Twins postgame: Young thrives on bad ankle
Posted on September 5th, 2008 – 11:15 PMBy Joe Christensen
The Metrodome crowd groaned in the first inning tonight, when Placido Polanco’s broken-bat single dropped in front of Twins left fielder Delmon Young.
Then, the first five Twins batters worked Tigers starter Armando Galarraga for 25 pitches before Young had another one-pitch at-bat, grounding to third base to end the inning with runners at the corners.
(Young has had 98 of his 540 plate appearances end in one pitch for the Twins and has hit .309 in those instances. Joe Mauer, for comparison, has had just 31 of his 539 plate appearances end in one pitch.)
It was not a good start to the homestand for Young, whose right ankle injury has been a growing concern for the Twins.
But Young homered in his next at-bat, drilling a 1-2 slider from Galarraga over the center-field wall. It was Young’s ninth homer of the season, and it stretched the Twins’ lead to 2-0.
(Galarraga is 0-4 against the Twins this season, and 12-1 against everyone else.)
Then in the seventh, Young made the defensive play of the game. Magglio Ordonez hit a leadoff single that inning, and Miguel Cabrera followed with a liner to left. Young took a few quick steps and made a diving catch.
At the time, the Twins led 6-1, so if that ball lands for extra bases, it could have made the late innings more dramatic.
Instead, Liriano needed just two more pitches to escape the inning, getting Gary Sheffield to lunge at a change-up, starting a 5-4-3 double play.
Asked about Young after the 10-2 victory, Manager Ron Gardenire said, “Heck of a night. Great plays in the outfield. Wonderful play off Cabrera, as good as they get, especially with the lights and everything. Line drive out there goes through the lights.
“You could see [Young] limping all over the place. And he hit a bomb [on the 412-foot home run]. The guy hung a slider — that just tells you how strong he is. He’s been swinging good.
“We’re concerned with his ankle. He says he’s fine, but he’s limping. If we could just get him to get treatment, but he doesn’t like to get treatment, so that’s kind of a little bit of a struggle. He says there’s nothing you can do about it, it’s just going to be there. So there you have it.”
39 Responses to "Twins postgame: Young thrives on bad ankle"
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Doesn’t want treatment? why?
Situations like this is exactly what September call-ups are for. Shelve Young every now and then so that his ankle doesn’t get WORSE and let Pridie or even Kubel get some hacks out there.
When did Delmon get a medical degree? Do what the trainers suggest Liriano, they are professionals.
Sorry, Delmon, not Liriano. LOL
That’s just absurd. All it takes is a firm, “There’s the bench, Delmon, go sit on it until you’ve gotten the treatment the trainers/doctors tell you to get.”
It’s not just the first pitch contact (despite a .309 average) that drive fans crazy. It’s the number of first pitch swing that either are fouled off or missed. Many times they are bad pitches that causes him to now be in a hole. Delmon needs to be “told” to get treatment not asked. He’d your employee Gardy not your wife. He wants playing time & a paycheck, then he goes to get treatment. Pretty simple.
Nora
he knows his body better than what the training staff or gardy know it. He doesn’t need a medical degree to know his pain tolerance…sometimes treatment can put stress on an injury both mentally and physically….hopefully he’s professional enough to tell gardy when he needs a day off to rest the ankle.
JimCrikket
How can you bench your starting left fielder in the middle of a pennet race? Its crunch time and you need your best players on the field..a .289 avg for a 22 year old outfielder is good enough for me
I look forward to many seasons of the Twins playing against Galarraga. The Twins have really gotten into this guy’s head. I don’t know if it’s the preponderance of LH/SH batters the Twins can throw at him or what. If the Twins ever hope to salvage Boof they should make him watch game film of tonight’s at bats against Galarraga over and over again…a classic of how nibbling at the outside edge and missing will kill your night.
the guy can’t throw strikes, runners are on, and young swings at the first. get him outa there
Well said Spenny…
The states negative attitude towards Delmon leaves me scratching my head. If it were Mauer “playing through the pain” we would cheer his grit and gaminess, but for Delmon it’s “There’s the bench” or “when did you get a medical degree” comments.
He’s an amazing ball player at the age of 22, and if you don’t believe me look at his numbers vs. Morneaul. I understand the guy might not be rainbows and sunshine in the clubhouse, but he’s an amazing talent and I think we need to start treating him as such
Are the inmates running the asylum? If Young refuses treatment who is in charge? Now I understand his undisciplined approach at the plate. He does whatever he want to. As a friend of mine says,” That Ain’t no way to run a railroad.” No control. no discipline!
If your doctor recommends treatment that is worse than the ailment, in order to cure the ailment, do you automatically follow the doctor’s orders?
The first time, in the hospital, that the nurse woke me up to give me sleeping pills was the last time I blindly accepted the decisions made by the medical profession.
Doctors make many decisions because of their (justified) fear of malpractice lawsuits. They are often forced (by lawyers) to put their own interests ahead of their patients.
Patients should also put their own interests first.
I may have gone off the subject, but not as far as it may appear.
Delmon knows what he needs, and Gardy does not need to take control and put him on the bench. In the middle of a pennant race the Twins have to put the best team on the field they can. If Delmon is willing to play with the injury and is still putting up good numbers let him play!
Does Delmon realize that “treatment” doesn’t mean he has to goto Hazeltine?
Maybe those of you supporting Delmon’s choice to refuse treatment from those who are paying him to be a healthy ball player to get mazium performance out of him should look at it from the larger picture. As hs has been well reported and chronicled thru the course of the season, Delmon’s refusal to take advice (medical or instructional) from his bosses speaks to his professional character and abilty to improve as player. This coming from someone who already is carrying quite a bit of that sort of baggage when he arrived here. It’s a big reason why the Rays traded him. So if your of the “he’s only 22″ mindset than you should see this as another sign that turning the corner for Delmon may not be coming as soon as we (and the Twins) had all hoped. Circling the wagons and shutting out those trying to help you at a time of crisis says more about your character than it does the messengers.
Good luck Rock Head (I mean Delmon) we’re all still rooting for you!
“maxium” & “has” reveals my inabilty to type fast and be able to spell!
kirby91,
“to be a healthy ball player to get mazium performance out of him”
Judging by his performance last night, (diving catch - HR - hitting the ball “on the screws”) Delmon’s health may be unrelated (or possibly inversely related)to his performance.
Why does Delmon’s lack of discipline at the plate translate to “won’t take instruction”?
Have you read anything that indicates the staff’s disapproval of his aggressiveness?
How do you know the content Delmon’s instructions?
In Gomez, it’s called over-exhuberance.
In Delmon, it’s called stubborness.
In real life, it’s called letting the kids learn by trial and error.
Sane,
Do you read about this team or listen to anything Gardy says in interviews? Clearly not. It has been dicussed many times that Delmon has told his coaches he’ll do it his was since the start of the season.
I’m going to disregard your comments about last nights game as some sort of proof to your point. One game does not a trend make. We are all rooting for him to do well but come on. And of course history is also a great teacher here so one need only to read or listen to what was said about Delmon by his previous teammated and coaches (not mention his actions) to note that this has been his “trend”.
Given your previous statement I can only hope the next time you get sick “divine intervention” helps to get better because clearly putting ice on a bad ankle or any kind of therapy is way to dangerous or radical a medical treatment. You saying “trial and error” is laugable as someone who gave up on medicine beacuse they woke you up from a nap at the hospital.
And his diving catch, while very important in the game, had little to do with his being fleet of foot. In fact he was quoted as having told Gardy that he may need a pinch runner late in games because of his bad ankle.
Come on, I’m sure your a decent person who is smarter than this poor position you’ve taken.
I wish you good health and more quality Delmon at bats.
Delmon had a great catch last night. I’ve watched most Twins games this season and that is the best catch i have seen him make, infact I would call it a Gomez/Span type catch. I hope he keeps it up.
Go Twins Go Go Go
Mauer is hitting .429 on the first pitch and he is hitting .370 in the dome this year.
kirby91,
An example of what I posted:
“the last time I BLINDLY accepted the decisions made by the medical profession.”
Which you “paraphrased” to say:
“gave up on medicine”
I would say that what I posted and what you read into it were not even close.
I’ll just drop out of this communication gap by saying that I have seen Delmon play since he was 15-yrs-old.
Delmon (to my knowledge) was never in trouble until the AAA-umpire incident, and his father would have dealt with him if he had screwed up as a teen-ager.
If you think Delmon has “character” issues, you haven’t dealt with the HS athletes and non-athletes that I deal with daily.
Sane,
i guess in your communication gap I should clarify for you since you missed the point. Not “Character” as much as “Coach-abilty”.
I’ve dealt with coaching all sorts of athlete’s (not to mention playing on teams with them). So I’m sure you can figure out exactly what I’m talking about. Furthermore I’m not the one who has made this point initially, the Twins coaches and previously the Rays have done that. You, I guess, where busy defending Delmon’s “Character” at the time.
Good luck Delmon, we’re all rooting for you!
I just heard Leo Mazzone say that Delmon is a great clubhouse guy. If you can’t trust the word of Mazzone then whose word can you???
Wait…Nevermind, I also heard him call Pedroia a midget on national television. Mazzone is the worst…Absolute worst.
Kirby91,
Other than Carl Crawford, who was talking about Delmon and Dukes, who else has ripped Delmon’s coachability?
I have paid attention to since the TB trade, and I don’t remember any other specific incidents of TB or Twins players saying that Delmon is a problem.
If you can find a link to one of those stories, it would be appreciated.
I do remember positive statements from Joe Maddon and of course, from the Twins staff and FO. Otherwise, if you think its me just not paying attention, I plead not guilty, because I HAVE BEEN paying attention.
Hent,
That was Ozzie Guillen calling Pedroia a midget when he batted cleanup against the White Sox.
I know, but Mazzone repeated it. Not trying to be politically correct, but the word is offensive to that community. He’s the worst. I can’t believe I actually miss Bert.
Also, hope you’re not arguing with me about the clubhouse stuff. I’m a huge Delmon guy, and as a fan could care less about his clubhouse personality…I think that is completely overrated anyhow.
No problem, Hent.
Sane,
You and other who have defended Delmon understandably crowed a bit about his effort yesterday. If I were you I probably would have done the same. But here is where a big part of the disconnect is between the two sides. You’ll look at today’s game and say Delmon 1-4 not great but not a bad day. And while the bullpen (Firstly) and Morneau’s 2 DP’s with runners on are big reasons for today’s loss here’s another way to look at Delmon’s day:
1st AB: 3 pitches (2 swings)=K (2 LOB)
2nd AB: 4 pitches (4 swings)=K (1 LOB)
3rd AB: 4 pitchers (3 swings)=bloop single (after Verlander had already 100+ pitches)
4th AB: 4 pitches (3 swings)-K
In all that’s 1-4, 15 pithces, 12 swings, 1 ball put in play & 3 LOB.
That’s a lot of swings for 1 ball put in play especially on a day when Verlander walked 4 and even Gomez got on a couple of times.
It’s just one game but he has many more of these types of days that one’s like yesterday.
The final point is that it’s September and these are things he was doing in April. These are signs that coaches like yourself might be able to look at and wonder of the message is getting thru. It clicked for Span and Casilla at some point and there young so maybe it still will for Delmon. So far the history we have to work with says otherwise.
The bullpen is still the reason they won’t be playing in October anyway.
Kirby91,
I don’t think plate discipline is being asked of Delmon. I’ve read many of Gardy’s quotes that they want him (and Gomez) to keep hacking.
I don’t necessarily agree with that approach, but I have never read that they want the two kids to be more selective.
Go figure.
I’m almost to the point where I want the Twins to either pull ahead for good or get off the road. My health at stake here…:)
In all reality, though, Minnesota shouldn’t be anywhere near where they are right now. Before the season, anybody would have predicted the Twins would be ten games back, at best. To be 2.5 games back with under a month to go should also sound good, but because of how the Sox have struggled lately as well, it only rubs salt on it.
My attention is almost completely on football now. If the Twins aren’t within two games after the 15th of September, I’m all for calling for a collective plug-pulling day.
Twin’s fans never give up. We either go get ‘em tomorrow, or we wait ’til next year. And we don’t jump on someone else’s bandwagon either. Notice how everybody and his dog is a Cub fan now? Where were they the last twenty years?
Gardenhire’s curious affection for Punto continues to hurt the Twins in the standings. Punto makes more errors than a minor league rookie. Gardenhire is always commending Punto for his outstanding defense, but his defense is only average. The Twins could not trade Punto or give him away.
Looking for leaders - has anybody seen one lately?
Wally, I agree with you 100%. Gardy’s fascination with LNP is affecting the Twins performance in a negative fashion. They could probably be in 1st place by know if it weren’t for Punto committing errors to give the other team runs.
The return of Michael Cuddyer to the Twins lineup has coincided with the teams bad luck. Cuddyer’s presence does not help the team win games and seldom did in the past. He holds them back from achieving better results through his silly antics in the clubhouse and his medicor play in the field. Cuddyer should be traded to any team that would take him as soon as possible to save the Twins from losing the division race !!!!!!!
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