk? Kepler tends to go catatonic