Hello, friends. Ted from APABR here for Sunday duty at Neate's place, and telling you why you should (theoretically) love a ballplayer not in the top tier of MLB hierarchy. Today, we do Chris Young. Wait, you say - we've already done Chris Young. However, THIS is a different one - we earlier did Chris Young of the Padres, a rather large and impressively skilled hurler. Now we're doing Chris Young of the divisional rival Diamondbacks, a smaller but nonetheless skilled OF who has 5 HR and 5 RBI in a 9 for 23 stretch across the last week for Arizona. Didja know the Snakes have the best record in the NL? I didn't. But hey, that's just me. Mr. Young, the floor is yours:- Love him because he went to Bellaire High School in Houston (n.b. I taught in Houston for two years and had friends who taught there), the alma mater of such people as Randy Quaid, John Lucas III, Bubba Crosby, Emeka Okafor, and Chuck Knoblauch.
- Love him because he coulda been relevant sooner. Young was drafted by the Chicago White Sox, but traded after the 2005 (read: World Series) season in the Orlando Hernandez deal. Imagine if Young had been a Geoff Blum esque sparkplug for the '05 Sox.
- Love him because he might be the NL Rookie of the Year. Consider: on August 17th (also known as "Friday"), he hit his 23rd HR of the season, setting a new Arizona rookie record in the process. He currently has 24 HR - tied with Ryan Braun in terms of rookies - as well as 20 SB, which leads all rookies. He's fourth in RBIs behind Braun, Troy Tulowitzki, and Kevin Kouzmanoff, and has a halfway decent .295 OBP. Meanwhile, the Diamondbacks are in first.
- Love him because his September 5, 1983 birthday means he's six years younger than Rosevelt Colvin and Nazr Mohammed, a decade younger than former Marilyn Manson flame Rose McGowan, and was born 14 years to the day before the death of Mother Teresa.
- Love him because his MLB debut - August 18, 2006 - happened to be the 26th birthday of New York Giants outspoken tight end Jeremy Shockey, whom we can only assume celebrated with several buxom women.
- Love him because he plays arguably one of the harder positions in baseball - CF - and is young, yet his defense and offense have been invaluable to the Diamondbacks in their Mariners-esque quest for the playoffs.
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1 comment:
Young just set an NL record - first rookie with 20 HR & 20 SB. He has been considered an elite prospect for sometime, he was acquired in the Javier Vazquez deal with the White Sox.
You describe his OBP as halfway decent, I think the opposite, it's poor particularly for a leadoff hitter.
The guy is obviously a future star, I suspect the OBP will rise as he matures and he will become a middle of the order hitter. Should he hit in the middle of the order now? Is the O Dog more suited to hit leadoff?
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