If you tuned into Sunday's post-game show and heard the GameDay Chatter segment, also known as the blogger rant, then you were lucky enough to hear my velvet voice coming to you from across the ocean. I wasn't able to hear it, but here's what I wrote...if you've read comment threads over the last week or so, you may find this somewhat familiar:
Delmon Young gets a hard time from fans. Part of what plays against him are the expectations for his ceiling. He was “supposed” to be a five-tool guy, which he clearly isn’t. It takes time to learn a field; to find the ball, to play the wall, how much room you have and how much room you have to cover when you’re playing next to one guy or another; but Delmon just doesn’t move well in the outfield. Even when he made those sprinting catches in foul territory last week, he wasn’t exactly sprinting gracefully, and appearances say a lot about how comfortable you are.
At the plate you can give him a little more leeway, but he already has a great deal of professional plate appearances under his belt. Patience is said to be his biggest issue, but patience doesn’t develop. It’s a trait that doesn't organically happen. Pitch recognition, control of the strike zone; these things develop. These are the things that Delmon needs to work on, because right now he struggles with both of them. If he improves in these areas, he doesn’t have to worry about being more or less patient, because he’s such a talented raw hitter that those two things alone could drastically help his production.
Like I said, people give Delmon a hard time, but they just react to what they see. Still, everyone wants him to succeed. Whether it’s because they’re a Twins fan, because they like him as a player, or because they want something to come out the Matt Garza trade. But ultimately the reason it’s such a big deal, all of this over a 23-year old kid, is because of expectations. And whether it’s fair or not, those are the expectations he’ll be judged on.
Thanks to the Twins and GameDay.