When the season started, the hype was on top prospect Byron Buxton… he had the center field job won out of spring training and had the tools to be a fantasy asset. Then he started the season going 7-for-49 with not enough counting stats to warrant him being on your fantasy team any longer, so the Bill Heywood-led Twins demoted him to Triple-A. Down there, he worked on his composition, his derogatory comebacks, and sharped the tools in his shed. That resulted in him slashing .336/.403/.603 with 6 homers and 4 steals in 29 games. Now, fast forward to a week ago when he was promoted, everyone could see he was on (or most likely on) waivers, feeling burned by the failures of his previous performance. He has gone 7-for-20 in his second chance at life in Minnesota, reaching base in every game and looking like a completely different player confidence-wise. Because confidence doesn’t come in a bottle, which will kill all the snake oil salesman’s pension funds… but oh well. Byron has made a slight timing adjustment to his swing and it is working wonders, and he’s, from this point on, someone to watch as he brings speed defense and youth vigor to an already “looking forward to next year” Twins team. If he can maintain an OBP of between .320-.330, I think he can have a healthy steal total by the all-star break and be pushing 25-30 for the season. If and buts were soup and nuts, my grandma always said, and it remains to be seen if he can be the asset we all thought, but the prospect status is almost gone from him now and he needs to show it or be buried in fantasy waiver wire purgatory. Let’s see what else was going down on the basepaths this week in the SAGNOF report…
Tyler Naquin – The Byrd man cometh, taketh drugs, suspendeth for year-eth. Does he have Usain Bolt speed? No, but he is a heady player who picks his spots. His high in the minors was 15 in one season. Best thing about him is he has an opportunity for everyday at-bats, and that leads to counting stats in all the columns.
Howie Kendrick – Well, at least he is doing something to contribute. 2 steals in his last 7 games and 4 in last 14 games. His career high is only 14, so lets not go crazy, but for an ever shrinking middle infielder pool, he makes for a decent streamer option or injury replacement.
Tyler Saladino – I almost went back-to-back Tyler’s and made it the all Tyler show all day, all night. At some point, the Jimmy Rollins stealing at-bats thing is going to end and stop affecting his playing time. Unfortunately, it won’t and will prevent Sally to get going. The added 3B and SS eligibility is nice to poke in there for a day or three.
Marwin Gonzalez – He just may be the Greek god of position eligibility and has been getting regular at-bats, or at the very least, gets a pinch hit appearance and a defensive replacement appearance. Regardless of all that, he has a surprising 2 steals in his last 7 games played. For an off day where no one is looking at him, ditch that stream pitcher and get Marwin for the win.
Luke Gregerson – The other white meat in the SAGNOF sandwich blew his 5th save and the fantasy witch hunt for his successor is commencing. Giles has the price tag to be the next guy for a chance, but Harris is the better pitcher. Tough decision for the skipper. My take is that all three guys get a save in the next week making it a triumvirate affair until Gregerson starts pouting again and gets it back.
