What Happened to Delmon Young?

(Photo by Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

However from June 6 to the end of the season, Young picked it up a bit. Through the rest of the year, he hit .304/.346/.443 with 10 homers and 18 doubles. As a 22 year old, he was a high BA guy, with emerging power and improving plate discipline.

But this season he has regressed back to his early 2008 state, even worse. For the first time as a pro he can't even hit for a high batting average, hitting .256 on the season. His BB rate is down under three percent, his OBP under .300, and he's hit only 2 home runs so far.

The question is, how does a guy who was such a huge prospect for so long, a guy who had the scouting reports and minor league numbers to be a star, continue to struggle so greatly as a MLB player.

First let's start with the one big positive—the batting average. The way he maintains such a constantly high BA is hard to understand. He makes contact about 80 percent of the time—solid but nothing more. And he has little power.

His first year, the big thing was, he really did have a great line drive stroke, hitting 21 percent line drives in his first season. That LD% has gone down to around 17 percent with the Twins though, taking away his best skill.

In Minnesota, his GB% has spiked to around 54 percent, yet his BABIP is around .350 for his career. Hitting a bunch of hard liners and groundballs would explain his high BABIP to a degree though, so we can understand the average.

But his power is simply gone. His career minor league slugging percentage was well over .500. His career MLB slugging percentage currently sits at just over .400. While those grounders might help his batting average a bit, they are completely sapping his power. He also has no plate discipline at all.

The average MLB player will swing about about 25 percent of pitches outside of the zone. Young, for his career, has swung at about 40 percent of them.

When you look at what pitches Young has struggled on, it's the breaking pitches. At least in his first season he did great with fastballs. He was 12.3 runs above replacements on fastballs during the 2007 season.

But he was also 14.9 runs below replacement against sliders. Since then he has improved dramatically against the slider, but his strength—fastballs—has now become a bit of a weakness. He just can't hit anything now.

The thing is, if you want to know what went wrong, look at the difference between his rookie year and his career in Minnesota. In his first year he was a high BA, high line drive hitter with solid power, who dominated fastballs and struggled with breaking pitches.

He was 21 though, and he had plenty of time to get better. He couldn't draw a walk, but there was some promise. Since coming to Minnesota his BA has dropped, he's not hitting nearly as many line drives, his power has gone away completely, and he's not killing those fastballs.

My best guess as to what exactly happened to Delmon Young is complicated. Young was obviously mishandled by the Rays, who rushed him to the big leagues at 20 years old. He has so many holes in his game, and his attitude could be preventing him from fixing those holes.

Young was a very good prospect, but there were warning signs. We knew he wouldn't draw enough walks, we knew the power wasn't exactly following him to the higher levels, and we knew he had attitude problems. Those first two problems followed him to the big leagues but almost looked manageable. The third problem may not be.

In the end maybe that scout was right. Delmon has all the talent in the world, but he will only be as good as he wants to be. He doesn't seem mitigated in Minnesota, and when he doesn't want to play well, he doesn't play well. 

At times he's a fastball murdering, line drive hitting, power hitter who doesn't strike out all that much. But at times he looks lost at the plate, a light hitting outfielder who's only in the lineup because of his arm.

This shows us just how unpredictable the minor leagues are. You can't get much more "can't miss" than Delmon Young. He had it all from a prospect standpoint. The scouting reports loved him and he dominated at every level. But he just hasn't made it in the Majors. But here's the thing.

Young is 23 years old. Twenty three. He was born a month after David Price. And he's certainly shown plenty of talent. Maybe, just maybe, it's not time to give up just yet. Delmon Young might just end up being as good as he wants to be.

This article was originally published at FantasyBullpen.com. 

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