FanGraphs Weekly Mailbag: June 20, 2026
Last season, despite his team’s struggles, Byron Buxton set career highs in plate appearances (542), home runs (35), runs (97), RBI (83), hits (129), and WAR (5.0). He only played in 126 games, his second-highest single-season total, because he made two separate trips to the injured list. We saw enough of him in 2025 to appreciate his astonishing abilities, yet at the same time, his presence was a reminder of the career that might’ve been if only he hadn’t gotten hurt so much.
Fortunately, Buxton is healthy again this season. As of Friday morning, he has played in 64 of the Twins’ 76 games this year. That might not seem like a lot, but that works out to a pace of 136 games. Crucially, despite dealing with a few minor injuries, he has avoided the IL so far in 2026. He’s on track to hit 49 home runs and accumulate just shy of 6 WAR. ZiPS and our Depth Charts both project him to slow down a little bit, but they still peg him for at least 45 homers and right around 5 WAR. That would be an impressive season for anybody, but especially for an injury-prone 32-year-old center fielder.
That bit on Buxton is all you’ll hear from me this weekend. I’m on vacation as you’re reading this, and Meg Rowley is handling mailbag editing duties while I’m gone. This week, we’re answering your questions on Juan Soto’s slower swing speed, the teams that have the greatest all-time differences between player WAR and franchise wins, and whether an American League team will make the playoffs with a losing record. But first, I’d like to remind you that this mailbag is exclusive to FanGraphs Members. If you aren’t yet a Member and would like to keep reading, you can sign up for a Membership here. It’s the best way to both experience the site and support our staff, and it comes with a bunch of other great benefits. Also, if you’d like to ask a question for an upcoming mailbag, send me an email at mailbag@fangraphs.com.
Matt is the associate editor of FanGraphs. Previously, he was the baseball editor at Sports Illustrated. His work has appeared in The New York Times, Men’s Health, Baseball Prospectus, and Lindy’s Sports Magazine. Follow him on Twitter @ByMattMartell and Blue Sky @mattmartell.bsky.social.
Woof. My favorite baseball writer doesn’t like Hamilton?? What a sad day…
Or New York.
As a Hamilton fan, that line does come across at least a bit as annoying “NYC/ Broadway as the center of the world” hubris. At the time of Hamilton, NYC couldn’t feasibly claim to be the greatest city on the continent, let alone in the world; it didn’t pass and/or break away from Philadelphia, Boston and the rest until the Erie Canal, well after the “Got Milk” duel that killed Alexander Hamilton.
It’s a great musical but it does get overrated by some because it was the first truly great musical since the late 1980s. The whole art form peaked in the mid 1960s with Cabaret, Man of La Mancha, and Fiddler on the Roof. There’s been scattered innovation since then but part of the reason why people loved Hamilton is that they were starved for great new musicals.
Ooooh, someone is not a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Yeah, although I kind of liked the movie adaptations of Phantom of the Opera and Evita, which apparently most people didn’t like? This is going to sound weird but I think he was writing for the wrong medium.
But not Cats? LOL
Skipped that one, although I hear the original version with all the special effects errors was a hoot.
i’m so sad that the band’s visit doesn’t get its flowers. i think it’s a generational work of art
Interesting, this one is outside of my knowledge. Probably because I moved away from a performing arts center that hosted Broadway musicals on tour around the time it would have gone on tour outside of NY. It looks like it also did its touring during the peak of the COVID pandemic anyway and I was a little distracted then. I bet I probably don’t have much knowledge of post-Hamilton musicals as a result of all this.
Since the late 1990s:
Shortly before the release of Hamilton I had a huge debate with family and friends about the greatest musicals of all time so I have especially developed thoughts on all of this.
I would say that I thought Ragtime, Caroline or Change, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, In the Heights, and Come from Away were awfully good. I also thought Kinky Boots was a riot, and probably the closest thing to a “great” musical in between the mid to late 1980s and Hamilton. But I also saw it with Billy Porter Jr and I’m not sure how much of what I loved was just him.
And I have heard that the visuals and staging of the stage version of the Lion King was pretty innovative from multiple people, although I’m still kind of weirded out by it from the movie so I’ve not seen in live.
But in terms of 70 and 80 grade musicals, I don’t think there were any for a long time before Hamilton. If I were to come up with a chronology of 70 and 80 grade musicals and innovations within musical theatre, it would start with Showboat in 1927 as the first modern musical, and then a 20 year gap until 1948-1950. There’s a huge period of innovation between 1950 and mid 1980s, and then another 25+ year gap between the mid 1980s until Hamilton.
For me, the that means the 70 and 80 grade musicals list is almost entirely made up of musicals between 1950 and 1987. But I think it’s fair to assume that because of when I moved / COVID I don’t know much that happened after Hamilton, so maybe there’s been another musical theatre renaissance since then.
I guess In the Heights is pretty innovative but it’s more of a good musical than a great one. There were also some great revivals during that time too, punctuated by the spectacular revival of Cabaret at Studio 54 in the late 1990s which transformed it into almost a new show (and an even better one than the original, which was pretty dang good).
I saw the revived Cabaret on Broadway and agree that it was pretty great. Ragtime, I was much less impressed by. I’m familiar with the music of the others you cite but have not seen them in person, so I won’t offer an opinion there. Like you, I mostly haven’t seen anything post-COVID. I did see Six, which is a pop concert masquerading as a musical (not meant as a dig, I enjoyed it).
If we’re counting revivals, I’d argue that late 90s and ongoing Chicago revival is pretty great. And while I didn’t see it, multiple people told me the revival of Assassins was excellent. Also, while I don’t think it’s an all-time great, I feel do I have to mention The Producers as a HOVG show.
I’m not actually convinced Hamilton is great musical, by the way. I think it was the first mainstream musical to use rap / hip-hop in a new interesting way and it sure caught the zeitgeist, and I really enjoyed it, but dose that make it great? I don’t know.
Also, I really enjoyed (on Broadway, no less) the notoriously terrible “Dance of the Vampires” so perhaps you should disregard ALL of my Broadway opinions.
I loved Hamilton when I first heard it, but also thought it was destined to be the Hair of its time.
Book of Mormon.
The original run on broadway with Gad was maybe the funniest stage play of any kind I’ve seen.
I feel like the dislike is directed more at LMM than the musical itself. That sentiment is far more relatable IMO.