Dmitri (Sigh) Young. Part One.
ITEM: The Washington Nationals are on the verge of announcing a two-year contract extension for first baseman Dmitri Young believed to be worth $10 million over 2 years.
Where to begin?
First, I like Dmitri. It's hard to root against a guy who has come back from alcohol and substance abuse problems, though I'm not ready to look past his violence against women that often gets ignored in discussing his "troubled past." But it's fun to watch a fat guy, particularly one whose career seemed over, succeed. And he's had a fine year.
But he hasn't really had a great year. He made the All-Star team thanks to a silly rule (every team must have one player on the All Star team), and he has a high batting average. Neither of these impress me much. He's only good at one thing: hitting. And he's not great at it. He's good at it. Better than bad. Not great. Good.
...
There are 22 first basemen with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title (3.1 plate appearances per game). Dmitri Young has the 9th-highest OPS among them. His 59.6 runs created ranks him 12th. While he has been the bright spot to another dismal Bowden-scripted Nationals season, he's an average first baseman. Average. About half the first basemen in baseball are better than him, and about half are worse. Average.
He's also a terrible fielder. I don't fully trust most fielding stats, but he's got the worst fielding percentage among first basemen. He's also got the worst zone rating. He's got the 3rd-fewest putouts among first basemen. He's also terrible when I've watched him play. He's a terrible first baseman.
Where to begin?
First, I like Dmitri. It's hard to root against a guy who has come back from alcohol and substance abuse problems, though I'm not ready to look past his violence against women that often gets ignored in discussing his "troubled past." But it's fun to watch a fat guy, particularly one whose career seemed over, succeed. And he's had a fine year.
But he hasn't really had a great year. He made the All-Star team thanks to a silly rule (every team must have one player on the All Star team), and he has a high batting average. Neither of these impress me much. He's only good at one thing: hitting. And he's not great at it. He's good at it. Better than bad. Not great. Good.
...
There are 22 first basemen with enough plate appearances to qualify for the batting title (3.1 plate appearances per game). Dmitri Young has the 9th-highest OPS among them. His 59.6 runs created ranks him 12th. While he has been the bright spot to another dismal Bowden-scripted Nationals season, he's an average first baseman. Average. About half the first basemen in baseball are better than him, and about half are worse. Average.
He's also a terrible fielder. I don't fully trust most fielding stats, but he's got the worst fielding percentage among first basemen. He's also got the worst zone rating. He's got the 3rd-fewest putouts among first basemen. He's also terrible when I've watched him play. He's a terrible first baseman.
posted by Josh at
Friday, July 27, 2007
1 Comments:
Out of curiosity, where does his reported $10 million salary rank among the other 1st basemen for 2008 and 2009? (Then again, I suppose he's likely to move to the outfield when Nick Johnson returns.)
By
dl004d, at 4:35 PM
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