I’d be interested to see if far smart people than me can use Hit F/X to determine if batted balls come to left fielders differently than they come to right fielders. Maybe balls come off lefties’ bats differently than righties’ bats. [snip] I have a vague feeling that the ball slices more off lefties bats than righties….

General rule is that all fly balls hit to the OF move toward the nearest line. Usually balls hit the other way have more slice than balls that are pulled (i.e. a ball hit by a righty to left will generally hook less than a ball hit by a lefty will slice). Also, batters tend to have more power when they pull the ball, which affects positioning and jumps.

I grew up playing CF (generally faster than the competition in high school and summer ball). Then in summer ball in college played RF (no longer as fast as the guys in CF, but my arm was usually strong enough for LF). My college team was too good to justify giving me any PT, but during intrasquads I played mostly RF, with some LF.

I hated LF. Never felt comfortable reading the ball off the bat because I wasn’t used of being out there. No amount of fielding practice helped because when someone is trying to hit flyballs with a fungo, the ball generally has very little tail/slice (the coach is generally facing toward you, rather than actually pulling the ball or hitting the ball the other way). The only good option is to shag balls during BP, but even that isn’t a really good substitute. If Delmon Young sticks in LF and his defense improves to where he was in RF in 2007, I think what I said above will be vindicated.

Some guys play enough at both corners that you don’t see a lot of difference in their defense. but I think for guys that play almost exclusively on one side of the diamond, moving to the other side takes a definite adjustment. Mentally, it is easy to tell yourself “Everything is a mirror image, just react accordingly.” But getting your body to respond is a different story. In my case, I was used to expecting everything hit by a righty to tail to my left quite a bit (meaning balls hit to the RF gap would tail back toward me and balls toward the line would tail away). Balls hit by a righty also wouldn’t carry as far. I never played enough LF for my body to react in the opposite way, so my routes and reaction in LF were noticably worse in LF than RF, plus my comfort level and confidence were worse.

This is just my limited experience and my talent was so far beneath the guys at the major league level that the grain of salt you need to take with my comments would feed 1000 deer for a year. Sorry for the long, slightly personal, slightly off-topic post.

but maybe that’s just what Bill James warns about: your eyes decieving you.

Bill James? I thought that was Obi-Wan Kenobi.

with this new front office, we can feel safe that not every rumor that would make the team worse will come to fruition.

What this new front office is doing is really demonstrating how much this was true with the old front office.

We’d hear rumours that something dumb might happen that would make the team worse, and almost invariably that did happen, and it was even worse than we’d heard.

We came to expect bad news. No news really was good news, because all the news we got was terrible.

This season, GMZ is in for some very positive game thread emotion over at LL, I think.

(quick aside, Delmon Young’s career UZR/150 is -0.4 in RF, but -16.6 in LF. I believe he spent most of his minor league career in RF and it is entirely possible he is capable of playing league average defense, but just hasn’t adjusted to LF yet. Speaking as a guy who played OF into college and now in adult leagues, I believe this is possible. I grew up playing CF and RF and have never, ever been comfortable in LF. So maybe Young’s LF defense will improve with more time there or if he could get shifted back to RF.)

Washburn + Clement –> Delmon Young –> Clement-like talent = win for M’s

What do you notice about that equation? How about the fact that Washburn’s salary gets dumped? And honestly, moving Clement of other young talent might make sense. I think most everyone still believes in Clement’s bat, but the M’s have plenty of young catching prospects. Moving Clement would free the M’s from having to worry about Clement’s defense and about some of his injury problems. Plus it would allow them to get a player in a position of more need.

So I’d be all for the deal if the plan was to flip Delmon Young. To summarize the positives:
(1) Dump Washburn’s salary
(2) Don’t have to worry about Clement’s defense
(3) Don’t have to worry about Clement’s injuries
(4) Have plenty of young catching prospects behind Clement
(5) Get value similar to Clement at position of greater need

I don’t support the rumor if the idea is to keep Delmon Young. He is still ridiculously young (23, 2 years younger than Clement!) (pun not intended). But he’s getting to his arbitration years and has stagnated the past couple seasons (with the exception of an improving BB%). One big problem is that he hits way too many ground balls for a guy that was supposed to have power (55.2% in 2008, up from 46% in 2006 & 2007). Even when he does hit the ball in the air, he’s not hitting many HR (7.6% HR/FB in 2007 and 2008).

So if the idea is to flip Delmon Young, who are some possible partners?
(1) Nats – I include them in every discussion of a toolsy outfielder. They already have a crowded OF, but Milledge for Young straight-up could work out well for the M’s (the Nats seem tired of Milledge already). Milledge and Young are the same age, but Milledge is under team control for an extra year, he’s shown a better BB rate and more power in the majors, and he is probably a better defender (-8.7 UZR/150, mostly in CF, whereas Young is -11.8, mostly in LF and RF, so Milledge’s numbers would presumably go up with more time in LF since UZR compares players at the same position).
(2) Braves – great farm system, but they might not buy into Delmon Young.
(3) White Sox – they want to get younger and have shopped Jermaine Dye in the offseason. Their farm system is pretty poor through. It would be funny to see the M’s turn Jeff Clement into Tyler Flowers.
(4) Reds – this could actually work. Reds have a decent farm system and an old school GM.
(5) Indians – also have a decent farm system. Not sure how convinced they are that Francisco and Choo can be their everyday corners (though I don’t know how Young could be considered an upgrade at this point). Matt Laporta could be a piece.
(6) Rockies – good farm system, Young could replace Holliday in LF.
(7) Royals – don’t really need an OF, but I include them in every trade discussion because Drayton Moore is looking like a pretty bad GM lately.
(8) Mets – I don’t love their trade pieces, but they could use a corner OF.
(9) Giants – Sabean has had a good offseason, but I also think he is the kind of GM who might overpay for Delmon Young.

I could easily see one of these teams giving up a Clement-type prospect for Delmon Young.

Acting like these guys best friends won’t help you guys any – these guys are right some of the time, wrong some of the time – so develop your own thoughts and don’t just adopt theirs ok? That’s called having your own opinion, lol.

So what if, thanks to the statistical enlightment this site (and sites like Fangraphs et al) has given me, I come to those same conclusions, on my own? Am I still just sucking up to fuel an ego? THERE’S LOGIC IN THESE NUMBERS PEOPLE! This is no bandwagon. This is good common sense based in reality rather than historical convention. Get used to it, cause this is the way it’s going to be more and more.
On this rumor, I also hope it’s just that. Although, with having so many good young backstops, if they’d take Rob Johnson, I’d do it. Also, any thoughts as to whether this move, which could free up that abreu money, could be similar to a Heilman where we could free that money, sign abreu and flip young? Just wondering if anyone has heard of any other teams interested in young, as if anyone could pull a move like that off, Z has shown us it’s him.

Do you really think people will take you seriously when you say, “moore or something like that.”?

Learn the players’ names…

What in the world does “blinded by OF defense” even mean?

I have been known, on occasion, to be blinded by science.

Right. That’s what we’re saying. This isn’t a Delmon Young is a bust post. His early career looks an awful lot like what Adrian Beltre went through. He’s probably going to turn into a pretty useful player. But Seattle is just a bad spot for him, both in terms of Stadium and organizational depth.