Buxton Stalls Out, Again

Correct, but Buxton doesn't have place on an MLB roster either. He's an offensive blackhole.

One can make a case that Buxton does have a place. He is 22, a top prospect, adds value defensively, and given that he has done well in AAA he has nothing to prove there. Some believe his biggest issue is identifying major league breaking balls, so he needs to be up here to develop.

Santana is pretty much the opposite in every sense. He is 25. Never highly regarded. Getting worse. Doesn’t add value defensively. No upside whatsoever.

Correct, but Buxton doesn't have place on an MLB roster either. He's an offensive blackhole.

One can make a case that Buxton does have a place. He is 22, a top prospect, adds value defensively, and given that he has done well in AAA he has nothing to prove there. Some believe his biggest issue is identifying major league breaking balls, so he needs to be up here to develop.

Santana is pretty much the opposite in every sense. He is 25. Never highly regarded. Getting worse. Doesn’t add value defensively. No upside whatsoever.

That doesn't seem like it was a useful question.......

that's the answer to Life, The Universe and Everything.

42, no matter what the question.

I think sending him down is the right move. There are some on this thread that feel it is best to keep throwing him out there at the MLB level until he gets it. I would argue that there needs to be at least some level of competency for that to work. Any player working towards the next level needs to feel some level of success to reinforce what he is working on. Right now I bet he just feels like he is letting his team down.

In AAA I hope he keeps it simple. Work on putting the ball in play a higher percentage of the time. Maybe shorten the swing a little and get in line with the pitch and see it in a more direct plane instead of standing over your hit zone and reaching for the ball.

The timing of when he rolls his wrists over during his swing is much harder to make consistent with the current length of his swing.

I think this is more of an issue if we don't have options.  Let Rosario, Kepler and Grossman play until they stop hitting.  Maybe try Polanco in left for a few games.   

Let some competition drive some development. 

To humor people Here are the first 350 or so PA's to start the careers of recent Twins CF'ers in wRC+:

Revere: 356 PAs: 61 wRC+

Span: 354 PAs: 124 wRC+

Gomez: 352 PAs: 79 wRC+

Hunter: 355 PAs: 68 wRC+

Hicks: 355 PAs: 62 wRC+

And none of them had a K% approaching 40. Hicks' was only 25.9%. 

I don't ever want Polanco in the OF.  just say no!

Uh, you think you had to explain that? I am insulted.....

 

 

sorry, not everyone knows that.  my bad :-)

Santana is pretty much the opposite in every sense. He is 25. Never highly regarded. Getting worse. Doesn’t add value defensively. No upside whatsoever.

Which is why Santana stays. There is no hope that he develops into a good player, so his confidence and development be damned.

Or also because Paul Molitor is the world's biggest Danny Santana fan.

One can make a case that Buxton does have a place. He is 22, a top prospect, adds value defensively, and given that he has done well in AAA he has nothing to prove there. Some believe his biggest issue is identifying major league breaking balls, so he needs to be up here to develop.

Santana is pretty much the opposite in every sense. He is 25. Never highly regarded. Getting worse. Doesn’t add value defensively. No upside whatsoever.

The issue isn't about some fantastical future where everything works out. Because it doesn't. Buxton is overmatched. He clearly has talent, and based on his age it is certainly possible for him to overcome his struggles. However, he has been so bad, I really fail to see how flailing away in the majors (hitting worse than Santana, a replacement level player, mind you) is going to help him. The question then becomes how do we fix these issues? None of us has the answer, but we have ample evidence showing that what the Twins are doing now isn't working. Something different must be done. 

Couple of interesting tidbits I came across ... 

 

- Of 337 hitters with at least 350 PAs over the past two seasons, Buxton has the 64th lowest Z-Swing % (swings at pitches in the zone). So, being inside the top 20% in that category, I'd say he's actually been too passive in regard to pitches in the zone.

 

- I was thinking about maybe writing a blog post relating Buxton to Jackie Bradley Jr., but last month Brian MacPherson of the Providence Journal already connected those dots. Most interesting thing to me from his article was Bruno's quotes:

 

"You look over on that side (to the Boston Red Sox), and they’ve got quite a few mentors over there. They can take these young kids and explain to them how they can do it, how they’re going to go through it, how to get out of it. They have a lot of tutelage there. You see the maturity and the development."

 

That's a pretty damning quote in my eyes. As the hitting coach, isn't it kinda Bruno's job to be to do that stuff? That quote also doesn't make the vets like Mauer or Dozier look good, either. If Bruno feels like Byron needs a mentor how come those guys aren't stepping up?

Bradley Jr, still had a 66 wRC+ over his first 353 PAs of his career. Buxton's struggles are painfully rare. 

Bradley also never broke the top 20 in prospect listings.  Our guy was top 2 for three years straight. It's weird we keep having to compare a guy so highly rated fr so long to just everyone his age/first X amount of PAs. Can't we have higher expectations for a guy so highly rated for so long?

I want to know when we are allowed to be disappointed without getting ragged on for being disappointed?  Does he have to be 25?  26?  How old exactly?

Yes we can have higher expectations.  But if you're going to have extremely high expectations, and then choose to write that player off after 350 plate appearances, you might be disappointed more often than not

He's not reaching even mild expectations at this point, much less extremely high expectations

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/the-changes-byron-buxton-has-and-hasnt-made/

Sure this was posted, but seemed more appropriate in this thread than the Fangraphs thread.

My response was and has been this (but, I am sure I am just a moron and wrong):

I never liked Buxton’s swing, but was encouraged and excited by reports about this new leg kick he was using when he was crushing in AAA this year. I couldn’t wait to see it once he got brought back up, but was extremely disappointed by what I saw upon return. I wrote about several times a Twins Daily within his first week back.

I was upset because the leg kick just looked awful and not of the sort that others use at all. I actually thought it was by accident that his leg kick started so soon and got his foot down so soon. It sounds like maybe that was planned?! all it did was/does is result in him having to stop his body’s momentum before he swings, and then swing with ALL arms and no hip torque. It actually muted his athleticism even more than just staying still the whole time and then swinging. I gave up on him and Twins hitting coaches that first week and haven’t had hope in them since. Kicking early and getting that foot down early simply defeats the purpose of doing it in the first place.

I would love to see Buxton incorporate a wider and lower athletic stance to begin, then incorporate a fairly above average-to-high leg kick, that starts later and with the foot being placed down late, with an extremely aggressive swing with his hips (like Corey Seager hip swing aggressiveness.) Just let her buck Buxton.

He might remain a high K% guy with that, but at least he would create some crazy exit velocity with his athleticism and a swing like that. So, he would likely have a high ISO and negate his flaws of contact. This would also take pressure off him and make him more confident. Right now his swing sucks, and has no potential to create any bat speed or power, yet he still strikes out a ton.

I seriously hope they plan on incorporating an actual real leg kick and stance this time around, instead of messing with him by muting his athleticism even more in hopes of contact improvement.

**I'd add the personal observation that it 'seems' as though there is a difference between broader more compact toolsy athletic guys like Trout and Betts, than there is a with skinny-long toolsy athletic guys like Buxton, Hayward, Maybin just off the top of my head. Think athletic and toolsy skinny/tall guys have much more trouble with timing and mechanics in both their swings and getting out of the blocks to steal basses. The shorter guys have an easier time with rhythm, timing, and more success.