On
May 1st, Delmon Young was staring at a .222/.292/.381 batting line. This
was hardly the anticipated results after finishing the final two months of 2009
in which he batted .305/.327/.513 with 9 home runs. Judging from his batted
ball numbers, he was looking more like the pre-August 2009 version – one in
which his groundballs were chewing up more than 50% of the total pitches put
into play. If you were looking for signs of progress, Young managed to coax 8
walks to his 7 strikeouts, a significant different from the prior year in which
he walked just twice and struck out 15 times in the season’s first month.
Since
May 1st, however, Delmon Young is on a 52-for-150 tear (.347)
slashing 20 extra base hits including 6 home runs and 14 doubles. Additionally,
he tied his base-on-ball total from a year ago on May 22nd and broke
it the following afternoon, demonstrating that patience can be a virtue.
Clearly,
just based upon the manner in which he is launching the ball, Young has
regained the ability to drive the ball, swatting more line drives around the
ball field:
2010
|
Line Drive%
|
April
|
12.5%
|
May
|
15%
|
June
|
25%
|
With
this squared-up contact, Young marched his offensive numbers northward and to
the point where he is the team’s third-best contributor, with an argument for
the second-best, while batting seventh regularly. Regarding his current hot
streak, Star Tribune columnist Jim
Souhan relayed some Ron Gardenhire insight:
"He's [Young]
learned to click on the ball better now, and jerk the crap out of it, and look
for pitches in situations, so I think it's just the maturity process of more
at-bats and figuring out what you can do and can't do."
Yes,
he’s clearly “jerking the crap out of it” this year:
%/SLG
|
Pull
|
Middle
|
Opposite
|
2008
|
29%
|
35%
|
35%
|
|
.576
|
.431
|
.497
|
2009
|
39%
|
39%
|
22%
|
|
.576
|
.632
|
.279
|
2010
|
36%
|
36%
|
28%
|
|
.838
|
.508
|
.345
|
While
he’s showing no greater tendency to pull the ball this year than his 2009
campaign, he’s definitely hitting it with greater vigor, as the 260-plus point
uptick in his slugging percentage would suggest. This is a product of handling
inside pitches better this year. Using MyInsideEdge.com
data, we see that Young’s well-hit average on pitches inside has risen steadily
since 2008:
|
WHA (Sw. In)
|
2008
|
.084
|
2009
|
.099
|
2010
|
.139
|
League Average
|
.078
|
Souhan
asked if the manager thought it was something mechanical that kept Young from
turning on the inside pitch, to which Gardenhire responded:
"I think it was
his approach. You have to make adjustments in your approach sometimes. There
were a few mechanical things he's had to work on. He'll tell you, 'No,' but we
all know different."
Anyone who has been privy to any amount of Twins
games in the past three seasons could tell you that Young has made some
adaptation to his mechanics. I highlighted just a small portion of them in
December. My findings showed that Young’s ability to pull the ball with venom correlated
with his mechanical changes:
From the first of
that month to the conclusion of the season, Young was a different hitter in the
batter’s box. No, the plate discipline did not improve - he still couldn’t
buy a walk in Chinatown – but suddenly the
ball left his bat with a bit more zest. It no longer trickled off of the
lumber towards third base all yippy-skippy. It charged off the grain on a
mission. He slugged over .700 when pulling the ball after hitting a ho-hum
.444 on pitches he yanked prior to that.
Most
likely, it is a result of both mechanical
adjustments and a refined
approach at the plate that has allowed Young to turn on pitches with such
force. Either way, this development, beginning back in ’09, has given
indications that the 24-year-old Young is on-track to reaching the vaunted projections
bestowed upon him when the Twins acquired him in 2007.
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