5 Thoughts: Buxton up, Kenta Maeda down, September call-ups

1. Byron Buxton is back in a Twins uniform. 

That’s the best bit of good news from a weekend series with the Brewers and a one-game makeup in Detroit. 

Before he hurt his hip earlier this year Buxton had hit .370/.408/.772 and was fresh off beating a then-healthy Mike Trout for AL Player of the Month. The good news is that he’s now back. The relative bad news is that he says he’s still feeling pain in his hand sometimes, particularly on swings and misses, when he feels a “zap” in the fractured hand. 

Buxton got his first hit since returning in the 4th inning Monday, a double against Tigers starter Casey Mize. The Twins are 3-1 since he got back, and while I won’t pin all that on Buxton I will say that he greatly improves their chance of winning when he’s out there in center field. My amateur scouting opinion is that Buxton hasn’t regained his pitch recognition at the plate, manifesting as a disrupted sense of timing in his brief stint since returning to the lineup Friday, hence the 8 str…