Domonic Brown, Delmon Young, and the misnomer that is a platoon
It seems like the Phillies will need to look for a reason not to have Brown as their starting right fielder on Opening Day.
Domonic Brown, Delmon Young, and the misnomer that is a platoon
David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer
Most baseball seasons, we end up asking questions about a platoon, and whoever is answering those questions usually grimaces and says that he does not like the word platoon. Which makes sense. Because the word platoon suggests an equal distribution of duties between two or more individuals charged with accomplishing a specific task. In the army, a platoon might be charged with clearing an enemy stronghold, with individual soldiers as platoon members. In baseball, the task is manning a position, and the individuals are usually a right-handed batter and and a left-handed batter. Problem is, the duties can't be distributed equally, because there are far more situations that require a left-handed batter than a right-handed batter, because there are far more right-handed pitchers in the majors than there are left-handed pitchers.
Take, for example, the first two weeks of the Phillies' regular season schedule. Thanks to the fine work by Jason Martinez over at MLBDepthCharts.com, we can quickly piece together a projected slate of pitchers that the Phillies would likely face if the season were to start today:
- April 1 - Tim Hudson (R)
- April 2 - OFF
- April 3 - Kris Medlen (R)
- April 4 - Mike Minor (L)
- April 5 - Wade Davis (R)
- April 6 - Bruce Chen (L)
- April 7 - James Shields (R)
- April 8 - Jon Niese (L)
- April 9 - Shaun Marcum (R)
- April 10 - Matt Harvey (R)
- April 11 - OFF
- April 12 - Jacob Turner (R)
- April 13 - Ricky Nolasco (R)
- April 14 - Henderson Alvarez (R)
Delmon Young, OPS and PAs vs. RHP
To put the above numbers in perspective, the left-handed Domonic Brown has a career .736 OPS in 383 plate appearances against righties (.243/.324/.412). So Brown's career mark against righties is significantly better than the mark Delmon Young has posted against righties in five of his six professional seasons. Which is why I wrote today that I fail to see any benefit in the Phillies entering the season with Young as their every day right fielder. As Dennis Logue (@denlogue) wrote on Twitter this morning, "Every criticism of Brown also applies to D. Young. Plus, Young is older. . ."
I raised this point to Charlie Manuel yesterday. He said, and I'm paraphrasing, "That's why we're going to throw them all out there (in spring training) and see what happens."
Thing is, Manuel also said that Delmon Young is a question mark for Opening Day, and will likely be behind in spring training, because of an ankle surgery. So it is getting to the point where it seems like the Phillies will need to look for a reason not to have Brown as their starting right fielder on Opening Day.
Even if Young is healthy, I don't see the sense in using him as anything other than the right-handed complement to Brown in right field or Laynce Nix in left field, with Darin Ruf or John Mayberry as the other right-handed complement.
was with you until "or Laynce Nix in left field." Not sure even w/ his LH bat he deserves more than a pinch hitting roll with a career .253/.297/.447 against RHP. I'd rather give one of the younger players a full time shot than run nix out based on handedness.— mjb12981- I want to start with Ruf and Brown. And only if they don't work out, then replace them with one of ther others.— cloudkitt
- likewise for me, I'm rooting for Ruf and Brown to get the lion's share of the opportunities in the spring and in the regular season thereafter. Nix should be relegated to the main LH pinch-hitting role off the bench, Mayberry as the RH-hitting version of that plus as a late inning defensive replacement.
D. Young? I'm hoping he remains inactive long enough at the start of the season to give Brown and Ruf the opportunities they deserve.— advantasux - Agree with all the above. It is torturing logic to talk about Nix as the primary occupant of left field. The two corner outfielders with the greatest upside are Brown and Ruf, and they should be given a chance to sink or swim.— Dave Clemens
- @advantasux: bro, where do you get off using sound logic when you're dealing with the rube and rinkydink roadshow? sheesh.— bubba church & granny hamner
- @bubba, for once, I thought I'd go light and give these other posters a break, while sticking to the issue at hand. When I saw what @cloudkitt wrote, I realized I was rooting for the same thing - Ruf and Brown over D. Young, at all costs - and went that way.
Had I been more on my game, I would have written that because these decisions represent sound logic and also rely on Manuel's fair treatment of young guys instead of coddling his veterans, this suggestion has NO SHOT!
But I decided to not write that today to give other people a break for once.
Got it? I can imagine you fell off your chair when you read my tame post above...sorry for the shock. Us old guys can't afford to shock each other like that!— advantasux - I got a bad feeling about Ruf....— Jim M.
- Dave - Good job continually pointing out how the numbers don't show that Delmon Young is necessarily going to offer anything over Brown. Plus he's a horrible defender. The best thing for all might be having Young start off on the DL, getting Brown a stretch of consistent starts and using Mayberry against lefties.
It's pretty bad when, on paper, Nix is your best defensive corner outfielder. I'm not against starting Nix against RH pitchers and easing Ruf in depending on how spring training goes. We can also see how Ruf responds in a late game PH role if that's the way it starts.— s - As I've asserted before, I am sure that Murphy put a LOT more thought into this article in looking at the schedule than anyone on Phils staff has --including Chollie or the Clueless Rube ..indeed Chollie has never tried to think more than 2 minutes ahead of whatever is going to happen in his whole life, and as for rube he can't be bothered by small things like actually ever watching film of anyone or looking at their stats or doing any actually evalutaions of players' strengths and weaknesses— warbiscuit
- agree with @war, Murphy's advance-planning on behalf of the team he covers is like a great work of fiction to both Manuel and Amaro. It relies far too much on logic and strategy, and doesn't leave enough room for deciding who plays simply based on Manuel's need to coddle veterans at all times and at all costs.
On a related front, I had to laugh at the posters who castigated the pitcher Cruz on his way out of town. The guy did the math and knows what the Phils are all about - at best, one job is open on the ML roster and spring training hasn't even officially begun. Decisions are already made long before P&C report and the guy was smart enough to know he wasn't a publicized pick-up by Amaro so he had next to no shot to come north in April.— advantasux - @advanta. Good afternoon, my friend. Agree with the Ruf/Brown comment and I also thought the same thing when Cruz never signed the contract. He saw the writing on the wall, or, it could have been a verbal agreement with Amaro that was never consummated by Amaro. It wouldn't be the first time Amaro went back on his word to a player.
- @ghost, was hoping to cross paths with you today or soon. Saw your excellent back-and-forth with DRR two nights back on a different thread, and then saw your blitzkrieg yesterday on another story (about half the posts and all the responses were yours. Can't seem to find that article anymore, otherwise, I'd tell you the title of it).
Anyway, I've been a day late, dollar short the past couple days, and am happy to have caught up with you and the main crowd again. Too many articles to know where the action is!— advantasux - Neither you nor Murphy put much thought into anything that you say. Charlie is exactly right in his statement that "we'll throw them out there" and see what happens. It is February 15 and the season starts in April. Those past stats are just that. Past!— oakmontleo
- Go with the kids. Fill with the vets. Hope for the best.— tomficara
