Delmon Young To Be Featured On ESPN’s Outside The Lines

We are still waiting for the International League to annouce the length of Delmon Young’s suspension, which likely won’t occur until early next week. In the meantime, Young will be featured on Outside the Lines tonight on ESPN. The show, hosted by Bob Ley, will air at 11:30. Among the more interesting topics to be covered, will be Young’s history of on-field incidents. In fact, this most recent event was not the first time he has initiated physical contact with an umpire, nor is it the first time Young has thrown a bat at somebody during a game. All of these incidents are likely to be of great influence as the IL decides Young’s fate.

Delmon Young Video [Rays Index]
ESPN show on Delmon Young tonight [Montgomery Advertiser]

How Good Will Delmon Young And B. J. Upton Be?

note: This was a post we wrote about an hour before the news of Delmon Young came over the wire. As far as we are concerned it is still relevant, especially in regards to B. J. Upton. Obviously Young’s “value” has taken a significant hit since his incident, but exactly how much is difficult to determine. He is still an extremely talented player.

While predicting how good a player will be is anything but an exact science, Nate Silver over at Baseball Prospectus has developed a formula called the PECOTA system which is highly regarded. In short, the formula gauges the value of all professional baseball players based on how good they are NOW and how good they project to be in the FUTURE, taking into account certain factors such as age, ballpark, injury probability, past stats, scouting reports and a little bit of gut feel. Topping the list of current and future value are Albert Pujols, David Wright and Alex Rodriguez. Certainly, none of those guys are a surprise. Two D-Rays prospects cracked the top-25. In fact, B. J. Upton (#25) and Delmon Young (#16) are two of only three minor league players in the top-25, and the third is Upton’s younger brother Justin Upton. Very few minor leaguers make the list. As you would expect, it is very difficult to project future value for minor league players. In essence, Baseball Prospectus is calling them can’t-miss prospects. Interestingly, they make note of Upton’s 0.35 years of Major league experience. The D-Rays will be able to delay his arbitration eligibility an extra year if they wait to recall Upton until June. We are trying to be patient and agree with the team’s philosophy of waiting until these prospects are ready, but we have to admit, we are getting antsy. Feels a little bit like Christmas Eve and we can’t get to sleep.

Baseball’s Most Valuable Players [ESPN.com]

Delmon Young Video

We were hoping that no video existed of the incident involving Delmon Young throwing a bat at a minor league umpire Wednesday night. However, in this day and age, it is a little naive to think that something would not be caught on video. Alas, there is video of the incident at youtube.

A couple of our own personal observations:

1. The “tossing” of the bat is actually harder than we imagined it would be. When eye-witness accounts described it as an “underhanded toss” we pictured the bat moving very slowly with a bit of an arc, as if Young was just tossing the bat in the direction of the umpire. We even wondered aloud if maybe the bat hit the ground and bounced before hitting the umpire. None of that is true. The bat was indeed thrown with a good deal of force behind it. Young is very lucky that he did not hit the umpire in the head. Quite frankly, we can’t get ourselves to watch the clip more than once. It is to upsetting.

2. We are glad for Young’s sake and the organization’s sake that he is not actually seen in the video throwing the bat. Somehow we think that is better. Many have compared this incident to the Roberto Alomar incident in which he spit in the face of an umpire. Personally we think it is more like the Pete Rose incident when he maliciously shoved an umpire. However, in the Alomar incident, when the replays were shown, even years later, the tape always slows down so you can see the rage in Alomar’s face and the spit leave his mouth. While people will remember what Young did, without him in the video, it won’t leave such an indelible mark.

That being said, we believe the suspension will fall somewhere between 30 and 50 games. It needs to be more sever than the Pete Rose suspension (30 games) but less than the Ron Artest suspension (in terms of percentage of teams games).

Delmon Young throws bat at umpire after striking out [youtube.com]

Delmon Young Sticks Up For Striking Minor League Umpires

Last night, the Tampa Bay Devil Rays’ top prospect, Delmon Young, threw his bat and hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young, who plays for the AAA-level Durham Bulls, had just been ejected for arguing a called third strike. And just like that, the Future of the organization just took a big hit. At the very least, Young, who was named Baseball America’s 2005 minor league player of the year, will be suspended for a significant portion of this season, if not for the entire year. He will have to carry this stigma with him for the rest of his career. Every game he plays, an opposing announcer will mention that Delmon Young is a “hot-head” and will bring up the time that he threw bat at an umpire. In addition, umpires will not forget this incident and it will be a long time before another umpire gives Young a close call, even if this umpire was a scab. Delmon Young once complained publicly that he should already be in the majors and that the ownership of the Devil Rays was were holding him back so that it would be longer before he hits arbitration eligibility and free agency. Delmon Young voiced publicly that at 19 he was ready for the major leagues. Anyone that has ever seen Delmon Young play, says he is a 5-tool, can’t miss prospect. Well, apparently last night, he was missing the 6th tool, his brain, and it is going to cost him dearly.

There are no quotes from Young, however C Crash Davis stated, “Look at that! He hit the fucking umpire. Guy gets a free steak!”

Below is a link where you can listen to the audio feed from the radio broadcasts of both the Durham Bulls and the Pawtucket Red Sox. It is still difficult to tell exactly how severe the incident was. The Durham announcers suggest that Young just gave the bat a slight underhanded flick towards the umpire, while the Pawtucket crew indicate that it might have been more viscous.

Young hits ump with bat after ejection [milb.com]

[UPDATE] Here is another link. This one is an eyewitness report. First of all, earlier reports had the bat hitting the umpire in the chest. This witness says the bat hit the umpire in the legs. More importantly is how “viscous” the toss was. It was underhanded. It was not violent. But it was premeditated. Young was walking back to the dugout. After about five steps, he turned and tossed the bat at the umpire. He clearly thought about it and acted on it. He was not in the middle of a heated confrontation. It was clearly unprovoked.

Saw it with my own eyes [raystalk]

[UPDATE] Young has been suspended indefinately by the International League. In essence, the league has not had enough time to conduct a thorough investigation, and will make a final decision on the length of the suspension once the investigation has concluded.

Rays’ Young suspended indefinately [devilrays.com]

Delmon Young Was Very Naughty

During tonight’s Durham Bull’s game, Devil Rays top prospect Delmon Young threw his bat which subsequently hit the home plate umpire in the chest. Young had just been ejected after arguing with the umpire about a called-third strike. There is no word yet if Young intentionally threw the bat at the umpire. Either way, he is facing a suspension. If the action was intentional, the suspension will be lengthy.

This is bound to be a very public story for two reasons. First, Young is considered the top prospect in all baseball. Second, the umpire that Young hit was a replacement umpire as the minor league umpires are currently on strike.

Highly-touted prospect throws bat at umpire [Yahoo! Sports]