For all of his rookie season, I had Delmon Young on my fantasy baseball team.
The Minnesota Twins new outfielder -- acquired in a trade that involved Matt Garza, Jason Bartlett and Brendan Harris, among others -- wasn't exactly a hero for my flailing squad.
Young ranked No. 42 among all major league outfielders in fantasy points, behind Michael Cuddyer (No. 35) and Torii Hunter (No. 14). So that's not bad, but he's not the best.
Keep in mind, though, that fantasy baseball is nothing like real baseball. In several statistics that count, Young succeeds.
- Young ranked 10th among major league outfielders in hits, topped only by the likes of Ichiro Suzuki, Matt Holliday, Magglio Ordonez, Juan Pierre, Nick Markakis, Alex Rios, Carlos Lee, Aaron Rowand, Jeff Francoeur. With 186 hits, Young finished in a tie with Vladimir Guerrero and higher than former teammate Carl Crawford.
- He had 93 runs batted in, the same number as Ken Griffey Jr., one of my childhood idols.
- I'll take Young's .288 batting average, too. That is plenty good for a squad led by the following: Jose Morales, 1.000, 3-for-3 in one game; Tommy Watkins, .374, nine games; Luis Castillo, .304, traded after 85 games, when the Twins decided to give up on making the playoffs; Mark Redmond, .294; and Joe Mauer, .293; Torii Hunter, .287, gone; Johan Santana, .286, 2-for-7 in two games, almost gone; and Jason Tyner, .286. Michael Cuddyer, Justin Morneau, and Jason Kubel batted in the .270s. So there are only a few respectable batting averages gracing the Twins' everyday lineup.
See what I mean? Young is awesome.
Sure, he has his down sides. He strikes out, he doesn't take walks, his on-base percentage isn't great, and in the minors he was suspended for tossing a bat at an umpire. So what?
He's got a great up side. And for all the complaining Twins fans do about their team not sending pitching prospects packing in exchange for more power hitters, we got what we wanted.
Oh happy day!