Why Michael Young Makes Sense For the Red Sox
by witt-k on Feb 10, 2011 10:46 AM EST
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PrintThis is my first Fanpost so please don't judge it to harshly
The recent controversy between Michael Young and the Rangers got me thinking: If he wants to be traded so bad, why not come to Boston? The Red Sox have had a hole at SS since Nomar left, and Michael Young had some of the best statistical seasons (both offensively and defensively) at that very position. Young was moved to the shortstop position from second base at the end of the 2003 season to make room for Alfonso Soriano after the trade of Alex Rodriguez. After he was moved to the shortstop position he was named an all-star five times (2004-2008) and won the All-Star game MVP in 2006. He won the Gold Glove at shortstop in 2008 and the AL batting title in 2005. Young is a career .300 hitter, compared to the .267 career batting average of our current shortstop, Marco Scutaro. Young is also good for 20 homers a year, adding offense to our already stacked lineup. So here is my proposal: we trade Mike Cameron and Jonathan Papelbon (both of which the Red Sox explored trades earlier in the off-season) to the Rangers for Young and maybe a minor leaguer. We move Young to SS and use Scutaro as a bench player. We put Bard in the closing role and see how he fares. The Rangers can now move Feliz to their starting rotation and use Papelbon as their closer and Cameron as their CF with Hamilton in LF. It's a win-win for both teams, in my opinion, what's yours?
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Congrats on your first FanPost . . .
But, frankly, this idea is pretty awful.
Young is no longer a SS—there’s a reason he was moved to 3B a few years ago, and now to DH. In addition, between Lowrie, Scutaro, Navarro, and Iglesias, the Sox are already pretty loaded at SS.
Secondly, trading Papelbon or Cameron—or both!—for Young creates additional problems. If you trade Cameron, you’re now down to just four OF’s, only one of whom is a righty. Similarly, trading Papelbon creates a hole in the bullpen that needs to be filled.
This is just a total non-starter of an idea, frankly.
Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell
Agree
There’s really nowhere to play Young except at 3B, a position that’s already taken. Also, Young will make $16 million a year until 2013. Paps and Cameron come off the books after this year.
I gotta go 'cause I'm probably definitely gonna nod out again.
by Drugs Delaney on Feb 10, 2011 11:17 AM EST up reply actions
Yup
It’d be a wreck of a deal both for the present and the future.
Over the Monster -- SB Nation's Resident Red Sox Site
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Feb 10, 2011 11:27 AM EST up reply actions 1 recs
and with
gonzo, ellsbury, buccholtz, ortiz, papelbon, wheeler, salty, lowrie all ready for new deals that money will be needed even if 4-5 of those players leave for other teams.
"Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die."
im gonna be all up on you like a spider monkey!
by remembering9ergods on Feb 10, 2011 12:34 PM EST up reply actions
Yeah...sorry, no.
We have absolutely no place to put this guy. We have two very good-potentially excellent shortstops in Scutaro and Lowrie. There is no reason whatsoever to complicate that matter any more than it is.
We gonna put him at 2B? Nope. We gonna put him at 3B? Nope. Does he want to be a bench player? Nope. Do we even want to spend $16 mil a year on a bench player? Triple Nope.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
Age, Money, Assets & Lowrie
Those 4 in some order
by BobZupcic on Feb 10, 2011 11:44 AM EST reply actions 1 recs
Plus...
… I’d buy stock in the colossal meltdown of Halos Heaven in the event that they trade something (really, anything) for Young, just to speculate. Maybe not likely, but that’s one high ceiling in terms of fun.
"Laser show. So relax."
by nuthinboutnuthin on Feb 10, 2011 12:49 PM EST up reply actions
Forget that
Buy stock in popcorn — we’ll need a lot of it if the Angels give up anything useful for Young.
I keep hoping...
… this was, along with the ideas we threw out there about trades for Soriano and Zito, one of the big fears on HH after the Wells trade. Apparently the two are friends, and it seemed to some of them that Wells and Young would lobby to play together in Los Angeles.
As much as I like Young as a player, his prime is behind him and the same reason I’d love to see him somehow end up on the Angels for the meltdown it would cause at HH is why I don’t want him on the Sox… $16 million a year for somone without a starting position doesn’t make sense to me.
Young’s contract is a problem..
It is better to pick him on waivers, than trade him a dead weight for dead weight trade. Even if there was room for Young, I still wouldn’t pursue him.
Young is better off going to a place like the Dodgers or the Giants, if they have problems at third base, but there is no point for the Sox to pursue him. He is not really a DH, and We have a top rate 3b under a long term contract..
The best trades are the ones that a GM passes on, and this is one the Sox have no really interest in pursuing. Young is better off going to a NL team, who have room to take his salary, which means it has to be a top revenue earning NL team.
Would you pursue him if...
he had a less monstrosity of a contract? I believe he is still a good offensive player and still has some gas in the tank in the defensive department. I believe we could get him soley for Cameron, so if that was the case, would you do it?
Wittkowski
If he could be had at a decent price the Rangers wouldn't be looking to move him.
And a whole lot of other teams could offer a lot more then just Cameron. Cameron’s trade value is nil at the moment; hes coming off a terrible year and finally showed that he is 38 years old. On top of that hes making a lot of money next season. Unless the Sox agree to eat a chunk of his salary hes not going anywhere and certainly not for Michael Young straight up.
We haven’t even considered the fact that Young wants out of Texas because of the constant shuffling and lack of a clear starting job. He’s certainly not going to find what he wants in Boston.
Regardless of his contract I do see the reason to do this
You would be giving up depth in the bullpen, OF, and your bench for Michael Young. I think he is a solid ballplayer but I think Cameron and Paps are solid too. I dont think he is a SS anymore and I dont think he is an upgrade over Scoot or Lowrie, especially considering his contract.
The Sox are fine at SS with 2 top 10 SS’s in all of baseball. They have 2 young kids in the minors ready to come up in the next couple of years. You dont give up depth on a World Series team for a mediocre player that plays a position that you already have covered. Just my opinion though.
Michael Young is one of the worst defenders in baseball
He shouldn’t be on the field let alone playing shortshop. Have you even looked at the guy’s career defensive stats? It’s only a matter of which metric hates him more.
SS: Career UZR of -55. Total Zone has -47. Defensive Runs Saved has -83. That’s not a typo. Despite hitting .300 for his career with power at a position where that kind of bat is rare, he’s only exceeded 4 WAR ONCE because his defense is so abysmally atrocious. If you like DRS or TZ, he cost his team 31 runs with the glove at SS in 2005 alone. And he was 5 years younger when that happened, and at least putting up an .899 OPS so you could feverishly close your eyes and pray the ball didn’t go near him.
He’s only played 3B full time for 2 years and he’s already racked up -13 on UZR, -13 on TZ, and negative freaking 31 on DRS. He’s 34, offensively declining, and you want him to play shortstop for the Red Sox? Lackey would chokeslam the guy then rip off his head and punt it into the bleachers after his first inning there.
What errors?
Seriously—I don’t see any there. . . .
Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell
I read it through after lone1c...
… and I didn’t find “shortshop” either.
It’s like that old exercise where if you put the right first letter and the right last letter of a word in a string of sentences, our mind still interprets it correctly, for some reason.
For isntacne, I wlil proeced to denstoratme hree.
This is also why you should always let someone else proofread anything before publishing it. Your mind will see the word you intended more often than it will see a mistake.
If Young fought back and killed Lackey instead, would we still owe his family his remaining salary?
Because I might be willing to take that trade.
don't like who we are giving up for this trade
strongly consider either cam or p-bomb, but not for an expensive guy with no where to play as a starter.
however, if we could get a 3 team deal that included scooter and whatever else and end up with young as a utility infielder with lowrie starting at short.
young is also at rightie batter that could spell papi
however one of baseballs rules of thumb is to stay away from trading with texass. those guys are horse traders by birth.
but i would love a deal that was favorable (who wouldn’t) and got us murphy back.
that would work with me
Thank You
I just wanted to say thank you to all who commented, because to be honest I was afraid to make this fan post. I was afraid someone would come on here and call me stupid for even considering this or whatnot, but no one has done that. So again, thank you for making me feel welcomed into the community.
Wittkowski
Welcome aboard!
Discussions get heated here sometimes, but we try to be pretty considerate, all things considered.
Also, most of the other lads and lasses tend to rely on some pretty in depth statistics, so things like batting average and gold gloves won’t carry a whole lot of weight in most arguments, just so ya know.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
Yea I thought about the stats..
but I’m an old school guy and I go by those stats, but it seems I’ll have to step up my game and start using more in-depth stats
Wittkowski
Never hesitate to put out your opinion.
The people on here are definitely considerate even when they disagree with you. Most of them are really really into their Sabermetrics. I like some of those stats myself (the few I understand) but I dont think you can just absolutely ignore some of the old stats. The guys and girls on here disagree with me on most of my opinions because Im a little old school and I love playing devil’s advocate. It brings out the best in the numerous knowledgable people on this site.
I look forward to your future Posts.
And a frightful overlord.
Galactus does as he pleases. Because Galactus is drunk.
@#$%ing Twit: @blogtard
Weak, Sandy.
He alliterated. You must alliterate back.
Over the Monster -- SB Nation's Resident Red Sox Site
USG
by Ben Buchanan on Feb 10, 2011 7:17 PM EST up reply actions
Actually, that's "assonate against your accuser," but who's counting?
Fenway: "An alternate and better universe, disguised as a ballpark." --Thomas Boswell
I'm the only guy on this site that likes Michael Young
he’s a very good player nobody seems to appreciate.
But with the way we are now constructed, I no longer want him on the Red Sox.
!!!!! GONZO !!!!!
!!!!! CRAWFORD !!!!!
!!!!! LIVERPOOL !!!!!
I like Michael Young...
… though, probably the version from 2005, as I was also oblivious about those defensive statistics that got posted above. I have a hard time believing he was that bad defensively, and still leaves me wondering how they get to those numbers.
However, because of that contract, there’s no way I’d go near him now. I also just don’t see a position for him on today’s Red Sox: rather see Pedroia/Lowrie in the middle, and obviously prefer Youkilis/Gonzalez on the corners, and Big Papi in the DH role.
So… yeah, I like Mike Young, but still gotta pass.
I wouldn't call him very good.
He’s had his ups and downs,but he’s about a 2.5 WAR player. Far from “very good”.
embrace the martian
Twitter: @BoldandBrash
by BoldandBrash on Feb 10, 2011 11:09 PM EST via mobile up reply actions
Here's a good one
Going by Defensive Runs Saved, in 2009 Young cost the Rangers 18 runs at 3B.
By the same metric, in 2009 Adrian Beltre saved the Mariners 21 runs at 3B.
A 40 run difference between two guys at the same position is just ridiculous. It’d be like the difference between Carl Crawford and David Ortiz in CF.
Wait... are you saying...
… Carl… oh, wait… Crawford. Right, Crawford.
Wow… I don’t know why but I read that as Carl Everett vs. David Ortiz the first time through.
I have no idea how I confused Crawford and Everett, but since I am now laughing, I figured I’d share my misread with the rest of you. For a moment, I was wondering whether Carl Everett had really been a big defensive improvement over, yes, even David Ortiz in CF.
We have Jenks Now...
but i still don’t agree with getting rid of Papelbon. He is a top Closer in the MLB it would not be a good idea to get rid of him though
by TheonlyJagsfaninSD on Feb 14, 2011 10:08 AM EST reply actions
No on Young
Lowrie has to be given the SS position untill he proves able, or not. Scut is an ideal backup, Cameron will prove to be invaluble and Pap is likely to be better then last year. I do like Young and believe the Rangers should keep him and put him on 1st. He could be a rare player that spends his entire career with the team that signed him.
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