Delmon
Young was the first player picked in
the 2003 MLB draft. He was given a bonus of $3.7mil by the Tampa Bay Rays and
then began soaring through their minor league system (2004: A - .320, 2005: AA
- .336, 2006: .316). He finished 2006 hitting .317 for Tampa (126 at-bats) and
it looked like this was the smartest pick ever made in a baseball draft.
Young’s
first brush with the dark side came in 2006 and probably cost him his future
with Tampa Bay. Young flung his bat at an umpire which ended with a 50-game
suspension. Though he went on hit .288, 13-HR, 93-RBI in 2007, he was traded in
the off-season with Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie, to the Minnesota Twins for Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza,
and Eduardo Morlan.
He played 3 ½
seasons for the Twins but fell victim to a waiver trade to the Detroit Tigers
for minor league pitchers Cole Nelson and Lester Oliveros. He played the entire
2012 season ($6.75mil) for the Tigers, producing 18-HRs and 74-RBIs.
2012 was
also the year where his dark side resurfaced. He was arrested in late April for
yelling an anti-Semitic slur while drunk. He was suspended for seven days and
eventually pleaded guilty to the charges. Strike two.
2013 brought
two more teams. First, Young signed a $750,000 deal with Philadelphia. He hit
.261, 8-HR, 31-RBI in 272-at-bats, but was designated for assignment in August.
He was eventually cut after refusing to report to the minors (strike three).He
finished the 2013 season with the team that started it all (Tampa)
Hitting rock
bottom, Young signed a minor league deal with Baltimore this past season. He
managed to play in 83 games, had 242 at-bats, and hit .302/.337/.442/.779.
Delmon Young
will play 2015 as a 28-year old.
4 comments:
Delmon can certainly hit wit a career average of .283 but he's only posted 1 season with a WAR over 1 in his entire 9 year career (1.9 in 2010). This guy has AL DH written all over him since his defense is rather poor. Bad D + checkered past = no thanks.
On the other hand, when Mets owners think of Delmon, they hear birds chirping:
CHEAP, CHEAP, CHEAP.
I hear they like birds.
Enough already with the "cheap, cheap" crap. Whenever they've had the money they've spent it freely, and Grandy, Colon and CY certainly didn't come "cheap" last Winter.
The knocks on Young are multiple, and if he'd come cheap it's because no one wants him (for good reason).Yes, he can hit, but can't field, nd even if we didn't have Jewish owners, his anti-Semitic rant would rule him out as a New York player.
We had two strikes with Youngs in '14; let's not look for Strike 3.
They opt for cheap, and occasionally spend big. Latroy Hawkins was not cheap enough for them at $2MM, so they opted for Valverde and Farnsworth and crossed their fingers.
They could have signed Byrd, they went cheap and got Chris Young.
Those two non-signings, choosing to go cheap, arguably cost them the playoffs.
They don't have to spend like the Yanks, but there are too many times they go with a really cheap option and hope for a miracle. They got lucky with Dickey and Byrd, but Young and Valverde were really bad "cheap" gambles, when better, more reliable alternatives were there for just a little bit more $$.
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