The Twins' New Guys, Part 5: Delmon Young

Delmon Young

Delmon Young was acquired by the Twins on November 28, 2007, as the centerpiece of the deal with Tampa Bay that sent Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett, and Eduardo Morlan to the Rays. Delmon was drafted by Tampa Bay with the #1 overall pick in 2003. He was considered a top prospect at the time, even drawing comparisons to Frank Robinson. Scouts were extremely impressed by Delmon's canon arm and power potential at the plate. In his first two years in the Tampa Bay minor league system, Delmon showed the power numbers, hitting 25 HRs at A-ball in his first season, and 26 HRs between AA and AAA the next season. His slash line for the first two minor seasons were a very good .322/.385/.538 and .315/.354/.527, respectively. In 2006, Delmon began the year at the AAA level and eventually was called up to the major league club. However, he hit just 11 HRs in over 450 ABs between the two levels. The drop in power was also accompanied by a decrease in OBP, as he walked just 16 times in over 450 ABs, including just one walk at the major league level. Despite mediocre numbers with the major league club in 2006, Delmon was the starting left fielder for the Rays in 2007. Delmon proceeded to play in all 162 games for the Rays, posting a .288/.316/.408 line, which corresponds to a 91 OPS+. These numbers were good enough to earn Delmon runner-up in the rookie of the year voting (Dustin Pedroia won the award). The Twins traded for Delmon, clearly hoping that he would leave up to his power potential that he showed in his first two years in the minors with Tampa.

Season in Review: In his first year as a Twin, Delmon Young certainly was not the player the Twins were hoping for. He was the epitome of an average player. He was a fixture in left field, playing in 152 of 163 games. While its nice to have a durable player who can play every day, he was not especially impressive defensively. Delmon committed 8 errors in left field and consistently struggled to track down catchable balls. On the plus side, Delmon did display his strong arm, gunning down 11 base-runners and probably preventing others from trying to advance. Offensively, Delmon went through stretches where he showed promise, but overall, his numbers were very similar to last season. He was third on the team with 10 HRs (such a depressing stat for the team) and fourth in RBI with 69. Overall, he posted a line of .290/.336/.405, almost exactly what he posted last season with the Rays. However, there was some improvement this season. Delmon improved his OBP by 20 points over last season, which he did by talking a base on balls 5.7% of the time, compared to just 3.9% last season. He also struck out 18.3% of the time, compared to 19.7% of the time last season. Although Delmon can still be classified as a "free swinger", he had a slightly more discerning eye at the plate as a Twin.

Outlook for Next Season: I think that Twins' fans should be at least a little bit encouraged from what we saw from Delmon Young this season. The fact that he improved his BB% and lowered his K% is a very encouraging thing. We saw this season that when Delmon gets a good pitch to hit, he can hit it hard and a long way. The problem is that he often doesn't wait for his pitch. It would seem that Joe Vavre instilled in Delmon the importance of being patient and waiting for a good pitch to hit. Now, of course, I don't believe that Delmon will ever have the eye of Joe Mauer, but if he can continue his improvement in this regard, I think he will be a decent player. And as I mentioned before, it would seem that you can pretty much pencil Delmon in to play left field in every game, which is positive, despite his average defensive ability. I think that Twins fans will be happy with what they see from Delmon Young next season. I think he'll hit for a bit more power out of the gates and have a solid season.

Synopsis: After a full season of watching Delmon Young, its hard to know what to say. I guess my overall impression of Delmon is that he is an extremely frustrating player to watch. Watching Delmon take poor routes and look generally lost in left field at times was pretty tough to watch. And early in the season, when all he did was hit weak grounders to second, I think most Twins fans were ready to call him a bust. But, he definitely improved, at least in terms of his hitting, as the season progressed. The most frustrating thing for me personally, though, was that every time I thought he was finally improving and gaining a more discerning eye at the plate, he would proceed to have a horrible at-bat, where he would swing and miss at every pitch, no matter where the pitch was located. That has to stop. He needs to learn to be more patient, especially in key spots, with people on base. 

Despite my frustrations, I think (as I said in the outlook for next season) that there's hope for the future. I believe that we saw some of his power potential this season. Although he didn't hit many HRs this season, when he did hit one, it went a loooooong way. I mean, he hit some mammoth blasts this season. As I keep saying (and will probably continue to say), if he can just wait for his pitch, the one he can handle and blast, he can hit for a lot more power. But his approach needs to change. The other thing that I believe is really encouraging with Delmon is his ability to hit the ball to the opposite field. He does this really well, almost to a fault. A guy like Carlos Gomez and even Justin Morneau, who get into stretches where they try to pull everything, can get into prolonged slumps and need to correct their approach. Delmon Young is more like Joe Mauer, going the other way all the time and we've seen what Joe has done with that approach. I'm not saying that Delmon Young will ever be as good as Joe Mauer, but there's reason to be encouraged. Overall, I don't believe that Delmon Young is a bust, like some Twins fans do. He had an average year this year, but did show improvement. I look for Delmon to improve even more next year and have a bigger year. And if he doesn't, well, the negativity of Twins fans might just drive him out of town.