A Michael Young Thought

As you may have heard by now, Michael Young has requested a trade from the Texas Rangers. It's funny, shitty, and everything in between, for all the reasons you can imagine, and while there's no guarantee that the Rangers will be able to get a deal done, this has certainly added some spice to an otherwise bland and uninteresting lead-up to pitchers and catchers. It's difficult to imagine that team without that player.

I'm not going to go into any sort of analysis of the issue now staring Jon Daniels in the face. Just as Griffey made things uncomfortable for us, Young is making things uncomfortable for them, and regardless of whether or not they find a trading partner, things are gonna be weird. This is a delicate situation, and I don't think I have much in the way of valuable insight.

Rather, I just want to say: picture Michael Young hitting. Where'd the ball go? If you imagined right-center field, there's a reason for that. Since breaking into the league, Young has hit more than a third of his batted balls the other way. For the sake of quick comparison, Adrian Beltre comes in at 26%, and Jose Lopez comes in at 22%.

And what's more is that Young's been good at it. Again, since Young broke into the league, only 11 right-handed batters have hit better to right field, and these are names like Hanley Ramirez and Miguel Cabrera. Going the other way, Young's hit .330 with solid power.

I don't want Michael Young. For a bunch of reasons, all of which you can easily guess. But when you reflect on what he's been able to do to this point, it's clear he would've been a great fit for Safeco Field, as righties go. He's had the perfect approach for their ballpark, and ours.