Back Off Buxton

To the Minnesota writers who cover Twins baseball: if you want me to continue reading your articles then you’re going to have to come up with something about Byron Buxton that isn’t, “He’s struggling offensively, but he sure is good defensively.” because that reasoning is really boring.

Personally, and not that my thoughts matter for anything, but I blame Buxton’s performance on Twins management. I think the Twins were so desperate for something (something that didn’t involve making a large financial investment in the team’s payroll) that they rushed Buxton through the minors and at 23-years-old he’s simply not ready at this point to be playing in the majors. His minor league record shows that he’s never had a great batting average, and considering he didn’t get the chance to experiment and learn at the lower level, why is there any expectation that his offense would be better at a higher level? This is baseball, not magic.

I feel sorry for Byron Buxton. The Twins needed to divert attention away from their unwillingness to pursue quality free agent players so they grabbed Buxton and threw him out there.

“Here you go, kid: The Bigs. Now shine.”
“I don’t know how to do that. How do I shine?”
“Eh, don’t worry, you’ll figure it out.”
“Can you teach me?”
“No time, you’re up. Go go get ’em, kid.”

I think the best thing the media can do is to not write about Buxton at all. The guy is meeting every day with the manager and the bench coach and the hitting coach and then he’s talking to his teammates – and don’t think he’s not reading the paper and the news – and he’s simply overwhelmed.

Everyone says that baseball is a game and it’s time for Twins sportswriters and management to realize that and let him simply play the game. Preferably – for his sake, I think – that would be in AAA Rochester where he can actually “play”, but if it’s here, then so be it. Just stand back and let him do what he does in his own time. Baseball is difficult but it’s not rocket science and eventually he’s going to figure it out and while the reality is that he probably needed a full season at AAA, considering he’s not going to get that, the last thing he needs is to live his 2017 baseball life being examined under a microscope.

#stilllovebuxton