Alright, let's talk about Byron Buxton. The former top prospect in all of baseball has had quite the up and down MLB career so far (mostly down), but lately he's been crushing it, slashing .370/.400/.704 over the past 15 days, and he continued it in yesterday's double header, going 3-8, 1 HR, 2 R, 2 RBI between the two games. Up until he got sent down to the minors, Buxton had been awful, slashing .218/.292/.311 once he was sent down, but since he got called up at the beginning of August, he's been on fire, slashing .333/.367/.597, and it's got people wondering if he's finally starting to live up to his potential. Well, count me as someone who's in on Buxton right now. Something's changed in Buxton, something since he got called up, he's changed a bit as a hitter. Now, I won't deny that some of this streak is luck-driven, he's got a .408 BABIP since he got called up, that's not going to stay, but there are some meaningful changes that have been made, specifically in quality of contact and plate discipline. Here are some stats for you to consider: up until he was sent down to the minors, Buxton's strikeout rate was 30.8%, with a 13.4% whiff rate and a 71.4% contact rate, along with a 22.2% soft contact rate and a 25.7% hard hit rate. Since he's been called up, he now has a strikeout rate at 25.6%, a whiff rate of 11.4%, a contact rate of 76.9%, a soft contact rate of 8.9%, and a hard hit rate of 30.4%. Those are some stark differences, and they essentially say that he's striking out less, hitting the ball more, and hitting it way harder. Now, do I expect him to maintain a soft contact rate below 10%? No, nor do I expect the 23.5% HR/FB rate he's had since being called up to stay, but I think Buxton has made a change that could limit the regression a bit and that could mean really good things for fantasy players the rest of the season. And he's still available in around 53% of ESPN leagues.
Let's take a look at some of the other performances from Monday's games:
