Delmon To The Phillies Funny, But A Bargain

Picture, if you will, Delmon Young playing left field. It probably looks a little like this:

Guh!

Yep, it's all fun and games until the ball comes your way.

However, it's not nearly as bad as it seems for the Philadelphia Phillies, who signed the "left fielder" today.

Delmon's contract with the Phillies is for only 1 year, at a base salary of $750,000. A giant pay cut for a guy hauling in a base salary of $6.75MM last season. Not to mention, for much of the prior season, Young had his glove taken away from him (largely after his arrest in New York) and was limited to DH duties outside of National League ballparks. Quite a contrast in salary coming off a season that included being the MVP of the American League Championship Series.

But that off-the-field trouble he had last season, coupled with his seemingly wasted talent has cost him perhaps a more lucrative contract during the offseason. Aside from being a bad person,* Delmon's modest .267 batting average, his .296 on base percentage (only 20 walks last season, though that's 15 more than he had in 2011) probably prevented him from fielding more offers, maybe even from the Tigers. But this deal for the Phillies could actually work heavily in their favor.

At this rather minimal salary, Philly could hit the proverbial jackpot should he have an even miniscule improvement from the numbers he posted with the Tigers last season. If Young can keep his head in the game, post some better numbers, and even play some marginal defense, this will become the steal of the offseason for the Phillies. Sure, the "if" factor comes in here, but this is clearly a low risk/high reward signing for the team. Let's face it: if DY doesn't work out for whatever reason, it would be 100 times easier to release him at his new current salary vs the Tigers cutting him loose at his old salary. In baseball terms, $750,000 is chump change. This will be a good deal for Philly no matter what kind of year (on or off the field) Delmon has.

(*I don't REALLY know if Delmon Young is a bad person, I just go ahead and assume as much.)

Random Thoughts On An Off Day

It's Thursday, September 8th, the Tigers have an off day, riding a 6-game win streak, your 2 closest competitors face off against each other in a 4-game series this weekend, with 9 games separating said competition.  Things must be going well.

And they are, albeit with a little help.  But for some reason, I am a bit concerned with Justin Verlander.

Verlander now has a 22-5 record after beating Cleveland yesterday.  He hasn't lost since July 15th vs the White Sox.  He seems to be in full control of the American League Cy Young award.

Justin Verlander

But his last 3 starts have been somewhat alarming.  His numbers in that time: in 19.1 innings, he's allowed 9 runs (all earned), 18 hits, 6 walks, has struck out 20, and given up 5 home runs.  That's good for a 4.19 ERA... but the number that jumps out is his WHIP (walks + hits / innings pitched) in that stretch is 1.24, well above his 0.91 that he's averaging for the season.

Far be it for me to assume that the staff workhorse is wearing down as the season goes by, but it's hard not to think about that.  In all 31 of his starts this season, Verlander has thrown at least 100 pitches, with 9 of those starts breaking 120 and 1 beyond 130.  No matter what kind of shape you're in, even the best of us (not me, personally) get worn down.  Let's just hope he's not completely spent by the time October rolls around.  Assuming the Tigers make the playoffs, they'll need him to be ready.  So if in the next 2 or 3 starts I pray that he's pulled with minimal damage and pitches thrown, it won't be seen as the root of all evil that he's not throwing his arm off before the post-season.

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How about that Delmon Young?

Delmon Young

While not exactly fleet-of-foot defensively (watching him run down fly balls in left field is nerve wracking), his bat has been a welcome sight since he was traded to the Tigers from the Twins early last month.  Before he was dealt, he was hitting only .266 with 4 HRs and 32 RBIs... not exactly great numbers that earned him his $5.4M contract to start the year.  But since his trade, he's batting .312, with 3 HRs and 17 RBIs.  He even drew a walk for the first time, bringing that total as a Tiger to... 1.  Okay, that's not ground-breaking, but his early returns from his change of scenery are very good thus far.  It will be interesting to see what the Tigers do with him this offseason, as the organization is left with a minor surplus in outfielders.  So far though, it looks like he likes his new digs and that might be enough for Dave Dombrowski to offer Delmon arbitration after this season is over.

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The Tigers face the Twins this weekend for the final time this season and we may not recognize most of the current Twins lineup.  Last night's Twins lineup featured only 2 players from their opening day roster in the lineup, that being Joe Mauer and Danny Valencia.  The Twins have expanded their roster a bit, bringing up players from AAA Rochester as well as AA New Britain.  With what the Tigers offense has done lately, I'm going to try and hold off reporting a future 9-game winning streak, but it sets up well for the team as the White Sox and Indians battle each other this weekend.  Two or three Tiger wins this weekend could drive those nails further into Cleveland and Chicago's coffin.

Quest for 20

"Must See JV" takes its show on the road, as Justin Verlander tries for the first time in his career to win 20 games in a season.  He faces Carl Pavano and the struggling Twins, who have now lost 6 straight games, and have only scored 5 total runs in that stretch.  Pavano will essentially be asked to pitch a shutout, as he faces off with the potential Cy Young winner.

As for last night's effort, Delmon Young continues to punish his former team.  By punish, I mean having 3 softly hit balls go for singles, getting 3 RBIs in last night's 8-1 Tigers victory.  Rick Porcello, who needed a bounce-back type of outing, struggled over the first three innings, missing his spots, allowing baserunners aplenty, but getting help in each of those three innings by way of the double play ball.  Porcello only allowed a run (also helped with a blown call at first base, which would have scored the Twins second run; instead, ended the inning) and would settle down and pitch into the 7th for his first win of the month.

But for Porcello, struggling early against an offensively challenged team isn't a sign he might turn things around.  He got more ground balls last night, which is a sign his sinker ball might be working again, but his location and command are still questionable.  Naturally, run support would be the key last night, but it's not enough to convince me that he's even leaning back to his winning ways that we saw in the month of July.

Someone who might be back, as far as his control and energy might be one Phil Coke.  Coke, who came in for Porcello last night, pitch an inning and 2/3 of perfect ball, striking out 3 more, and showing Tigers fans that he may still belong in the back end of that bullpen.  Many fans loathed his time in the rotation, but this is the Phil Coke we can all appreciate.  And if the Joaquin Benoit haters can forget that April ever happened, the last 3 innings of any given game will be very much set, assuming Jim Leyland see it this way.

Lastly, for today's Fox broadcast of the game, we will be entertained by Tigers play-by-play man Mario Impemba, and Twins analyst Bert Blyleven, who may or may not remind us that he's now a Hall of Fame pitcher.  As far as these Fox combinations go, this one is tolerable as opposed to the Dick Stockton and Rod Allen experiment earlier this season.  I hate feeling awkward for the commentary when I watch a game.  We all know Rod and his penchant for certain outlandish statements, but it's broadcast dinosaur and potential dementia patient Dick Stockton who should never call a game anywhere again.  His tendency to be forgetful to go with his broken delivery is painful to watch and listen to.

Enjoy the game today.  Easy to say, of course... Justin is too good to miss.

Cy Verlander

A few questions were brought to my attention following another dominant performance by Justin Verlander last night: Why does it matter if his wins come after a win or loss? Would he approach the game any differently? Do the wins mean more?

The first question is easy to answer, mostly because his winning after the Tigers lose helps put at ease the common fans fears that during this second half run, any signs of a collapse doesn't stop the bleeding if he goes and loses.  It's just one game, right?  Except that without Verlander, especially lately, the Tigers record is below .500.  As far as his approach, most of us realize that Verlander is a fierce competitor and he's going to go pitch when it's his turn the same way he would no matter what the Tigers did the game before.  But since it's happened so often this season, we have to take notice, and it has shown that it's rather meaningful since he's now 14-3 in games pitched this season following a Tigers loss.

And I'll concede to some MVP talk too, in addition to the Cy Young award he's almost certain to have won already.  I have said that the MVP award should be given to a position player, mostly since they can't win the Cy Young.  But when you talk about who you give that award to, players are brought up by not only their numbers, but on their team's successes too.  And with those 14 wins after Tigers losses, his 18 wins up to this point, there's not another player that is more important to his team's success than Justin Verlander.  Yes, he's not an everyday player.  But it's impossible to believe that the Tigers would be in first place right now without his services.  The rest of the rotation hasn't been very consistent, and never mind how badly inconsistent the Tigers bullpen has been this season.  As far as the award goes, there isn't a clear cut runaway at this point of the season from any team (that includes Adrian Gonzalez, Red Sox fans: he's SUPPOSED to put up those numbers, his contract says so), so it's hard for me to even fathom anyone taking votes away from Verlander.

In the end, whether or not he goes out there one way or another, Verlander shows up and does what he's supposed to do: win games.  The dominance he brings is just a very welcome bonus.

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We all got a bit of a jolt when news of Dombrowski making a trade within the division (again) happened again on Monday, when he traded a couple of minor league pitchers to the Twins for former number 1 overall draft pick Delmon Young.  At the time of the trade, Delmon was hitting .266 with only 4 HR, and also brings with him very suspect defense out in left field.  The true definition of an underachiever, right?  Well, his first game was a relative success, as he homered in his first plate appearance vs his former team and made a nice running catch in left.  I can only hope the change in scenery will do him some good, perhaps rejuvenate his desire to play up to his potential, especially now that he's back in a pennant chase.  He's still only 25 years old, and it's hard to give up on a guy like that but the Twins (and their fan base) had finally had enough.

Of course, with a couple of the trades DD has made, it might have improved our offense, but if you downgrade an already suspect defensive unit, it may make for a few frustrating games down the stretch.  As usual, I hope I'm wrong here.