A few bloggers on Twinkietown enjoy beating Mr. Young mercilessly over the head, so, in his defense, I decided to write up a Fanpost, presenting everything I have in his defense.

Minor League Seasons:

Delmon Young graduated from Adolfo Camarillo High School in 2003, whereupon, he was drafted first overall in the 2003 Players Draft by the Tampa Bay Rays.  By 2005, at the age of 20, Young had progressed to Double-A Montgomery.  He hit .336 with 20 homers, 71 RBI, and an OPS of .968 in only 84 games.  He won the Southern League MVP award despite playing 84 games (half a season).  Young was then promoted to Triple-A Durham on July 15 of the same year.  In 52 games, Young batted .285 with 6 homers and 28 RBI.  *I believe that it was at this point that Young began to press.  He was rushed through the system to much by Tampa, and, thus, he could never get a firm foothold in AAA ball.

In 2006, Young, while playing for Triple-A Durham, threw his bat at an umpire after being called out on strikes.  Young issued an apology the next day saying that he did not intend to hit the umpire but that it was still inexcusable for him to throw the bat.  The International League suspended Young indefinitely, but then on July 26, 2006, recanted their position and declared Young suspended for 50 games.  Young had the option to appeal the ruling, but wisely chose not too and accepted his lumps.

Major League Seasons:

Tampa Bay Rays:

On August 28, 2006, Tampa Bay called Young up after putting Johnny Gomes on the Disabled List.  His first major league game came against the Chicago White Sox and occurred on August 29 2006, ten years to the day after his older brother Dmitri played in his first major league game.  In Delmon's first major league plate appearance, White Sox pitcher, Freddy Garcia, hit Young with a first-pitch fastball.  After striking out in his first official at-bat, Young stroked a curveball for a 412-foot two-run home run, which was his first major league hit.

Young blossomed in 2007 and finished with a .288 avg, 13 HR, 38 doubles, and 93 RBI.  As a 21-year-old in 2007, Young finished second in American League Rookie of the Year voting to Boston second baseman, Dustin Pedroia.  Not too bad for the young Mr. Young.

On November 28, 2007, the Devil Rays traded Young, along with Brendan Harris and Jason Pridie, to the Minnesota Twins for Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza, and Eduardo Morlan.

Minnesota Twins:

In Spring Training, Young batted .361 with 2 doubles, 1 homerun, 7 RBI, easily locking up the starting left field spot for the Twins.

While Young started off rather slowly for the Twins in the first few months of the season, Young started to hit in June and continued to scald balls into the outfield.  Young finished with a .290 avg with 28 doubles, 10 homeruns, and 69 RBI.  Aside from a little drop-off in doubles and homers and also RBI, Young had an almost identical season as in 2007.  Young also hit 4 triples in 2008 compared to his 0 in 2007.  Young does not have very good plate discipline which is one of his faults.  He strikes out about 3-4 times as much as he walks.

Young's natural position is RF, where in 2007, he committed 7 errors but had 16 Outfield Assists.  Young switched to LF for the Twins, who thought that since he was so young, he might be able to better adapt to the change than the aging Cuddyer.  Young committed 8 errors in left field for the Twins, the most for left fielder in the majors, but his 11 outfield assists led all left fielders in the majors.  While Young is not the best at fielding, he does posses a cannon of an arm, although it can be a little erratic at times.

Comparisons:

For comparison, his brother, who is a respected ballplayer, has gone through his troubles, yet has had a nice and productive career.

Fangraphs.com has this to say about Delmon Young:

"Not to sound like a broken record, but Young’s age must be taken into account when assessing his production. He will be only 23 years old in 2009, an age where most prospects are just seeing their first big-league action. Via Baseball-Reference, we find that Carl Yastrzemski and Roberto Clemente rank among Delmon’s most comparable players through age 22. To show just how wide of a range of outcomes are possible for his career at this point, Jose Guillen (a former top prospect who never lost his hacking style) also ranks among his 10 most comparable players.

Delmon Young has been something of a disappointment and needs to stop playing a slap-hitter’s brand of baseball, but it would be foolish to consider him a bust at this point. The truth is, there’s a wildly divergent range of scenarios for Young’s career path. It’s possible that his patience never develops and he remains a disappointment, but it’s also quite possible that he re-discovers his power stroke, fine-tunes his control of the zone and establishes himself as a valuable commodity. Given that he has several years of development time remaining, Young must be kept on the fantasy radar screen."

While Young can be very disappointing to Twins fans (to the point of taking a baseball bat and crushing your television), we must take into account his youth and his very big potential.  Fangraphs sums it up the best, because he could turn into a bust, like many prospects end up doing, or he could turn into a very nice ballplayer with good power and on-base-percentage.  However, that is yet to be seen, and so while we can all grouse about Young and point fingers, but let us not judge, less, in turn, we shall be judged.

With Malice toward none, with Charity for all....