1st round picks

A little interesting note on Gleeman today regarding DYoung



Delmon Young and Billy Butler are both 22-year-old former first-round picks who ranked among the elite prospects in baseball heading into last season. Both players have shown little power this year, but their teams have handled them much differently. Butler homered just once through 53 games and last week the Royals sent him back to Triple-A. Young has yet to homer in 56 games, but continues to play nearly every day and has no chance of being demoted. Take a look at their respective stats:



THIS SEASON G AVG OBP SLG OPS IsoP K/BB

Billy Butler 53 .263 .330 .339 .669 .076 1.37

Delmon Young 56 .273 .329 .356 .685 .083 2.12

CAREER G AVG OBP SLG OPS IsoP K/BB

Billy Butler 145 .282 .341 .408 .749 .126 1.76

Delmon Young 248 .289 .321 .405 .726 .116 4.25

TRIPLE-A G AVG OBP SLG OPS IsoP K/BB

Billy Butler 61 .295 .411 .535 .946 .240 0.75

Delmon Young 138 .304 .326 .463 .789 .159 5.16



Their numbers this season are eerily similar, while Butler holds a slight advantage in career MLB stats that includes a 23-point edge in OPS and far superior strikeout-to-walk ratio. Butler was far better than Young at Triple-A, topping him by 157 points of OPS, showing 50 percent more power, and walking more times than he struck out while Young whiffed five times for every free pass. Despite all of that, Butler finds himself back in the Pacific Coast League while Young gets a chance to turn things around.