CLEARWATER, Fla. -- As Byron Buxton learned last year, sometimes the best scouts don't even work in baseball.
Shortly before his September callup to the Twins, his mom, Carrie, told him she had watched video of him, and had diagnosed why the former No. 1 overall prospect had struggled in his first stints in the Majors.
"She went back and watched video, but the only thing she focused on was my face," Buxton said. "She was like, 'You need to smile.' And you know what, she was right. That's who I am. I'm happy. My nickname other than Buck has always been Smiley."
Buxton, 23, made it a point to stop thinking so much and simply have fun in September, and the results finally came. The five-tool center fielder hit .287/.357/.653 with nine homers and 22 RBIs over his final 29 games.
"If I don't think, I play a whole lot better," Buxton said. "You start thinking too much, you're done. September I was just loose."
Former Twins center fielder Torii Hunter gave similar advice to Buxton, saying he felt he was almost too coachable and was listening to too many outside voices on what he needed to do to succeed at the Major League level.
Buxton decided to go back to his pronounced leg kick that worked so well in the Minors, ditching the toe-tap that he had tried to instill in the Majors.
"He was more relaxed and athletic at the plate," Hunter said. "He was more himself. He wasn't caught up in the hype of being the Major Leagues and people telling him to do this or do that. He wants to be coachable, but you start to lose who you are."
Buxton's mentality was to try to hit the ball back up the middle, but it's clear that pulling the ball with authority also led to his success. He pulled the ball 56.3 percent of the time after his September callup, compared to pulling the ball 43.1 percent of the time prior to that. And he hit .556 with six homers on the balls that he pulled.
Statcast™ also shows he was hitting the ball harder, with an average Exit Velocity of 91.9 mph after his callup, which was much higher than his career average of 88.4 mph leading up to it.
It's something manager Paul Molitor noticed last year, and it's carried over into the spring, where Buxton is hitting .235, but with a .500 slugging percentage, including six doubles and a homer -- all of which were pulled.
"He's still trying to figure out who he's going to be at this level," Molitor said. "I have a feeling it's going to be more pull than spray the ball around, which is fine. There's a little bit more juice in that bat."
Molitor has moved Buxton around in the lineup as a result, even hitting him third last week, but he appears primed to be the club's leadoff hitter to take advantage of his elite speed. Strikeouts remain an issue for Buxton, but he's cut down on those this spring as well, striking out seven times in 34 at-bats. Now, even when he strikes out, Buxton is at peace.
"I'm not uptight anymore," Buxton said. "I'm not feeling any pressure. I'm just being myself. I might strike out but I'm going to come back again. That's my mindset."