It wasn’t a fun season for the Minnesota Twins and their fans, as the team finished with a 59-103 record, good for the very worst record in the majors by a full nine games. But, the good news is that awful record secures them the No. 1 overall pick in the MLB Draft, and — along with Brian Dozier’s dingers — they have some exciting young talent on the team with players such as Max Kepler, Miguel Sano, Jose Berrios, and Byron Buxton.
Buxton is particularly intriguing, as he entered the last three seasons as a top-two prospect in all of baseball according to just about every publication out there (such as Baseball America, Baseball Prospectus, and MLB.Com). That’s easy to forget given the time he’s missed due to injuries, and with other young baseball players like Kris Bryant, Corey Seager, and Francisco Lindor becoming MVP candidates pretty much immediately. That’s rarely how it works and it’s unfair to expect that out of any young player, no matter their skill level. It’s taking Buxton some time, but let’s remember he’s still just 22 freaking years old, has had some development time derailed due to injuries, and is a ridiculously talented five-tool player.
To lead off the Twins’ final game of the season on Sunday against the Chicago White Sox at U.S. Cellular Field, we got a nice look at Buxton’s awesome skills. On the very first pitch of the game, Buxton smoked a pitch from White Sox ace Chris Sale deep into right-center field, and then it was off to the races:
Byron Buxton with a leadoff inside the park HR against Chris Sale, his speed is ridiculous pic.twitter.com/TaKpBnXCfo
— CJ Fogler (@cjzero) October 2, 2016
That inside-the-park homer was far too easy for Buxton, and what he was timed at around the bases would support that:
You know how I’ve been saying that Buxton is maybe MLB’s fastest man? His inside-the-park HR took 14 seconds flat, fastest all year! — Mike Petriello (@mike_petriello) October 2, 2016
Totally unofficial … but I had Byron Buxton at 13.79 seconds on his inside-the-park HR and 7.33 home to 2nd. The fastest man in baseball.
— Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) October 2, 2016
Absolutely absurd. Twins manager Paul Molitor put it well:
Molitor on Buxton HR: “If baseball was five bases, he probably would have been safe too. He was gone.” #MNTwins — Mike Berardino (@MikeBerardino) October 2, 2016
[@cjzero]
