Posts tagged DelmonYoung at FanHouse

The Minnesota Twins may have come up a run short of winning the AL Central this year, but it was still a pretty successful season for the team. After all, nobody expected them to be competitive this season after losing both Torii Hunter and Johan Santana, yet there they were challenging for another division title.

Another reason that the Twins were a surprise this year is that they played the majority of the season without right fielder Michael Cuddyer, and though Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau get most of the attention in the Twins lineup, Cuddyer has always been a dangerous presence. His absence turned out to be a bit of a blessing though as it allowed Denard Span to get playing time, and Span took advantage of it to emerge as the team's lead-off hitter of the future. Which is why it's entirely possible that Delmon Young will be traded this winter after only one season in Minnesota.

The Twins won't talk about it, but it's expected that Delmon Young, the left fielder they obtained from Tampa Bay before this past season, will be made available on the trade market.

Seeing as how Cuddyer signed a three-year $23 million extension before the season, it's unlikely the Twins will want to move him, so Young seems to be the most logical choice, Delmon didn't really produce as much as the Twins would have liked when they sent Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza to the Rays for him, yet he still has enough value to bring back a third baseman or shortstop for next season.

In the last few weeks, Minnesota Twins general manager Bill Smith has come out and said he wasn't going to look to make any deals before the trade deadline. Then the Twins started talking with the Seattle Mariners about the possibility of trading for Adrian Beltre, but it's been reported that Minnesota balked at the high price tag the Mariners are asking for, and are now backing off.

Before forgetting about Beltre all together, though, Smith may want to have a talk with his manager Ron Gardenhire, because it sounds like Gardy really wouldn't mind seeing Beltre in his lineup.

"All I can control is what I have here in this clubhouse," Gardenhire said. "We're going to play with these guys."

"If they (the Twins' front office) get somebody that can really help us at the end of the game, to set up, to take the place of (injured pitcher Pat) Neshek, that would be really great. Or if they go and find a big right-handed bat to fit in the lineup, that's great. But you'd have to tell me who that is."

Though Gardenhire didn't mention anybody by name, I don't think he'd be against having Beltre playing third for the Twins for the stretch run. The Twins haven't gotten much on offense from the right side of the plate this season, with Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau doing the majority of the damage. Delmon Young has come on as of late, hitting .350 with four homers and 24 RBI since June 1st (Delmon didn't have any homers and only 15 RBI before then), but the lineup really has missed Michael Cuddyer's presence.

Cuddyer has missed over 30 games due to injury this season (and when he has played, he's only hit .252/.324/.376 thanks to the injuries), and the team really has no idea when he'll be back as he's scheduled to undergo a CT scan on his right hand today. Beltre could be a perfect fit as he brings gold glove defense, and can provide more power to help out Morneau.

Obviously the fantasy season is past the halfway point, but you gotta work with me here. There aren't any games that count for the next few days, so it's the perfect time to formulate these teams. Unlike the actual All-Star game, there are different parameters for judging who makes the fantasy All-Star team. Value matters. For example, Hanley Ramirez is obviously the best fantasy player in baseball. He was a high first round pick in every draft, though, so he's not really exceeding expectations.

There's a reason you make the fantasy All-Star team this way ... owners don't win leagues by drafting Hanley Ramirez first overall. You do, however, win your league by loading up on value picks like Josh Hamilton and Geovany Soto ... while you lose your league by taking some of the big names I'm going to list on the "bad" team.

I've named each team after their backstop. Why? I felt like it.

Let's have fun.

TEAM GEO (these are the fantasy All-Stars)

C - Geovany Soto -- You can convince me that you thought Geo was a top ten catcher and that he'd hit 20 home runs coming into the season. You can't convince me that you had him top three and on pace for almost 30.

It seems that no matter how many times we see it, baseball fans just never learn. Every spring baseball fans and experts alike say that this is the year that the Minnesota Twins are going to finish below .500 and at the bottom of the AL Central. Then summer comes along a few months later, and there they are. Sitting on top, or near the top of the division while the rest of us scratch their heads.

Though it happens every season, it still catches us all by surprise, but this season has been the most baffling of all. There is just no way that the Twins should be sitting at 40-36, only a game and a half behind the first place White Sox. The obvious reasons for this are that the team said goodbye to both Johan Santana and Torii Hunter during the offseason, and that Francisco Liriano has spent his time on the disabled list.

Still, it's not exactly a new phenomenon that teams carry on and continue playing well after saying goodbye to their stars. The Athletics have been doing it for years along with the Twins, so we know it can be done. The difference between these Twins, though, and the Twins and Athletics teams of the past is how they're doing it.

The guys who were supposed to replace what was lost have been horrible so far, yet they're still winning.

There are 35 American League outfielders who have enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title. Of that group, none have fewer extra-base hits than Delmon Young. He's slugging an anemic .348 on the year and that's with the help of four extra-base hits during this weekend's series at Coors Field.

Not only was that worse than any AL outfielder, it was behind Twins shortstop Adam Everett who will never be confused for someone who has a major league job because of his bat. Needless to say, that wasn't what the Twins were expecting when they traded for the first overall pick of the 2003 draft. Jim Souhan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune is alarmed at what he's seeing.

He has taken the concept of the "inside-out" swing to a ridiculous degree, dragging the bathead through the hitting zone so belatedly that his hits can only be ground balls up the middle and bloops to right field.

As Rays Index points out, that's what Young's swing looked like last season. They wonder if his uncoachable personality is at play but I wonder if it's not the opposite. The Twins are last in the AL in walks and next to last in on-base percentage. Young's biggest problem before coming north was his overaggressiveness at the plate.

Young's worst habits are being exacerbated and he's not growing into the player we imagined. He's just 22, but the match of organizational philosophy and player tendencies may mean he never will.

(H/T Baseball Musings)

Major League Baseball has made intelligent, progressive decisions in the past (night games, racial integration, not ever letting Pete Rose do anything ever). The decisions to name Gatorade the official sports drink of Major League Baseball and to allow no player in the dugout (or The Dugout) to be seen drinking anything BUT Gatorade are perhaps baseball's greatest. Sugar water that tastes like Kool-Aid if you put too much water in it is sure to enhance the natural performance of a guy like Da Meat Hook.

What's next? Today's Dugout looks into the not-so-distant future to see where baseball refreshment is headed. Spoiler alert: It is headed to somewhere where they'd let Dmitri and Delmon Young be in commercials for children. After the jump, a commercial full of stars using words full of stars!

Where's My Tater? tracks the slow starts of notable sluggers who are taking their sweet, sweet time leaving the yard.

The Cardinals were supposed to be a train wreck this year, but someone forgot to tell them: they're sitting pretty right now, second in the Central with the third-best record in the National League.

Troy Glaus has been a big factor, getting on base, smacking extra-base hits and driving in runs. Any sane fan of the game would be happy with his production ... but if you look at his stats, something just seems wrong: he's homer-less. He may be on pace for 72 doubles, but there's something comical about a projected stat line of .268-0-97.

There are those among us brimming with excitement for the 2008 Tampa Bay Rays season. I count myself among the hopeful -- I decided yesterday, along with my roommate, to adopt an AL team to follow in 2008, and based on a combination of exciting young players and a high real-to-fantasy-player ratio on each of our teams, (he has Evan Longoria, I have Scott Kazmir and the recently departed Delmon Young), we've officially chosen the 2008 Rays. We couldn't be more excited for the season to start.

It's good to see someone -- according to the Youtube profile, Rays bullpen coach Bobby Ramos -- seems just as excited as we are.

(HT: You Been Blinded)

I've been pretty critical of the Twins this offseason with some of the moves they made. I didn't mind that they let Torii Hunter go, but I was a little wary of sending Matt Garza to Tampa for Delmon Young. Granted, Young is a very talented young hitter and will help pick up some of the slack for Hunter's departure, but I'm not convinced giving away young pitching talent when you're about to lose Johan Santana is the smartest way to go about things.

Then there is the whole Santana trade, which I felt the Twins didn't get nearly enough in return for. Especially when you see the package Seattle gave Baltimore for Erik Bedard. I've also been highly critical of the team re-signing Joe Nathan for so much money when they could have traded him for good young players, and could have even used some of that money to keep Johan around.

So when they do something right, like I believe they're doing by sending Francisco Liriano to the minors for a while, it's only fair that I give them credit for it.

I love Liriano, but I also fear he's not really ready to come back yet. I was worried that the Twins, who are now without Santana, Garza, and Carlos Silva, would rush Liriano back out of fear they'd fall out of the division race early, and Liriano would only end up getting hurt again.

So sending him to the minors is the safest path. He finished the spring very strong, but that doesn't mean his arm is completely ready for the big leagues yet. Letting him continue to build his arm strength in the minors for a few games will only help the Twins in the long run.