FanPost

Addressing the cries to get rid of Delmon Young

What a crazy season it has been so far. A few months after winning the world series the Tigers lost the ALCS to the Texas Rangers, we learned that Victor Martinez had gotten hurt, and would be out for possibly the entire 2012 season. Some of us here talked about maybe signing a veteran to play DH. But then, the front office pulled off a great heist and signed Gerald Laird! (G$ has been great but the real surprise obviously was Prince.)

With Prince stationed at first base, Cabrera moved to the hot corner. There would still be a few months without Victor, so who would play DH? Victor led the league in AVG with RISP, so his consistent production would be hard to replace. Well Prince has taken over Victor's role in the offense rather nicely, and Cabrera's move to 3rd eliminated the need to keep Wilson Betemit or trot out Binge daily. Many Detroit hitters were thrust into the DH role, from Brandon Inge to Ryan Ra(y)burn. I'm sure Don Kelly got to play DH at least one game.

Delmon Darmarcus Young is bad at fielding. His throwing arm is not very good. He is not a disciplined hitter whatsoever. He's not particularly fast. He's also bad at growing mustaches. I know that his WAR is terrible, but let me tell you statheads a little secret: I'm 97% positive Jim Leyland does not care about WAR or any sabermetric. (See Boesch, Brennan/ Raburn, Ryan). Like I said earlier, Delmon is a well below average defender, but right now he is filling the DH role fairly well.

PLAYER A: .264 BA 7 HR 37 RBI .347 OBP .388 SLG 79 H 116 TB 77 SO 343 PA

PLAYER B: .271 BA 10 HR 37 RBI .298 OBP .413 SLG 84 H 128 TB 60 SO 326 PA

PLAYER A= Justin Upton PLAYER B= Delmon Young

I have seen some people say that we should send a package that involves Jacob Turner to the D-Backs for Upton. Why? We have Upton 2.0!(kidding) I know that Upton is having a down year by his standards and will undoubtedly bounce back, but this is just some perspective. Delmon is not having that bad of a year at the plate, and in the DH role he will contribute positively despite what his WAR may say. No, I do not think Delmon Young is as good as/better than Justin Upton, what I'm trying to say is that even though you may not like his at-bats he is still an important piece of our lineup. With Berry fitting nicely in the 2 slot and playing solid defense in left field Delmon is free to be a full time DH. I think that we should just leave Delmon alone and let him do his thing. He may have terrible facial hair, he may be kind of portly, he may be a little racy, but he's our Delmon.

This is a FanPost and does not necessarily reflect the views of the <em>Bless You Boys</em> writing staff.