Delmon's Departure

As we sit currently the Minnesota Twins are 3 games behind the Detroit Tigers in what has become a doggie paddle contest to shore for the division title. This season has shown fans a spectrum of play that can only be described as unbelievably unexpected and at times remarkably unwatchable. Putting both descriptions together and whipping them with a kitchen utensil of your choosing you have another season of Twins baseball that has kept you watching to the end despite your mind erasing them from being in contention at least half a dozen times. Sitting in my living room chair watching the middle innings of Friday's game against the Tigers I watched Brian Duensing try to hold on to a slim 2-0 lead in the 5th inning. Marcus Thames led off with a slicing hit to left field. I quickly realize Delmon Young is in left field and watch as he allows the ball to ricochet off his glove and to the wall a short distance behind him. It is generously ruled as a double, but my eyes see it as a single with an error. Thames never scores and the play is forgotten as the Twins win the game in an efficient manner 3-0. On Sunday Young fields a Placido Polanco single in the first inning and drops the ball while exchanging it from his glove to his hand for an error moving Polanco to second base. Watching Delmon Young and his encounters with plays like these the past two years has been an education on how good Jason Kubel's outfield defense is. Which is a little like saying my hail damaged shingles are still effective because I don't need an umbrella while watching TV. He came to the Twins with possible attitude problems, but surprisingly that has not been the issue. To the surprise of no one reading this his inability to generate runs is his greatest foe. Followed closely by his outfield play which often takes the same route to a ball that a pencil takes in the hand of a child trying to print their first letter. Curvy and random, but never straight. Delmon has his supporters that say his potential is still unreached and the Twins should keep him for some future payoff, but lets look at his record thus far.

• In 1,779 career plate appearances he has hit .287/.319/.407. He has walked 72 times in his career with 9 of those being intentional passes.
  


• Young's on base percentage has gone from .316 in his first year with the Rays to .336 last year and finally this year's regression down to .288. Delmon Young has had 344 plate appearances this season and has walked an amazingly minuscule 10 times. To give that number some perspective free spirit and free swinging Carlos Gomez has walked 21 times in 327 plate appearances. Delmon Young walks 2.9% of the time compared to the league average of 9.1%



• He has scored only 38 runs this year which can be a function of those around him, but his .288 OBP is a much more attributable reason for scoring so few runs.



• His UZR/150, which is runs saved above average per 150 games played, is -18.5 this year after being -14.9 last year.



• Baseball Prospectus' VORP (value over replacement player) metric places Young at a -5.1. The VORP statistic does not take defense into consideration. This simply means the Twins could call up a Triple A outfielder and that replacement would be worth 5 runs over what Young has produced for the Twins with his bat.
  

The Twins and Bill Smith were hoodwinked to say the least in their trade for Delmon Young, especially since they gave up their starting shortstop in the deal. Never mind that Matt Garza was involved in the deal and will have a lengthy career as a starting pitcher in the upper half of whatever rotation he is a part of. With that being true Delmon Young is an affable guy according to many people, but it appears he is what we have seen for two years. A free swinging outfielder who lacks power and has no discernible outfield instincts. Truthfully, the fielding can probably be tolerated to a certain degree by the Twins, but the number that screams it's time to move on is the 10 walks this year and .288 OBP. Having a player who so seldom gets on base cannot be accepted especially when other positions on the team have not done their job getting on base. Delmon Young is said to have great potential, but the Twins should realize by now his potential is something no one has seen with any regularity. Don't let potential fool you into viewing a player as what you want him to be, when really he's what you have been seeing all along.