With the recent release of the MLB Futures game roster, it came to no ones surprise that Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton were on that list. Sano who was making a mockery of high-A ball and is now starting to catch fire in Double A. And Buxton who was also destroying low A ball in Cedar Rapids now finds himself in high-A and has yet to make a strong impact there (having only played 4 games there).

Now lets say you just became a hugely dedicated Twins fan and had no idea when or who the Twins had drafted last season. And because you just became this hugely dedicated Twins you wanted to know who the Twins drafted last year and how they were doing. When you find that they drafted a kid named Buxton out of high school you now want to know what his stats are for this year. When you find these stats you are happy to learn that he hit .341, 55 RBIs, and 8 Home Runs, in Low-A ball. Later learning that he is now in High-A ball. But if you were to focus only on Buxton's Low-A stats alone, he looked pretty amazing and Major league ready. Even though it is highly unlikely he is Major League ready and will most certainly not be called up this year. Which if you do look only at his Low-A numbers you would be thinking that he was a former first round pick. This is where you would be wrong, only to be some what surprised that he was the second over all pick in the 2012 draft. So then you have to thinking to yourself that "if he was taken 2ed overall, then the 1st overall pick must way better then Buxton.....right?" This is where you would be wrong again.

Carlos Correa, who was taken one spot ahead of Byron Buxton, went to the Houston Astros in last years First year player draft. To most people this was a surprise pick, thinking the Astros would go a different route with the 1st overall pick. But by choosing Correa over Buxton, Appel and Zuino they ended up saving millions of dollars that they would use on later picks in the draft. A "Quantity over Quality" type of drafting.

Anyway going back to the Futures game roster, When I finally took a second to examine it, I noticed that Carlos Correa isn't on that roster, yet Bryon Buxton is. I then went and looked up Correa's numbers and what level he has currently been playing at. To my surprise he is still at Low-A ball. Where he is hitting .324 with 47 RBIs and 5 Home Runs through 64 games with the Quad Cities River Bandits. His numbers really aren't that bad, but being a former first overall pick you would expect better and maybe even being at a higher level then Low-A ball.

Now I want you to put those numbers of Correa's minor league career and compare them with a certain Byron Buxton who has a .341 AVG, with 55 RBIs, and 8 Home Runs. The simplicity of it is that Buxton is much better in all there of those categories. Which ranks him as the 10th best prospect in all of baseball, according to baseballamerica.com. While ranking Correa as the 13th best prospect in all of baseball. With that said it is almost certain these rankings will change by the end of the season.

In a recent article from Baseball America, about Buxton, they interviewed Major League scouts on what many on are calling the next Mike Trout. “I was expecting to see a raw tools guy who flashes brilliance. That’s what a normal 19-year-old from a small town does in the Midwest League. That’s not him,” an NL scout said. In fact In this article there was a lot of high praise going around for Mr.Buxton, “I am positive he’s the best prospect I’ve seen in (more than a decade) of full-time scouting,” a pro scout for a National League club said. “It’s not even close. Tools, athleticism, feel and vision. Time will tell what kind of major league player he becomes, but the sky is the limit.” Even though many scouts and executives agree that Buxton is worthy of that first overall pick, some felt differently, saying “Especially because you might be getting another stud premium position player in Correa, who is still a little bit younger than Buxton. If this deal was on the table, I honestly don’t know who would say no first. Any way you slice it, the fact that we’re talking about trading three guys, one of whom went 1-1 last year, for a 19-year old in low-A ball is pretty insane.”

In conclusion it would seem quite logical to take Buxton 1st overall, instead of taking three 2nd round players at best. Because with the skills and tools that Buxton has, he shows that he can be the difference in a game and a possible future MVP.

*All quotes, that are italicizes, are from BaseballAmerica.com. From a article called "Deja Vu?: Byron Buxton Stirs Echoes Of Mike Trout In Cedar Rapids" by J.J Cooper. You can view the article by clicking here http://www.baseballamerica.com/minors/deja-vu-byron-buxton-stirs-echoes-of-mike-trout-in-cedar-rapids/