Results tagged ‘ Michael Young ’

Lukewarm Corner…

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As reported yesterday, Michael Young has agreed to play third base for your Fightin’ Texas Rangers next year. What is interesting is that the chasm created between the club and their undisputed leader was mended by someone who would probably rather be mending fence, Nolan himself. Since I am late to this party, here are two good articles from the Morning news, here and here. Check out the interview Richard Durrett did with Nolan, it’s well worth the read.

Michael Young’s decline, are we underrating him?

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First off, let me start out by saying, no I don’t think we are necessarily underrating Michael Young, however maybe we are being just a little hard on the guy. I know that his OPS numbers have been declining for the past couple years (his highest OPS was in 2005 when it was .898, last year a very mediocre .741) and he does not hit enough homeruns to qualify himself as a good power hitting 3rd baseman, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for a little bit.

Last year he was playing with two broken fingers in his right hand, which I have no doubt significantly contributed to his dive in offensive production towards the end of the year. He was also hitting behind Joaquin Arias for a good portion of the season while Ian Kinsler was out, something he hopefully will not have to do this season.
He does need to work on cutting down his K’s, though. Since becoming an everyday player, each season he averages around 100 Ks and 50 BBs. Both are middle of the road numbers, but for a player with limited power, he needs to try and cut down on the K’s. Last year he hit 12 HRs with and .284, I don’t think it is out of the question for him to hit .300 with 20 HRs. If he can do this I don’t think anyone should be complaining. If he hits .270 with 10 HRs I don’t think anyone should be surprised to see him traded for a bag of balls.
What kind of production do you think we get out of MY this year?

Michael Young’s decline, are we underrating him?

11277_feature.jpg

First off, let me start out by saying, no I don’t think we are necessarily underrating Michael Young, however maybe we are being just a little hard on the guy. I know that his OPS numbers have been declining for the past couple years (his highest OPS was in 2005 when it was .898, last year a very mediocre .741) and he does not hit enough homeruns to qualify himself as a good power hitting 3rd baseman, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt for a little bit.

Last year he was playing with two broken fingers in his right hand, which I have no doubt significantly contributed to his dive in offensive production towards the end of the year. He was also hitting behind Joaquin Arias for a good portion of the season while Ian Kinsler was out, something he hopefully will not have to do this season.
He does need to work on cutting down his K’s, though. Since becoming an everyday player, each season he averages around 100 Ks and 50 BBs. Both are middle of the road numbers, but for a player with limited power, he needs to try and cut down on the K’s. Last year he hit 12 HRs with and .284, I don’t think it is out of the question for him to hit .300 with 20 HRs. If he can do this I don’t think anyone should be complaining. If he hits .270 with 10 HRs I don’t think anyone should be surprised to see him traded for a bag of balls.
What kind of production do you think we get out of MY this year?

Michael Young to play 3B

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I’ve been out drinking since 5:30 so I’m sure you all are well aware that MY has agreed to play 3B for the Rangers. This is not a surprise, but it is nice to hear. Hopefully Andrus doesn’t have growing pains in ’09 and the pitching staff comes out with an unexpected year. If so we might be looking at being in contention in August, maybe even September.

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