The Fall of Youk

Kevin Youkilis got off to a dizzying start to the season, hitting .328/.419/.502 prior to the All-Star Break (and those numbers would be higher if he didn’t suffer through a cumulative .264/.395/.368 June). After the Break is a horrific line (just as bad as J.D. Drew for the Drew bashers out there) of .234/.355/.393. What happened? The eye is there, the power has virtually preparedness, and the batting average looks like juxtaposed numbers.

I can’t sit here and tell you how or why his batting average has gone from .291 to .402 to .264 to .219 to .241 to .286 (small sample size in September, but encouraging nonetheless) … or his slugging percentage from .407 to .679 to .368 to .356 to .398 to .500 (see previous sentence in parenthesis).

What happened? Three years of sub-.400 power?

When I watch him at bat, I see glaring holes in his swing that he has no chance of getting. I see fastballs routinely pumped by him. I also see him throwing bats, cradling his hands in his face and screaming (is this why he doesn’t get the same scrutiny as Drew, whose June was virtually as hot as Youk’s May and had other similar month by month lines?). Youk is a very emotional person. I understand and embrace that. However, when I see him chucking his helmet with ferocity, slamming his bat into his ground, walking briskly for a few feet before dumping his head in his arms … that tells me he’s trying too much. He needs to relax (embrace the chi of J.D. Drew) and just hit the ball.

Small aside: Drew rarely shows passion, but that may be because he just simply has it in check, while Youkilis clearly does not. Why one trait is vilified and another is cheered when the popular trait may just be negatively affecting Youk baffles me.

Anyways, Youkilis does great on the inside-high and inside-low corners (.305 and .310 average, respectively) but gets beat middle in at .258, while down the pipe results in a .405 average. He’s also, despite a growing reputation, not showing enough affinity for shooting the ball away: He checks in at a .231 average for away-high and .234 for away low, although he succeeds middle-away (.370 avg). He also can’t get to middle-low (.260) despite an ability to get middle-high (.308). Does it have to do with the crouch? Maybe if he stands a bit taller, he can get down to the middle-low or away-low, instead of having to wrench his body down to meet the ball. Or maybe just the opposite: get further down in the crouch so you can get to the lower pitches.

Youkilis is also dealing with problems from umpires and Yankee fans.

What Youkilis does is emote, sometimes on a grand scale. He throws helmets and bats, grimaces at umpires, looks stricken when he hits a ball hard and it’s caught. Perhaps, it was suggested to him, that rubs some people – the Yankees – the wrong way.

“They play ‘Yankeeography’ on Paul O’Neill every day,” Youkilis said, referring to the Yankees’ practice of showing highlight films on the stadium scoreboard of Paul O’Neill, a beloved former Yankee known for his dramatic mood swings. “So, what’s the problem? I’ve been compared to Paul O’Neill. I know Paul O’Neill. We have the same agent [Joe Bick].

“People find things to hate about everyone. They’re not going to like somebody for this reason or that. What are you going to do? I go out and play. I’m emotional. Some people say, ‘Oh, he shouldn’t be like that.’ Other people say that’s the best thing about you. So who am I supposed to please?

I know I spoke out against his emotion, saying that it may be detracting him. Even though he says here that people conflict on if emotion is a good thing, I have no problem with his emotion. I think it’s a great thing. But I think Youk here is taking it a bit too far. I’ve had the good fortune to attend a number of games today so I can see what folks cannot due to commercial; he really agonizes on his strikeouts. They bother him.

Speaking of strikeouts, they’re happening with increasing frequency. He’s always been prone to the K due to his great discipline, but as the season wears on and his bat slows and holes open up, he’s been racking up the K’s: 12 in April, 14 in May (in 20 more AB than April), 13 in June (April AB totals), 18 in July (not including September, his 73 AB are a season low in this month), 28 in August (May numbers) and has 10 so far in September in 28 AB, which comes out to 30 Ks if he sticks to his April and June AB numbers.

One thing his strikeouts and his skidding offensive totals haven’t done is taken a toll on Youkilis’ defense. Youkilis recently broke the record for consecutive errorless games at first base, is approaching consecutive errorless games by an AL player period, and could win the Gold Glove. Leading the league in fielding percentage (Todd Helton just behind him at .999), he also has a 8.93 Range Factor which ranks 18th among all qualifying first-basemen, but his Zone Rating ranks seventh, which is a better indicator of fielding prowess, as zone rating ranks players on how often they field balls in a player’s “zone” as opposed to straight out range.

While Kevin Youkilis’ September is off to a great start, he has a long way to go towards erasing the memories of May through August and returning Red Sox fans to the euphoria of the start of the season. You wonder why the Red Sox haven’t maintained their blistering hot streak from earlier in the year? From someone who leads off, bats second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth (key spots in the lineup) constantly, that sharp dropoff in production hurts. Fortunately, Youkilis has produced far more often when there are baserunners on the field or in clutch situations than when the bases are empty.

Youkilis will be integral to our hopes for a postseason run, because we’ll need all the offense we can get. Here’s hoping those “Youuuuuuuk” chants don’t turn to boos any time soon.