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Stacey King -> RE: Players and prospects III (8/12/2015 10:53:34 PM)
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Buxton showing off ‘5-tool’ skills with Red Wings
His teammates, both on the baseball and football teams at Appling County High School, knew very well that Byron Buxton had an arm of envy.
From the mound on the ball field in Baxley, Georgia, he could put up 96 on the radar gun. From the pocket behind the offensive line, he could send a spiral down the sideline and hit his receiver in stride.
But just how far could he throw a football? That is what his Pirates teammates wanted to know on a fall afternoon in 2010.
“We were just messing around before football practice my junior year, right before our first playoff game,” Buxton recalled. “They were picking on me, asking me, ‘How far can you throw a football?’ I didn’t know.”
Now that he had been challenged, well, he needed to find out. “I took a crow hop and let if fly,” he said.
The ball landed 82 yards away. Eighty-two.
“It was probably the best spiral I threw all year,” he said with a smile.
And yet the native of tiny Graham, Georgia — population 294, per the 2013 U.S. census — is playing professional baseball. Which tells you a whole lot about his talents on the ball diamond.
Buxton is a rare find for the Minnesota Twins: a second overall draft pick in 2012 with a five-tool skill set (hitting for average, hitting for power, speed, defense and a throwing arm). He’s now showing off his talents with the Rochester Red Wings and went 4-for-5 in Wednesday’s 6-5 loss at Buffalo.
“He’s a wonderful athlete and a good-looking player,” Red Wings manager Mike Quade said. “I’ve seen a lot of five-tool guys that didn’t get it done. But I think he knows what he’s about and what he needs to be about.”
His hometown is very proud of him already. A sign welcoming visitors to Graham proclaims it the “Home town of Byron ‘Buck’ Buxton.”
They figure to become even more proud as the years go by. When the season began, mlb.com rated the 21-year-old center fielder as the No. 1 prospect in baseball.
To which the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Buxton says, who cares what those folks say.
“Rankings to me don’t mean anything,” Buxton said late Wednesday afternoon, before batting practice at Coca-Cola Field in downtown Buffalo. “I don’t really pay too much attention to it; I don’t see a point. You can’t go by what so-and-so says on the Internet.”
Instead, you just need to prove yourself every day, he says. He learned that from his parents, Carrie and Felton.
“You want to be that team to win a ring,” he said. “I try to fit in as much as I can. I try to play the game the right way and have fun.”
He usually does exactly that. After four singles in five at-bats on Wednesday, Buxton is hitting .458 with four RBI and six runs in six games with the Wings. He’s the first No. 1 prospect to wear a Rochester uniform since pitcher Ben McDonald came through town in 1990 on his way to the Baltimore Orioles.
Buxton joined the Wings on Friday on Major League rehab after missing six weeks due to a sprained left thumb, an injury that occurred during his 11-game stint with the Twins in June. His rehab assignment was ended on Monday and he was optioned to Triple-A.
With the Twins scuffling since the All-Star break, plenty of people in the Twin Cities wondered why Buxton didn’t rejoin the parent team. Quade says a little seasoning in Triple-A won’t hurt.
Everyone says Double-A is the prospect level, but this is a good thing for him right now,” Quade said. “You can learn a lot going up against veteran guys and accomplished Triple-A guys. There’s plenty to learn here.
“And the learning doesn’t stop when you get there. I don’t think you can do algebra if you can’t do multiplication tables.”
Buxton had earned that June promotion to the Twins — skipping right past Rochester — by hitting .283 with seven doubles, 12 triples, six home runs, 37 RBI, 44 runs and 20 stolen bases for Double-A Chattanooga.
He hasn’t played for the Lookouts since June 12 but his 12 triples still lead the Southern League. Yeah, he’s kinda fast. Freaky fast, actually.
“But my brother (Felton Jr.) could probably still beat me (in a race),” he said. “Up until I was 18 I couldn’t beat my dad either.”
On Tuesday he showed off that speed with a seventh-inning triple. Most impressive wasn’t his plate to third sprint, however, but rather his work with the bat. He fouled off a very good 2-2 pitch and then, on the next pitch, drove the ball to the gap in left center.
On Wednesday he played small ball with a perfect bunt single leading off the fifth inning. He then scored on a Kennys Vargas double.
“As long as I get on base and give my teammates a chance to drive me in, I’m doing my job,” he said.
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