Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Get to Know 'em: New Minnesota Twin Alex Presley

Alex Presley, the newest Minnesota Twin, has certainly made a great impression so far.  He was 3-4 in his first game and has been on-base often through his first few games with the Twins.  He also made a great impression on me, as hundreds of people read my Justin Morneau/Alex Presley trade article, thanks to many redirects from his Baseball Reference page.  Many thanks, Alex, I'm sure all those readers will become lifers. 

Of course, first impressions can be deceptive.  We tend to overvalue them and they tend to stick in our memories a little longer than they should.  Who here remembers Clete Thomas' home run in his first game with the Twins last season?  Ron Gardenhire, you may put your hand down now.  With Presley, we only have that first impression to go off of.  Presley wasn't a well-known MLB player or a big-time prospect.  He wasn't famous in any way and he isn't from Minnesota, so we didn't care about him at all. 

Now, he's on our favorite team.  We need intel.  We need to understand who this guy is.  We need to look to those who watched him over the last years and who watched him as he developed into the player that he is today.  We need to solicit the help of Pirates fans everywhere.  And really, where better to look than Twitter for honest and reliable opinions. 

I just searched for "Alex Presley" on Twitter.  I'm not stacking the deck by looking for "Alex Presley sucks" or "Alex Presley rocks" or "Alex Presley lol" or anything like that.  I will cherry-pick the tweets though.  I'm just a man. 

So, here's what I have learned about Alex Presley:

Alex Presley must not walk much.  On Monday, Presley walked twice, which elicited a few surprised responses:


Alex Presley was at least one person's favorite player:

Alex Presley had the 8-year-old vote:

One guy seems to have bad blood with Alex Presley for no apparent reason:

Alex Presley has good speed:

Someone is watching me:

Alex Presley fits a narrative:

Some disliked Alex Presley vehemently:



More seemed to tolerate or even love Alex Presley:








We've learned a lot, but we'll give this guy the last word:

So maybe we didn't learn that much about Alex Presley from the Pirates fans on Twitter.  Odds are, we will form our own opinions over the years (hopefully).  He may be a decent centerfielder who can hold down the fort until Aaron Hicks or Byron Buxton is ready to take over.  Or, he might be a frustrating 4th outfielder who can't hold off Clete Thomas.  Regardless, he is a Twin now and our fan base will be the one sending out the poorly constructed tweets going forward.  I look forward to the ride.
Posted by at
Labels: , ,

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)