Delmon Young, and the potential tragicomedy called the 2013 Phillies
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Delmon Young, and the potential tragicomedy called the 2013 Phillies
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
A baseball player, a lawyer and a rabbi walked into Ruben Amaro Jr.'s explanation for signing Delmon Young yesterday, and now a once-proud baseball team enters 2013 as a potential off-Broadway farce. In contemplating the general manager's justification for acquiring the 27-year-old outfielder, who in April of last season was suspended after a drunken confrontation that included his allegedly hurling an anti-Semitic slur, you can't help but wonder if the whole thing was an exercise in gallows humor. The punchline isn't that the Phillies' next right fielder had just wrapped up an afternoon of picking up dog droppings in Central Park, or even that Young's exit from perdition was aided by a rabbi and a Jewish lawyer who vouched for his character (the lawyer happens to be his agent). One of the defining characteristics of the American pastime throughout the years has been its remarkable tolerance for intolerance. Besides, what Young requested of the assembled media at Citizens Bank park yesterday is an opportunity that all of us feel we deserve.
"Get to know me," he said, "and then make judgments for yourself."
In the same vein, an honest assessment of character probably requires more than just the cursory due dilligence that Amaro says he performed, or the sessions with a rabbi who also happens to be a long-time Tigers season ticket holder that Young and his agents say he had. In fact, one of the lessons in myth-making that we've received over the last few weeks is very little of what we read or hear about an athlete should be considered a valid representation of his nature. That being said, while few of us know enough about Delmon Young the human being to render an honest verdict, the same cannot be said about Delmon Young the baseball player. And this is where we pick up on our comedy.
The Phillies signing of Young is little more than the latest maneuver in a remarkable two-year run in which everything that Amaro and Co. say they are looking for in baseball players turns out to be inversely proportional to the prevalence of those characteristics in the players they end up signing. Last offseason, they said they wanted a younger lineup that had a better approach at the plate.
"It’s not just about the home run," Amaro said after the Phillies fell to the Cardinals in the National League Division Series. "We just don’t have same offensive team that we had in 2008. We have to realize that and work with it … We should have more .300 hitters."
By the start of spring training, the Phillies had acquired 41-year-old power-hitting designated hitter Jim Thome (.256 average, .361 OBP, 3.0 AB/SO the previous season), 31-year-old power-hitting outfielder Laynce Nix (.250 average, .299 OBP, 4.0 AB/SO), and 34-year-old power-hitting infielder Ty Wigginton (.242 average, .315 OBP, 4.8 AB/SO).
This year, the buzz phrase has been "pitch the ball and catch the ball," usually repeated as a comparison to the world champion Giants.
"It's about pitching and defense and playing the game the right way," Amaro said on one of a number of occasions.
On another, he said, "The brand of baseball that we played I wasn’t real happy with, and I don’t think Charlie was either, and that’s playing winning baseball and we just didn’t do that all that well."
With three weeks to go before spring training, the Phillies have traded away they youngest starting pitcher in Vance Worley and one of their top pitching prospects in Trevor May. At third base, they have penciled in 36-year-old Michael Young, who last played the position in 2010 and who spent the bulk of last season as a designated hitter (hitting .277/.312/.370 in the process). In Kevin Frandsen, they have signed a utility man who has played primarily at third base and second base in his career, which could force them to think about keeping another utility man who can back up Jimmy Rollins at short stop.
And to cap off the offseason, the Phillies now welcome in Delmon Young, who was so bad at defense that he played mostly at designated hitter last season, and who was so bad at designated hitter that his best option for 2013 was to accept a $750,000 contract from a National League club.
That club, the Phillies, now plans on using Young as their everyday right fielder, a position he has not played since 2007, pairing him with a left field situation that features a converted first baseman in Darin Ruf and an unknown in Domonic Brown who apparently has so little offensive upside and defensive dependability that he has spent most of the last two seasons playing behind Raul Ibanez and Hunter Pence and could do the same in 2013 behind Ruf and Young.
The irony in all of it is that the Young signing makes some sense, at least in a vacuum (more specifically, a morally-nebulous vacuum). In fact, the Phillies offseason as a whole makes some sense. Rather than pay inflated prices for lackluster commodities, Amaro brought in players who at least give him a chance to net returns that exceed his investments. The problem is that he forced his own hand over the previous couple of seasons, trading away two of his top chips for one year of Hunter Pence, then relegating Brown to the minors and thus delaying the finding-out process, then failing to take advantage of a post-2011 market that featured a glut of veteran corner outfielders known for their power and approach, Josh Willingham and Carlos Beltran to name two (one could argue that the first domino fell even earlier, when the Phillies traded after the 2009 season, which later forced them to trade for Roy Oswalt, who was later re-joined by Lee on a monsterd deal, instead of holding onto center field prospect Anthony Gose, whose absence necessitated the trades of Worley and Revere. And so on).
The result is a roster that looks like a product of necessity instead of a big-picture plan. Phillies fans can only hope that it does not turn out to be a laughing matter.
- That's before the ankle surgery. We stand a chance of seeing some of the worst defensive outfielding of our lifetimes. To Murphy's theme, a comedy in any other city, a tragedy here.
We can hope he proves us naysayers wrong. The problem is every year the Phillies overplay the odds on hope. Some is okay but it's rare for too much hope to materialize.
This signing puts me where the combo of Thome/Wigginton/Nix had me last year.— s - So tell us, genius, who those players are that could be had and just how would Amaro get them without trading away a good player? — mike l
- Obviously it's not easy. But that's what Amaro gets paid for. As Murphy points out, a lot of the flexibility he lacks is his own doing.
From an armchair, I would have tried to trade for more than Revere even if it meant giving up a so-called good player. Our players can't be that great if the team is doing worse each year. It's a matter of balance and getting the right players. Sometimes you give up a good player for that balance and to lower your payroll.
A trade route that was discussed at the trade deadline and again this offseason that I would have considered would be Cliff Lee if he could bring in either a young elite outfielder or third baseman. His contract is only going to look worse as he gets older. It might have left us with less than stellar pitching this year but helped us in the long run. And with the wins he got last year, an upgrade in offense and a cheaper middle of the rotation guy might have been a very good trade-off. I think we'd have to eat some of his salary to do that.
Second, if I got to where we were before Delmon Young, I'd have gone with what we had and put the money into another bullpen arm. That would help us ride the pitching to the trade deadline while we see what guys like Brown and Ruf have to offer this year.
I don't see Delmon Young as a positive for an NL team. I'll be happy if he proves me wrong. He's had 6-7 years to hit this ceiling he has. Ruf is less than a year younger. I'd rather give Ruf the shot than give Young another shot. Ruf is very likely going to AAA if Young is not on the DL and isn't waived before opening day.— s - mike, the best hope for the Phillies is to stick with and support the talent that they have. Say you are trying to make it as a regular big leaguer and you have some talent, like Brown, Mayberry, or Ruf. You are pretty excited about the season and your opportunity and then you find out your team goes out and gives a veteran piece of garbage like Laynce Nix his first major league deal of his career or a joke like Delmon Young, who they will pay him more to be slightly less fat than he already is than you get paid period and anoint that garbage your ideal starter?
Then if you do get to play a bit, the first time you have a rough game you get banished to the bench while other guys struggle all season. Check out last year. John Mayberry was supposed to be the regular left fielder. He started out fine, went 0-for-4 one game and was benched for weeks. I'm not saying those guys have proven anything, but they are already at least as good as Young, Wigginton, or Nix and they have upside.
The good teams win because they know how to get the best out of their players and get solid contributions from unexpected places, you know, like the World Champion Phillies who won the World Series because the Rays literally couldn't Jayson Werth out and got there largely due to timely contributions by Shane Victorino.— jtj06 - attitude can be a good thing. my favorite player was Manny Ramirez. i'd rather have iconoclastic players than players who are scared. do your thing delmon and put up some numbers this year.
- Look, there were no great bargains out there this year, so I think Amaro is looking to next year. He went all in to get this team back to the series and it was the players not holding up their end, either by lackluster play or injuries. Amaro's signed some short-term low cost players to get through this season. All teams have to reload sometime. Phillies time is now.— mike l
- You and I may agree more than you think. I was on the fence entering the offseason as to whether they had one more shot to make a run with Halladay and Lee. My feeling was they needed an offensive upgrade, via a trade or by taking a gamble on Hamilton, to do that. No one else is a difference maker.
So go with the idea that they didn't do that are instead looking ahead to 2014. If that's the case, then why keep Lee? He's two more years past his prime in 2014. You could move Halladay for the same reason but I doubt that would be easy. So let him walk in 2014. Let Utley walk too. Might as well also try to move Rollins since in 2014 he's at the end of his career and not the beginning. Hamels would be the only untouchable in the rotation if I were looking to 2014. And Biddle in the minors. Second, why have a guy like Delmon Young take playing time away from guys like Ruf, Brown and Mayberry? If you've yanked two of those guys around for a few years trying to win it all and don't know what any of the three really have and now you're saying "forget 2013, go for 2014" then 2013 is the time to put them out there every day and find out once and for all what you have and stop hedging.
As someone else noted, the moves feel like there's no plan. More like a Frankenstein approach, piecing things together with the hopes they all work as a whole. I'd applaud Amaro if he decisively decided to bag 2013 and reload for 2014. But to do that he'd have to have the cajones to make the moves that go with that decision.
— s - Here's the problem -- Amaro gets ripped off in just about every deal. Why would any rational observer think RAJ is in a position to have a "re-tool" year? How will the guy who traded Lee for scraps, Pence for garbage, and Victorino for trash be counted on to "flip" the over-paid veterans (who got overpaid by RAJ himself) on this team for some young talent? I am pretty sure other GMs salivate when Rube-the-Boob calls. He is incompetent. He is a poor judge of talent. He has assembled a horrendous team w/ the 2nd highest payroll in the N.L. Amaro looking to next year is like the captain of the Titanic looking past the iceberg ... — Copper34
- You have to separate his competence from his plan. They're two separate issues. Yes, he may not be competent enough to carry out the plan but you have to first start with the plan.
I'm not sure what this year really is. I assume it's one final shot to ride Halladay and Lee to a title. But, if so, I feel like he's only half-in on that. Being full-in means he'd overspend to take that one final shot. It means a serious run at a guy like Hamilton or more cupboard-baring trades for a power RH bat like Justin Upton. Delmon Young as part of a shot? Let's get real here ... You think Halladay and Lee aren't wondering about that outfield behind them?
But Delmon Young also makes no sense if the idea is to start over in 2014. Sure, he's just a year deal but he also takes playing time away from guys you need a full evaluation of by next winter.
So, in short, I just don't get what the plan is.
Regardless of the competence factor, Amaro will get a lot of room for 2014 regardless unless he signs some guys to extensions. eman has pointed this out several times. Utley and Halladay almost certainly off the books. Ruiz and others could.
I think the organization as a whole isn't realistic about how far in the past 2008 is at this point. Because of that I think their judgement is clouded and that leads them to having no definitive plan.— s - The other point Murphy makes about the Phillies saying one thing and doing another is one I agree with. It annoyed me last year when they talked about a change in approach at the plate then trotted out the same basic lineup and the same hitting coach. Pierre was a small change but he was more accidental than planned. Beer Leaguer (http://www.beerleaguer.com/) has a piece on how the Phillies could see their OBP drop even further with these offseason moves. It's a good (and short) read. A key except with some stats to digest and get indigestion from:
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The Phils could see their team OBP drop in 2013 for the fifth straight year. Gone are free-swingers Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino, but in are free-swingers Michael Young and Delmon Young. A fun little stat: the Youngs and Ben Revere combined for 82 walks last season ... the exact number Jayson Werth had in 2010, his final year with the Phils.
Simply put, this lineup is built to put the ball in play. The two Youngs grounded into 46 double plays last year and walked 56 times. Sad, really.
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I said earlier that with a better bullpen and more normal contributions from the starters we could bridge the gap from last year and make it as a wildcard. But that prediction had one key caveat: The offense can't get worse and has to get at least marginally better. Obviously Young is just one guy but I don't feel like they're really done anything to move the meter in the other direction. It could happen with bounce-back years from a few guys. That puts us back on the hope-and-a-prayer long odds path. Not a good place to be.
Meanwhile Justin Upton and Jason Kubel are apparently still in play.— s - At this point, the Phils remind me of the Eagles, making one dumb move after another to "get back to the Super Bowl," and all the while skidding towards 4 and 12.— eaglescali
- If the Phillies (or Eagles for that matter) are going to sign low-character dirtbags, can't they at least find low-character dirtbags who can actually play?— TVGuy22
- If Young "allegedly" slammed a Catholic or Muslim, would Ruby had consulted with leaders of THOSE religions?— Shawshank
- With the Brave's acquisition of J Upton, Young better be the second coming of Willie Mays.— johnny eagle
- We are reduced to hoping this "Core" can get back some of the magic, the pitching staff can pitch well and guys we signed don't kill us. The Phillies are older, have traded away most of the desirable Major League talent and are hoping for the best. We don't have the money or talent in the minors right now to do anything else. We went all in to "Win Now" and didn't. Let's hope it works out or we'll repeat last year. Then we blow the thing up.
JackInSicklerville— JackInSickerville
