clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Delmon Young

If you buy something from an SB Nation link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.

There he goes again.

In one of the longer articles USA Today prints, Bob Nightingale writes about the future stars at the Devil Rays AAA Durham club are profiled.

All three are quoted in one way or another complaining about being in AAA.

However, Delmon Young, as a result of his bat-throwing incident earlier this year has received the attention.

He says:

"I don't know what they're waiting for," Young says. "They're what, 30 games (actually 20) out of first place? They think we're going to mess up their clubhouse chemistry. B.J. should be up there. What are they waiting for? They always have excuses."

But Upton says this without attention?

"I still can't believe I'm here. The three of us all thought we'd be all up in Tampa by now."

And Dukes says this:

"The only thing holding me back is me," says Dukes, who is hitting .293 with 10 homers and 50 RBI this season. "I know I can play in the big leagues. On any team. But they want to see whether I can stay away from trouble.

"If I can just do that, if I can just keep my cool, I'll be fine. Because when there is trouble, whether it's my fault or not, I'm the one who's got to pay the consequences."

Dukes is staring disgustedly at his baseball jersey while talking. It has dark stains around the collar. His pants have tears by both knees.

If this were the big leagues, the uniform would be in the garbage.

But this is Durham.

"In the big leagues, you throw your uniform on the ground, and it's washed and hung up nicely in your locker," Dukes says. "Here you do that, you come back the next day and find it still on the floor. Those guys up there (in the big leagues) shower in Evian. Here, we use sewer water."

Obviously the three players are fed-up.

And I can't blame them.  However, they can't be recalled until GM Andy Friedman can move some bodies, and he clearly drives a very hard bargain.

If he were a Chuck Lamar protege, I'd attribute his negotiating strategy to incompetence.  But given, he is new, I'll give him a pass until more information is available.

There was a very important fantasy nugget in the article.

It was this:

If not for the 32-foot-high left-field wall in Durham, says Bulls manager John Tamargo, Dukes might have 25 home runs instead of 10 with his line-drive power.

Says Tamargo, "Oh my God, he is going to be some special player. You're talking about a guy who can run, throw and is going to hit 40 to 45 homers a year. "

Keep that in mind when looking at Dukes' HR total this year.  Focus more on his .400 OBP and .500 SLG, which if there were more HRs rather than doubles, would be higher.