Mientkiewicz: Twins developed Buxton in worst fashion possible
Doug Mientkiewicz made headlines last week when he said Alex Rodriguez is going to "die a lonely man" and he's back in the headlines this week for criticizing how the Minnesota Twins developed Byron Buxton.
Mientkiewicz isn't out of his lane because he was a manage in the Twins' minor league system while Buxton was making his way to the big leagues after being the No. 2 overall pick (behind Carlos Correa) in the 2012 MLB Draft.
"It's surprising that Buxton's doing as well as he is because to me, we developed him in the [wrongest] fashion possible," Mientkiewicz said on A.J. Pierzynski's Foul Territory podcast. "Thankfully, he was just good enough to where his talent finally came out. I still don't think that he's put it all together yet, and when he does it's going to be epic."
Pierzynski stopped Mientkiewicz mid-sentence for more information.
"We just moved him up and down so much," he explained.
"The No. 1 thing you always hear in baseball is what? You gotta make adjustments. Well, in Byron's case, yeah you throw him heaters in A-ball he's going to kill you. We all knew the slider was his vudoo, was his kryptonite. For example, I put him in the 3-hole one night in A-ball and they're like, 'You can't do that.' I'm like, 'Why not?' And they're like, 'Well, we want him to hit leadoff.'
"I said, 'What's his No. 1 problem?' Off-speed pitches. You think he's going to get them in the 1-hole? If we put him in the 3-hole and he sees more sliders throughout his career before he gets to the big leagues, he is going to be better in the big leagues because of this. And he's like, 'Well his numbers will suffer now.'
"I'm like, 'No one gives a flying s*** what your A-ball average is 3-4 years from now.'"
Mientkiewicz didn't mention anyone from the Twins front office specifically, but the general manager at the time was Bill Smith, who replaced Terry Ryan and was later replaced by the current regime led by Derek Falvey and Thad Levine.
"Sometimes these guys wrap their head around they want to get minor league numbers, which we all did, but at the same token, the more sliders he sees in the minor leagues, the better off he's going to be and the quicker he's going to make the adjustment at the major league level," said Mientkiewicz.
"I hate to say this, but dealing with some of these people, you're trying to describe the color blue to a blind person. They don't get it. Baseball guys don't need a number to tell us what our eyes already tell us."
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