Comments on: Chris B. Young Optioned to AAA

By: Bob

Bob — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 03:48:09 +0000

“He is still young. Hopefully, he can get his swing back, and get a promising career back on track.”…Get his swing back? I would argue that he has never had a swing or plate discipline. Young has played three full seasons at the major league level. He his OBP has been .295, .315, .297. Over the past 50 years, there have been a very small percentage of players who have started their careers with OBPs that low while getting that many ABs for three years. A Dave Kingman and a few Ozzie Guillens. None of them would be considered satisfactory in a lineup today. Given the contract, Arizona needs to face the fact that Young is the next Corey Patterson…for the next three or four years.

By: Brian Cartwright

Brian Cartwright — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:33:46 +0000

Just when I thought the definition of a pop up was something we could all agree on, more so than a line drive!

By: SD

SD — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 00:17:04 +0000

Phenomenal graph and information!

By: Dave Allen

Dave Allen — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:32:51 +0000

Brian,

I think there are two issues here. First is that I was sloppy in my terminology, the numbers I quote are for infield flies. These are a subset of all pop ups. I should have been consistent writing infield fly the whole time not pop up.

The other issue is with classification. I used the BIS batted ball classifications, not the Gameday ones. I know they differ. For example the FanGraphs page says that Joel Pineiro has given up 23% FBs (BIS data), while the StatCorner page says he has given up 19% FBs (GameDay data). They are both through 593 batters faced. So the classifications can be quite different.

It is just another reason why it will be so nice to have the HITf/x data and we can use the vertical angle off the bat instead of the discrete, and at times disagreeing, batted ball classifications.

By: Brian Cartwright

Brian Cartwright — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 19:05:28 +0000

I like the analysis, but have some disagreement with the popup pct numbers quoted. From my own Gameday database, I do show Young with far and away the hightest popup rate in MLB in 2009, at 23.9%. His previous three years were 11.9, 12.2, 11.3, pretty consistent.

Next in line in 2009 (with over 300 PAs) are Joe Crede 18.5, Y. Betancourt 15.0, Mike Jacobs 14.4, D. Navarro 14.2, Rod Barajas 13.8 Carlos Pena 13.3. Average is 7.4%. At the bottom are Joe Mauer and Derek Jeter at 1.1%

By: rizzo

rizzo — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:12:02 +0000

I think it’s interesting that while his swing rate on fastballs up is much higher than the norm, his O-Swing % and Swing % in general are fairly low. He used to be known for swinging at breaking balls low and away. I wonder if in fixing that problem he’s got himself thinking so much that he can’t pull the trigger on hittable pitches, he’s traded swinging at one type of bad pitch for another.

By: Michael

Michael — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:10:03 +0000

Please Dave, do not stop doing these graphs. They are excellent. Well done.

By: Stealfirstbase

Stealfirstbase — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:07:00 +0000

Young has a $28 million contract, I believe, over the next four or five years, so the D-Backs have to stick with him.

Once again, though, I tip my hat to Kenny Williams. He traded Young at the peak of his value, got good value in return in Javier Vazquez, and then traded Vazquez for a stud prospect in Tyler Flowers. Oh, and having Young meant that the D-Backs were willing to trade Carlos Quentin. All in all, this series of deals has been a huge, massive win for KW. It’s deals like this that make up for the Nick Swisher mistake.

Remember how the Young/Vazquez trade was universally hated online when it was made? KW 1, Universe 0.

By: Jonas F.

Jonas F. — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 18:03:16 +0000

I can provide a bit of the swing analysis, I played professionally for a couple of years and am a college coach. In watching an at-bat on you-tube, I see a few things. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GlWfYCFAkh0). First of all, a lot of major leaguers do things with their swing that you would not teach a “normal,” player, mostly because I would say they are freaks with their talent, and can get away with somethings. However, even if they start odd (youkilis), they all for the most part end up at the same point at contact. When you look at Young however, he starts his hands very high. That is fine, but they need to come down into the zone at a better angle, closer to 45 degrees. Youngs hands, from what I can see, do not get lower soon enough, so he attacks the ball at a much steeper angle. Physically speaking, you would then assume that because of a higher angle towards contact, he would hit more chopping ground balls. But if you look at his balance after his swing, and focus on his head in particular, this is where the problems occur. Your head is the heaviest part of your body, and when your head falls over the strike zone, the rest of your body will follow. Therefore, his hands are not attacked the ball, and his bat head is dropping, all due to his balance and head movement. You can do this little experiment. Get in your stance, facing the pitcher. Tilt your head to the side, so that you are looking at the pitcher slanted, and have your hands follow your head. When you start your swing, what happens is that your front elbow will get higher, and you will then lead your swing with that elbow, the knob of the bat will go up, and your bat head will drop, creating a weak uppercut. The fact that young swings at such high pitches, it is physically impossible for him to hit those with authority with his swing because his bat path is so out of whack. The lazy infield flies always occur with players are doing this, because they just knick the high pitch from underneath. I would venture to say that he hits the low pitch better, just because that is how is swing is designed. A lot of players with uppercuts can thrive (Dunn, tex) because of pitch selection. Those players love the low pitch, because they can drop their hands, and let the bat path take care of the rest. Young, seems to not know that his swing type does not match his pitch selection. Hopefully this makes some sense.

By: marc w.

marc w. — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 17:48:23 +0000

Once again Dave, you’ve presented some great information with an even better visualization. Top notch stuff. I may need to make a ‘praise Dave Allen’ macro pretty soon.