By Jeff Moss
July 6, 2012
DetroitSportsRag@gmail.com
For weeks now, I have been beating the drum that the Tigers biggest need approaching the trade deadline was the acquisition of a #5 hitter who could play a corner outfield position.
The reason for this continued belief is the ATROCIOUS season that Delmon Young is having on every level humanly possible.
I have recited all of the horrid advanced stats that easily make the claim that Young is the least productive player in the American League. When combined with the fact that Young is batting behind two of the best hitters in the American League, the Designated “Hitter’s” production is borderline criminal.
His lack of plate discipline is a running joke on Fox Sports Detroit telecasts because what isn’t FUNNY about paying a guy $6.75 million to swing at the first pitch 75 percent of the time? The guy’s OBP and Slugging Percentage make “Team America: World Police” look like a cancer diagnosis.
I just wish that Mario Impemba and Rod Allen could have broadcasted the Nuremberg Trials. Would have been quite the knee slapper.
Well, it appears that I am not the only writer who believes the Tigers should be working the phone lines to acquire Carlos Quentin or someone of that ilk.
Here is Stark’s reasoning and I couldn’t have written it better myself:
If you click on your handy dandy ESPN.com team stats page, you’ll find something shocking: The Detroit Tigers rank dead last in the AL in OPS, on-base percentage and extra-base hits from their No. 5 hitters. And who IS their primary No. 5 hitter? That would be Young, ladies and gentlemen, the 5-hole occupant in every game he’s started this year. It’s a fairly important job, you might say, hitting behind Cabrera and Fielder. It’s also an excellent gig, considering that those two guys have reached base more times than any other two teammates in the AL. And the leadoff man, Austin Jackson, has a .412 OBP himself. So you’d think a fellow who got to hit behind those three, not to mention a man who was once drafted No. 1 overall in the nation, would be a happy and productive kind of guy. Uhhhh, nope. Young is careening along with as many double-play balls (seven) as homers, a .296 OBP, a 58-9 strikeouts-walks ratio and a .236 batting average (with two home runs in 25 games) against teams from his division. “He couldn’t do less,” muttered one scout, “if he were in a coma.” Oh, and we haven’t even mentioned yet his endearing, off-field arrest for a hate crime. So friends, there’s a term we use for guys who do all that. And you spell it “L-V-P.”
That pretty much sums up the third trimester abortion of a half-season that Tigers fans have had to endure watching DY as the DH.
“He couldn’t do less if he were in a coma.”
“He couldn’t do less if he were in a coma.”
“He couldn’t do less if he were in a coma.”
Just keep reading that and the next time you get mad that the Tigers have a lineup featuring Young, Ryan Raburn and Don Kelly remember that as awful a manager that Jim Leyland is, he isn’t empowered to make trades.
That’s Dave Dombrowski’s bag.
So, like, DO SOMETHING.
Unless DD is in a coma as well.