It’s All Relative

Ryan wrote earlier this week about Delmon Young. I wrote a month ago regarding a column Minnesota Sports commentator Patrick Reusse wrote—before we knew Young lost 30 pounds over the winter (although ten of it was due to illness).

I thought about it, and I’ll expand a little bit on the comment that I made on Ryan’s article, so bear with me if this is a little bit of a repeat.

Let’s look at his first two seasons with the Twins. His first season, he was playing under the pressure of an attitude for a bad reputation. (Remember his altercations with former {Devil} Rays teammate Carl Crawford–which, in my opinion, Young came out looking more mature by only commenting mildly when forced to by the media?) He was on a new team, and likely felt pressure, knowing he was traded for a rather good pitcher. It would’ve been an adjustment year for the young man, learning a new team/system. In his second season, likely feeling the pressure of the first not-so-stellar year, he also had to deal with something no 23-year-old boy should: he knew his mother was dying. Mrs. Young had pancreatic cancer, which was just discovered prior to Spring Training. Delmon Young had to walk into the club house for Spring Training with the very real possibility he might never see his mother again. He had to face the first two months of the season knowing a phone call could come any day. (As it was, he was fortunate enough to be there just before she died. As I mentioned last month, his season did improve.

The year Justin Morneau won the MVP (2006), Twins fans—and apparently MVP voters—were willing to set aside Morneau’s April, wherein he batted an unimpressive .208/.274/.416 at age 25. Twins fans need to let Delmon Young’s age 24 season April (.241/.276/.315) and May (.236/.288/.236).

Second off, let me start with one of my favorite amusing stats. In 2008, Geovany Soto of the Cubs won the Rookie of the Year award. Soto was born January 30, 1983, so he was 25 years old his entire rookie year. He wasn’t particularly young as a rookie, but he wasn’t particularly old, either. A reasonable age for a rookie. That same year, Twins Joe Mauer brought home his second batting title, completing, technically, his fifth full year in the majors (fourth, if you don’t count the injury-riddled rookie season). Mauer didn’t turn 25 until a couple of weeks after the 2008 season started. You don’t often think of a kid winning Rookie of the Year being older than a two-time batting champion. Yet, there we are.

Twins fans have been waiting for a third baseman ever since Corey Koskie left the Twins after the 2004 season. After watching (in no particular order) Michael Cuddyer, Nick Punto, Mike Lamb, Brendan Harris, Tony Batista, and some other random guys whom I’m forgetting, the Twins fans were finally hanging their hats on minor-leaguer Danny Valencia. He’s the up-and-coming hot prospect. The fans don’t expect him to start this year, but the hope is he’ll come up this year, and be the full-time third baseman next year. The fans can accept the wait, because he’s still a young player and they don’t want him called up too early. (This is all arguably. Plenty of people thought he should’ve been a September call-up in hopes of him starting this year, but they’ve accepted the way things are for the moment.)

And then someone mentioned this spring that Valencia turned 25 last fall—September 19 is his birthday. Delmon Young turned 24 this fall—September 14. That’s when it became clear that Delmon Young, despite having been in the majors for three full seasons, was actually a year younger than the “kid” we were all hoping would take over third base. One of his first years with the Twins, in Spring Training, a reporter noted he was sitting with the minor leaguers. They commented on how cool that was, and Young shrugged and mentioned that these guys were his age.

People had a lot of expectations for Delmon Young that he didn’t live up to, and people weren’t willing to forgive. Delmon Young is still very young. There are guys older than him in the minor leagues who aren’t considered washed-up.

My point in this is answering exactly why Twins’ media (both professional and bloggers) seem to be higher on Delmon Young than they have in the past. There’s probably more to it as well (the weight loss—showing a sign of dedication to the game in the off-season—for one), but these two reasons, in my opinion, are a good start of the turn-around in feeling. I just hope the fans can stay calm if Delmon starts slow. After all, as stated earlier, Justin Morneau had a slow start in 2006, and it all turned out okay in the end.

Timberwolves update: They have a 0-4 record since I last reported. They’re now at 14-55, or a 20.3% winning percentage. The have the worst record in the West, but New Jersey has the worst record in the NBA, 7-61, reportedly on pace for a record year.

Wild Update: The Wild have a 34-29-6 record, for a 49.3% winning percentage. They’re not technically out of the playoff picture yet, but neither are the Baltimore Orioles.