Byron Buxton publicity in the New York Times—
Tyler Kepner@TylerKepner
On Baseball: Pick a skill, and Byron Buxton will dazzle you with it. A look at the man Carlos Correa calls “the best player in the world”
The Byron Buxton Experience is finally happening for the Minnesota Twins and the team could not be happier. A little caution along the way can’t hurt.
www.nytimes.com
Excerpts—
He does not take many pitches because he knows he can barrel up almost anything near the strike zone.
“And that’s what makes it really fun again, because I don’t go up there thinking about what you’re going to do to me,” Buxton said. “I’m an attack-first guy.”
Buxton barely lifts his foot off the dirt, generating force from the ground and transferring it up through the bat. It is a subtle skill, but Popkins said it makes Buxton the most incredible hitter he has ever seen.
“He’ll leave the ground just a little bit for a step, but it’s early and he’s always in there, and you just see both feet gripping.
It’s like his feet are hands; they grab the ground and just torque it.”
“He’s the best player in the world, no doubt about it,” said Correa, the shortstop who left Houston to sign a three-year, $105.3 million contract with the Twins in spring training.
“Speaking about talent, he’s the best. He’s got to stay on the field and show it, but I know talent when I see it. Playing in the same division with Mike Trout, playing with great players on the Astros — nobody has more talent than him. Nobody hits the ball farther. Nobody plays better defense. Nobody throws harder. Nobody runs faster. So when you talk about talent and you talk about tools, this is the most gifted out of all of them out there.”
“I think we’ve kind of come up with the philosophy around here of: just appreciate it for what it is,” Morneau said. “We don’t know what the future is going to be. Just look out there today and watch him run down a ball in the gap and appreciate that. Watch him turn a single into a double like nobody else can do and appreciate that. You hope that he’s going to stay healthy, but nobody knows what’s going to happen. So just watch and appreciate the most electric player in the game today.”
Those last two excerpts temper his potential greatness because we know he will likely always be a high injury risk. He frustrates fans. But, that risk, and his previous injuries slowing his development, facilitated the Twins being able to afford him—7 years, 100 million, the contract laced with performance incentives for pay on top of that. Correa is 3 years and 105 million and Cory Seager is 10 years, 325 million. Currently Buck is out of action again, with a “very slight” right hip strain (day-to-day). That same right hip strained last year had him out for 6 weeks. He is a strain waiting to happen, but we hope he somehow surprises and stays healthy.