Around the Horn: DH/Bench
※ [本文轉錄自 Brewers 看板]
作者: keal (逢賭必輸的人生) 看板: Brewers
標題: Around the Horn: DH/Bench
時間: Thu Feb 17 18:26:49 2005
Young hopes to have healthy season as DH
DETROIT -- Dmitri Young came to the Tigers when they were an elevator ride
headed for the basement. He doesn't want to leave on the way up.
"We're going through the process," Young said last month during the team's
winter caravan. "We're chipping away, and I don't want it to get good and
then I'm somewhere else."
While Bobby Higginson, Rondell White and Jason Johnson enter the final year
of their deals and talk about the importance of the contract year, Young is
quietly sitting in the same position. This season marks the final guaranteed
year of the four-year deal he signed soon after his arrival in Detroit in
2002, a deal that includes options for 2006 and '07.
He's a man in a contract year, but his situation is completely in his
control. Though the club can decide whether to pick up his options, the 2006
portion becomes guaranteed if he posts a full season's worth of plate
appearances this year. One healthy year, and he's back for possibly Detroit's
best team in years.
If only it were that easy. If Young's career as a Tiger has shown anything,
it's a bad timing of injuries.
After having played at least 142 games in three of his four seasons in
Cincinnati, he suffered a hernia in his first month as a Tiger, derailing his
entire 2002 campaign after just 54 games played. He rebounded in 2003 to
become an All-Star, quite possibly the only positive story to come out of the
119-loss Tigers, and essentially carried an anemic offense.
He entered 2004 looking forward to a lineup full of support, including
All-Star Ivan Rodriguez in front of him and All-Star Rondell White behind
him. But in the second game of the season, an awkward step on the sticky
artificial turf at Toronto's SkyDome resulted in a fractured right fibula and
two months out of action. He came back in June, but the leg bothered him the
rest of the way.
Though he drove in 60 runs over 104 games and homered 12 times after the
All-Star break, his .272 batting average was his lowest since his rookie year
of 1997. He's more of a power hitter now than the average hitter he was when
younger, but a 25-point drop from his .297 average in 2003 was a
disappointment.
The injuries have revived the questions about his playing weight, even though
he takes part in an offseason training group in Miami that has included
Preston Wilson and several other star players. So pardon Young if he doesn't
want to think of his return as an automatic.
"I was thinking that last year and then [my leg] broke," Young said. "You
keep putting out that effort and then they don't want to get rid of this guy.
Then that happened. I don't want to do anything where I have to go somewhere
else."
On the surface, Young should be set up for a rebound statistically, and not
just because he insists his leg is now at full strength. Magglio Ordonez's
arrival means Young shifts from batting cleanup to hitting fifth, a spot in
which he thrived during his younger days in Cincinnati.
Those days in Cincinnati lasted four seasons. His tenure as a St. Louis
Cardinal lasted just two seasons after his callup in 1996. With his father in
the military, Young has never really had a chance to settle into a city. He's
hoping this is the year he shows he can stick.
"I really want to more or less stop it," he said. "I'm tired of moving. When
I came here, I finally got a chance to establish myself, not only on the
field but in the community. To me, that speaks volumes. I like to support
where I play at. I play here, and I don't want to go anywhere else."
--
★opengoodbook 你什麼時候設我為好友啦?!XD
To opengoodbook: 第一次丟你水球之後阿XD
★opengoodbook 我會害羞(跑)
To opengoodbook: :P
★opengoodbook 這麼主動......
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※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 61.230.13.150
--
★opengoodbook 你什麼時候設我為好友啦?!XD
To opengoodbook: 第一次丟你水球之後阿XD
★opengoodbook 我會害羞(跑)
To opengoodbook: :P
★opengoodbook 這麼主動......
--
※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc)
◆ From: 61.230.13.150
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