Delmon Young is a 26 year old utility outfielder who has a troubled history. A 50 game suspension for hitting an umpire in the chest with a bat, an up and down career full of promise never realized, and now an alleged incident where he shouted anti-sematic epitaphs at a group of four men, visiting New York from Chicago. One of the men suffered minor scratches from the altercation. Young was arrested around 3 am and was reportedly, ‘highly intoxicated.’
Delmon Young was selected 1st overall by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in the 2003 draft. He spent two seasons with the D-Rays and then started a stint with the Twins. Young spent an arduous four seasons filling Twins fans with hope that he would turn out to be the stud player they hoped for after he left Tampa Bay. He had a good 2010 season which allowed him to sign with the Detroit Tigers. Signing with the Tigers looked like good fortune for the team that employed his older brother, Dmitri Young, and for Delmon. A fresh start on a young team that has serious hopes of contending looked to be the remedy to his up and down career to this point. Young is signed to a one year contract for a mere $6,725,000. He is a free agent at the end of this season and one would think he would like to make this a productive season.
Young is beginning to remind me of a different outfielder who had some serious attitude problems. Milton Bradley had an 11 year MLB career marred with several attitude problems, played for 8 different MLB teams, and was a serviceable outfielder at the major league level, but he never found a home. He had issues with umpires, coaches, and fans, and that ultimately lead to his demise as a MLB player. It would be a shame for Delmon Young, who is on his 3rd team since 2006, to possess such amazing physical skills, but because he can’t harness his rage, never get to see what he could have been. Far too often we see professional athletes who can’t control themselves and this seems to be no different.
Young is a career .287 hitter with 818 hits, 72 HR’s, and 413 RBI’s. He is only 26 years old. If he wants to see those numbers continue to climb, he needs to get his anger in check and do what is expected of him. It was just reported that Delmon Young will not be playing with the Detroit Tigers this evening. What a shame.
I wonder what Dmitri Young is thinking right now…..
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