Baseball American also polled some scouts who point some outlandish numbers on his physical tools. Fuck it, I'll post it below.

The problem with me is that I'd rather have some guys in front of him or some skills he still needs to actually acquire. As it is, there's nothing but the prediction of greatness and an indeterminate amount of time before that greatness wears a Twins uniform. I don't really have a mental limbering-up for that procedure. It seems like 2+ years of waiting for something to go wrong.

This scouting report is embarrassing. Bo Jackson probably had higher marks for power, but was probably not even a 50 for hit. I'd guess. So, this is probably a better report than the grandaddy of all scouting legends. Shit.

Here's the article:

Scout’s View: Scouting Byron Buxton
June 30, 2013 by J.J. Cooper

The following is a breakdown of Buxton’s tools compiled from talking to multiple professional scouts. All grades are future projections, not present grades and are meant to be quite conservative—undoubtedly there are reports sitting in the databases of teams with higher grades than these.

Hitting: 70. Buxton’s approach draws near universal accolades. He watches so many balls off the plate and recognizes pitches so quickly, scouts said they had to see him for multiple days to make sure he wasn’t just making pre-pitch decisions to swing or not swing. Buxton’s swing is short and direct to the ball. It’s helped immensely by his massive strong hands that generate excellent bat speed.

Power: 60. Buxton’s power is somewhat surprising as he’s still relatively skinny, even if he has a very well-defined musculature. Because of his whippy bat, he generates excellent present gap power to all fields and occasionally drives the ball for tape-measure distance home runs. Most scouts surveyed don’t see him ever becoming a 220-pound masher, but project him to hit 25-30 home runs once he’s matured and filled out.

Speed: 80. Buxton turns in consistent 4.0-4.05 times to first base from the right side. He’s even better going from first to third or second to home, as his long strides eat up yards with ease.

Defense: 80. One scout simply asked, “Who in the big leagues is better?” Buxton is working on being more aggressive at charging on base hits in front of him, but he already covers lots of ground, has shown a fearlessness on going back to get balls at the wall and understands both positioning and reading balls off the bat.

Arm: 70. After showing a 92-94 mph fastball in high school as a pitcher, Buxton has shown the same arm strength this season in the outfield. He shows the accuracy to hit the cutoff man and the arm strength to throw on a line to third base or home with excellent carry.

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