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Minnesota Twins: May is Looking Like the Month of the Buck

By Jordan Ison

May 9, 2017; Chicago, IL, USA; Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) hits an RBI single against the Chicago White Sox during the sixth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports
May 9, 2017; Chicago, IL, USA; Minnesota Twins center fielder Byron Buxton (25) hits an RBI single against the Chicago White Sox during the sixth inning at Guaranteed Rate Field. Mandatory Credit: David Banks-USA TODAY Sports /
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After an abysmal start to the 2017 campaign, Minnesota Twins’ center fielder Byron Buxton is off to a red hot start in the month of May.

Coming into the 2017 season, every Minnesota Twins fan couldn’t keep the name Byron Buxton out of their mouth. They were excited to see what he had in store, hoping 2017 was going to be a breakout year for Buck. Then, they were let down.

Buxton had a horrible start to the season and quickly saw his average dip under .100. He was striking out every other at-bat, and when he was putting the bat on the ball, it was going nowhere.

The one bright spot of early-season Buck was his fielding. He was flying around like he was on the Jetsons, catching everything in sight. He would have highlight after highlight in the field, then back it up with strikeout after strikeout at the plate.

Byron Buxton had his first career 3-hit game on May 9th against the Chicago White Sox.

While he is still running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off in center field, it seems that his hitting is heading in the right direction, too. The month of May, while still young, has been the best month of Buxton’s career thus far.

April

To put it in perspective, Buxton’s slash line for the month of April was .147/.256/.176 with no home-runs and one RBI. He also struck out 29 times and earned only 9 walks.

May

Looking at May, his slash line is .353/.353/.706 with only 4 strikeouts through 17 at-bats. He has also hit a double, a triple, a home-run and driven in 3 RBI’s.

While the month is young and there’s not a big sample size for his stat line, the month of May looks promising for Buck. Fans were yelling for him to get demoted to AAA Rochester all throughout April. Now, they may want to reconsider.

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His speed and ability in the outfield is definitely something to keep him around for. He’s easily one of the best outfielders in the league today. But if Byron Buxton can get it going at the plate for the Minnesota Twins, watch out. We could be seeing the next Torii Hunter.

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