Article: Buxton Stalls Out, Again

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

A small bone to pick regarding Buxton having "clobbered" it or "tore it up" (as some have written) in AAA. Like there's nothing left there for him to learn ...

 

Buxton has a total of 188 plate appearances at AAA.

 

It is not beyond reason that he spend substantial time there, including all of next year (and the year after that, if need be) because right now he is an A+ defender and an F+ hitter.

 

I cannot emphasize the bolded statement enough. Add to it that he has a grand total of 237 plate appearances in AA. You're talking about a guy that doesn't even have a full season of PAs in the high minors. We need to get beyond the 'he tore it up in AAA.'  Yeah, he's done well there in short samples, but that is a far cry from being ready to hit major league pitching.

 

The real question is what does the team do with him next season. Do they bring in a 1 year stop gap and start him in AAA?  They should have done that this season.

[magiklair]

It's unfortunate.. I hate that we have still Plouffe & Suzuki on the roster. They should both be gone, even if it was for lesser prospects. As I'd like to see Polanco & Centeno or Murphy get the at-bats instead..

Edited August 8, 2016 by magiklair

[dgwills]

Talent will only take you so far. For Buxton it's triple A. He needs to go down and learn how to become a professional hitter. Many of us didn't want to see him start the year in MLB or be called back up due to injuries. Getting dominated by MLB pitchers has not helped his development.

 Buxton is a hard worker and he will get it. The guy just needs time. Too bad it wasn't done this year, but we can't fire Ryan twice. We need to have patience. If that means Buxton isn't back up in the majors until next June then so be it.

[Otto von Ballpark]

I suspect it also could have something to do with his health, particularly his knees. He was hurt 7/6 running into the wall. He was hurt 7/1 running into the wall. He was hurt 7/8 (and carted off the field) running into the wall. He was hurt 7/31 when he tweaked his knee on the basepaths (and if I recall, he had run into the wall a few days before). Hopefully he'll get back a little confidence, work on some mechanics and get healthy. We'll see him in September and hope that next step comes. FWIW, I'm still not concerned.

How can this description not concern you, if only for the injuries? Can this guy even stay healthy long enough to fully implement the massive adjustments he still obviously needs to make?

[Platoon]

There should be no pressure on him up here. There is no pennant race.

 

But there is a race to sell tickets! .

[DJP]

Is everyone who's commenting on/being the author of this article for real right now?  You even gave us the stat that he has had 350 MLB plate appearances...that's equivalent to 85 games, HALF A SEASON!! Get a freaking grip people. There's no way any player should be expected, highly touted or not, to be the next Ken Griffey Jr. after one half a full season at the top level. Give him a full year, hell give him 2 or 3 full seasons, before you write this kid off as done.

[SarasotaBill]

Buxton should have been in AAA for the past month but Ryan brought him up to get some wins with his defense.

 

2016 is all about development and Buston is and has been lost at the plate. He needs to be in AAA to relax, gain some confidence, and work on his hitting and bunting.

 

Twins fans need to have patience. 

[Franz]

I've never thought that Buxton's swing looked "long" in a classic sense. Bruno himself had a long swing. Buxton's reminds me of Puckett's...quick and wristy, with the bat spending little time in the hitting zone. I'd love to hear someone with swing expertise comment on the technical aspects. My decidedly amateurish take is that pitch recognition and "guessing" are Buxton's biggest hurdles...and he can work on both of these in either the high minors or the majors. Is fall league a possibility for him?

 

Regarding knee problems...it seems to me that two MRIs in a month would be a perfect excuse to put him on the 15-day and let him work out any mechanical issues (if the team sees that as the issue), especially considering the Twins' recent history with diagnosing injuries.

[hybridbear]

Hopefully the Twins coaches have given him some clear things to focus on while in the minors. I'd like to see him focus on pitch recognition. Two potential goals to help him do this are:

• get down a bunt in every game
• try to go an entire game without striking out, then see how many games in a row he can go without a strikeout

[JaleelWhite FanClub]

I was dreading Plouffe's return. This team's been clicking without him. I'm hoping the "no scholarship" mentality continues and he isn't just automatically plugged back in and Polanco is benched.

 

That said, someone had to go down and Buxton was the obvious choice. I'd rather see him rake in AAA against lesser competition then flail away as the worst hitter in baseball with the Twins. To me, there's something to be said about confidence growing from just seeing results.

[HitInAPinch]

A bunt is a simple thing: 

 

1.  Ritual sacrifice of one's self to the advancement of another

 

2.  A well placed, short range volley into enemy territory to stage an assault  into  said enemy territory.

 

3.  Used as an offensive maneuver to draw in said enemy to block perceived offensive maneuver, with the intention of executing a longer range assault into said enemy defenses of said territory.

 

If there's anything that Buxton really needs to learn at the MiLB level, is what a freaking WARNING TRACK is!! 

 

Oh, yeah, and the said longer range assault thingy.     

[Platoon]

I too have dreaded the return of the Plouffe! Not so much because of Plouffe the player, but of Plouffe the position. His injury did stymy whatever chance there was of trading him, but the fact remains this team is no closer now than it was on April 1st over what to do about our plethora of DH/corner guys!

[mikelink45]

I would love to have Torii Hunter hired to work with him.  I would like to see the staff start to reflect the make up of the team.  Coaching is more than changing pitchers, it is helping players get better.  The pitching coach has no stars on his grade sheet and Brunansky says the right things, but it does not seem like the players are listening and doing what he wants.  Keith Law wrote Buxton should be with another organization - that is a real condemnation.  I went back to read the March ESPN article about Buxton - read the quote by Brunansky - http://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/15053055/why-byron-buxton-next-big-thing-minnesota-twins-baseball 

 

Something is not clicking, but I am not qualified to say what.  However, there should be someone who is and, if so, that person should be on the staff instead of a Bench Coach.

[laloesch]

 

A small bone to pick regarding Buxton having "clobbered" it or "tore it up" (as some have written) in AAA. Like there's nothing left there for him to learn ...

 

Buxton has a total of 188 plate appearances at AAA.

 

It is not beyond reason that he spend substantial time there, including all of next year (and the year after that, if need be) because right now he is an A+ defender and an F+ hitter.

 

Yep, couldn't have summed it up better myself.  There's no shame for him to spend more time in AAA.  I mean he's only 22 years old.  Give him another full year in AAA and just let him mature and grow.

[Blackjack]

 

I suspect it also could have something to do with his health, particularly his knees. He was hurt 7/6 running into the wall. He was hurt 7/1 running into the wall. He was hurt 7/8 (and carted off the field) running into the wall. He was hurt 7/31 when he tweaked his knee on the basepaths (and if I recall, he had run into the wall a few days before). Hopefully he'll get back a little confidence, work on some mechanics and get healthy. We'll see him in September and hope that next step comes. FWIW, I'm still not concerned. 

Maybe he needs to learn to stop running into walls.  Seriously. There is a difference between playing hard and playing smart.

[Blackjack]

 

I think he needs to practice running into walls in Rochester. Maybe he can play pepper bunt against the wall and practice bunting his own bounce backs too...... become one with the wall.... AND LEARN TO BUNT, TOO, for godsakes!

Rob Antony was asked a couple weeks ago about Buxton and the fact that he looks clueless when bunting. Rob's answer was something to the effect 'he never had to bunt in in the minors, he did just fine swinging away'. WTF!!!

 

A speed guy should be instructed on how to bunt, and told to bunt once a game, every game, in the minors, just so when he gets to the majors he has another way of getting on base. 

 

I think the Twins definitely have an instruction problem at the minor league level. 

[Halsey Hall]

I posted 2, 3 years ago I had doubts that Buxton would ever turn out as he couldn't hit. By now everyone has seen hit try and I still have those doubts. Though I really hope he can figure it out since he's a treat to watch in the outfield.

 

Now most agree he should be in the minors and gain confidence. The thing is, he doesn't need to gain confidence, he needs to learn how to hit. His current style doesn't carry over to the bigs no matter how he hits in AAA. He needs a whole new approach. I think maybe he should be working with Chad Allen and start from scratch for the rest of the season. He's young, there's still time, and that spring training word "hope" that eventually he'll become a major league capable hitter.

[TheLeviathan]

 

There should be no pressure on him up here. There is no pennant race. 

 

You don't think playing in front of tens of thousands of people, many of whom are watching your at-bats with extra scrutiny, isn't pressure?  Especially compared to playing in some po-dunk AAA town where the best people can do most nights is check a box score?

 

Look, the kid needs to make fundamental adjustments to his swing.  I'd like him to do that where the only focus he has is that task.  AAA seems better served for that function.   I mean, hell, what are the minor league for if not to coach needs exactly like this?  If it was as simple as some of you think to just adjust at the big league level, why would we ever put anyone in the minors for any length of time?

 

I want him focused on his approach and his swing, not thinking about a major league slider or splitter or anything else.  Let that come later when he has the basics fixed.

[adorduan]

Maybe he just isn't as good as everyone hyped him up to be.

[kab21]

I think he just needs time like Carlos Gomez did. My preference would have been to wait before promoting him the last time but Rosario fell apart, Santana was Santana and Kepler was just called up so they needed a true CF.

 

Now I would send him to AAA until at least next july and make sure that he is working on the issues mentioned. It is easy to place blame on him not bunting well or having flaws in his swing but it is hard to fix those things when a player has never failed and is one of the best players in his league by natural skill.

 

I think he is still a .800+ OPS hitter with elite defense but that requires patience just like it did with Carlos Gomez.

 

The moves of Plouffe and Buxton should be separated though. Buxton needed to be sent down regardless of Plouffe. Plouffe needed to be called up regardless of Buxton. Ideally a different move could have been made but there really isn't a logical move other than combining the moves and dealing with it (too many corner/DH's) for 3 weeks.

[Mike Sixel]

 

Is everyone who's commenting on/being the author of this article for real right now?  You even gave us the stat that he has had 350 MLB plate appearances...that's equivalent to 85 games, HALF A SEASON!! Get a freaking grip people. There's no way any player should be expected, highly touted or not, to be the next Ken Griffey Jr. after one half a full season at the top level. Give him a full year, hell give him 2 or 3 full seasons, before you write this kid off as done.

 

Who asked him to be KGJ? How about better than Butera, is that an ok request?

[mazeville]

The Twins and their fans just need to be patient. I think he'll be fine. Will he be as good as some people thought he would when he was in Low A? Maybe not. But keep in mind that some prospects just take a bit. The Carlos Gomez example is a very good one. 

 

I have deep concerns about the team's player development. And I'm real hopeful that the new regime will find someone who can work with Buxton to shorten his swing and improve his pitch recognition. He is too talented a player to let this happen to him ...

[Mike Sixel]

Was Carlos Gomez the number 1 prospect in all of baseball at any time?

[Loosey]

Something is strange with his hitting in the MLB.  Even if he has a hole in his swing, the natural ability he has to hit a ball in AAA should not just disappear in the majors.  Many of the pitchers he faces in AAA are just as good as some in the major leagues especially once they get into bullpens.  Yes most starters up here are better, but not to the point of one league he can hit .350 and the next league up he cannot hit the ball period.  

 

 

If I am the Twins I leave him down in AAA the rest of the year.  Even a September callup might be too early.  Make him shorten his swing, practice bunting against live in-game pitching and fine tune everything.  I don't' think he needs an overhaul, just shorten his swing up and hope he gets heavy doses of sliders and inside pitches in AAA that he learns to hit.

 

 

[Everyday Eddy]

For a fan base that wants to start seeing things done right, there sure are a lot of people that want to keep doing things wrong with this kid.   He was pushed way way way too fast by a desperate FO and set up to fail.   Now he needs to be given time take a step back and reset and be given time to develop at the proper pace.   He could be in the minors for 2 or 3 more years before he figures it out.  Being hot for a few months at AAA does not mean you're ready for the majors.  Hopefully whatever GM is brought in handles the situation well

[John Bonnes]

FWIW, Aaron and I had a discussion about Buxton learning to run into walls in our latest podcast:

 

http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/podcasts/gleeman-the-geek-ep-269-sano-stays-buxton-goes-r4982

 

I know it was past the 45 minute mark...

[Comrade Bork]

Rob Antony was asked a couple weeks ago about Buxton and the fact that he looks clueless when bunting. Rob's answer was something to the effect 'he never had to bunt in in the minors, he did just fine swinging away'. WTF!!!

 

A speed guy should be instructed on how to bunt, and told to bunt once a game, every game, in the minors, just so when he gets to the majors he has another way of getting on base. 

 

I think the Twins definitely have an instruction problem at the minor league level.

 

This is a good example of how firmly Antony is in the clueless Terry Ryan camp and shouldn't even be considered.

[Nick Nelson]

 

Is everyone who's commenting on/being the author of this article for real right now?  You even gave us the stat that he has had 350 MLB plate appearances...that's equivalent to 85 games, HALF A SEASON!! Get a freaking grip people. There's no way any player should be expected, highly touted or not, to be the next Ken Griffey Jr. after one half a full season at the top level. Give him a full year, hell give him 2 or 3 full seasons, before you write this kid off as done.

The better question is are you for real right now? No one has asked him to be Ken Griffey Jr, nor has anyone written him off as done. You're responding to non-existent arguments.  

[nicksaviking]

Buxton needs to be universally labeled a bust.

 

Then he can relax, stop pressing, and come back to the big stage with little pressure and no expectations.

[Mike Sixel]

 

This is a good example of how firmly Antony is in the clueless Terry Ryan camp and shouldn't even be considered.

 

I don't agree. His number 1 job should be learning to hit by swinging.