The Mets parted ways with Eric Young Jr. earlier this week, bringing our total of Youngs on the roster to zero after having two for most of last season. Young was not my favorite guy on the Mets but he’s an MLB-quality player and here’s hoping he hooks on with another team which will give him as many ABs as the Mets did in 2014.
The mantra for rock bands playing frat houses was always – “If you can’t be good, at least be loud.” Perhaps the MLB equivalent would be – “If you can’t be good, at least be entertaining.” It seems safe to say that Young was entertaining. It’s fun to watch guys steal and run the bases and Young excelled at that part of the game. On top of that, he always seemed to enjoy himself while playing.
We never really know who the “good guys” or “bad guys” on a club are but if forced to wager, most of us would probably place Young in the good guy category.
My feeling is that Young is just a tiny bit away from being a good player. If only he would draw a few more walks and strike out fewer times, he’d probably be almost as good as his proponents claimed. For a guy with little power, it would be nice to see a K% close to single digits, rather than one flirting with 20% like Young had last year.
In general, strikeouts are not much more harmful than other outs. However, it just seems that guys who depend on speed should be doing everything possible to make contact. There have been many teams that depended on speed in the past but my go-to example has always been the 1985 Cardinals. That team had five players in its lineup with 30 or more SB, led the league with 314 steals and next-to-last in homers with 87. Here’s a little chart comparing their top stolen base guys:
| Player | SB | K% | fWAR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ozzie Smith | 31 | 4.4 | 5.6 |
| Tom Herr | 31 | 7.9 | 5.1 |
| Andy Van Slyke | 34 | 11.4 | 3.4 |
| Willie McGee | 56 | 13.2 | 7.1 |
| Vince Coleman | 110 | 16.6 | 2.6 |
Obviously, there’s more involved here than just strikeout rates. Smith is going to rate highly because of his defense and McGee’s .395 BABIP certainly helped. But it’s not a coincidence that the speedy guy with the worst K% also had the lowest fWAR.
Regardless, it seems odd that no team in the 21st Century tries to follow the path blazed by the 1985 Cardinals, who won 101 games and were a bad call away from winning the World Series. With Everth Cabrera and Young both available after being non-tendered, a club could be 40% of the way there to fielding a team with five 30-SB guys.
For what it’s worth, Cabrera’s All-Star season of 2013 coincided with the year he set a career-low in K% with a 15.9 rate
The Royals gained some notoriety this past year for having contact hitters. They also led the majors in SB, albeit with 153. For a comparison, Coleman and McGee combined for 166 steals back in ’85.
It just seems surprising that some perennial second-division club wouldn’t give this a shot to see how it would play. If you’re losing 90+ games on a regular basis, what more do you have to lose? For example, the Twins have lost 90 or more games four years straight and have two guys on their club who stole 20+ bases last year.
Eduardo Escobar is probably too talented to push aside for Cabrera, so it’s not a perfect situation. But what if the Twins added our two non-tender guys and told Brian Dozier and Danny Santana to run even more. Wouldn’t you be curious to see how this team would fare? They even have Oswaldo Arcia to play the role of Jack Clark and provide a HR bat for the club.
Or how about the Reds? They’ve got a great start with Billy Hamilton and could easily replace Zach Cozart with Cabrera and have Young take over in left field. While they’re not a perennial bad team like the recent Twins, they had a poor year in 2014 and face an uphill climb in 2015. Could a makeover towards speed accelerate their return to playoff contenders?
Overwhelmingly likely, no team will try this approach in 2015. Young will have to hope he can hook on with a squad and look to get a similar number of PA as he received last season, when he came to the plate 316 times. Even that seems like an outside shot. It’s unfortunate that Young plays in an era where his skillset isn’t valued as it once was. If he played 30 years ago, it would be a different story.
Regardless, Mets fans wish you well, Mr. Young, even if we aren’t heartbroken about you being somewhere else next year.
I’ve always like EYJ. He would add value if he were perceieved as a capable IF backup…I don’t believe he played much (if any) 2b last year!??
He has over 1500 ab’s and a 650’ish ops…he’s 29 years old… That’s probably what he is. His splits don’t hint at him being used more effectively based on platoon. He does have some very nice specific skills that all clubs could use— reinforcing some expanded defensive ability across several positions would add to his appeal.
I liked Eric Young Jr also and feel he is an elite base runner but the Mets were correct in non tendering him.
He is a career 653 OPS which is awful for a left fielder . It ranked him 42nd among left fielders with over 300 at bats in 2014.
If he was a second baseman though, his .653 OPS would slot him at #20 in the major leagues among second baseman with over 300 at bats. He needs to get an infielders glove, practice at the position, and win a starting spot at second base for some team.
Coincidentally, Cabrera also has a career .652 OPS among shortstops.which would have him ranked 24th among shortstops if he met his career mark.
On a bad team, they would make an exciting keystone combination.
“On a bad team they would make an exciting keystone combination.”
That’s priceless Metsense.
On a good team they would be the “Keystone Cops” perhaps!
Or the keystone robbers except neither one can steal first base! They could never be charged with battery because neither one can bat. Well ……maybe Everth could add it to his rap sheet.
I have to agree here and for those who think OPS is the last word in productivity please tell me how OPS gives Credit for Steal,Sacrifices or HBP’s?.Oh and while your at it please explain to me why in OPS a single counts for double what a walk does since both net just one base?A .guy like Eric Young is extremely valuable off the bench if nothing else.KC’s speedsters Dyson and Gore between them won 7-10 games the Royals would have lost without them .And saved KC’s bacon in the Wildcard game and at least 1 other playoff game.That is what they did as backups not factoring in defensive skill or ability with the bat.KC was more of a strategic running attack compared to the 1985 Cardinals Amazing jack rabbit attack.And I still have to believe that in the right place Everth Cabrera could make a few more All Star games.
1 more point.That 1985 team did not exist in a vacuum.The 1980’s Redbirds are probably the games best example of a dynasty built on speed and defense.During the 1981 strike season they had the 2nd best record in baseball and missed the playoffs because of the split season of that year that pitted first half division champions against 2nd half division champions.That year both the Red’s and the Cardinals missed the playoffs because they were consistent and came in 2nd in both halves even though they both had the best overall records in their division.In fact the Reds missed because in the first half they played 1 less game than the winner before the strike.The 1982 Cardinals won the World series after stealing 200 hundred bases and finishing with the lowest number of homers in baseball in over a decade.The 1985 team had most of the same players with Herr,Forsch,McGee,The Wizard of Oz,Darrell Porter,Joaquin Andujar and others.The Injury to Vince Coleman did more to keep the Cardinals from winning it all than Don Denkinger did that October.And the 1987 team also played the Twins to 7 games and a bad call cost them as well.I was a teenager then and they were my favorite team from another town because they relied on speed to overcome the low batting average, high strikeout power teams of that era.