If only one Washington National is named to the 2007 National League All-Star team, it will be no great surprise if the player selected is third baseman Ryan Zimmerman. An All-Star selection is a nice honor, and coming on the heels of Ryan’s impressive rookie season,would not be undeserved.
Ask most players, though, whether they’d rather play in an All-Star game or a pennant race, and the overwhelming preference would be the latter. And the National most likely to find himself in a pennant race this year has got to be Dmitri Young.
Young, signed to a minor league contract by the Nats on Valentine’s Day this year, woke up this morning with a .342 batting average, and an OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging average) of .923. He’s consistently been Washington’s most dangerous hitter, and is a major reason the club is decidedly not the worst team in baseball.
Dmitri’s offensive production so far this season has helped obscure the problems he faced last year in Detroit. Without getting into specifics, Young found himself without a job last September, when the Tigers released him in the waning days of what would turn out to be a league championship season. Nationals’ GM Jim Bowden, who knew Dmitri from Cincinnati (he had acquired him from the Cardinals in 1997), was willing to provide him with another shot, and it’s paid off for both sides.
Given Young’s age — he turns 34 in October — it’s safe to assume that Bowden signed him hoping that he could be turned into trade bait sometime later in the season. His production at the plate has certainly not gone unnoticed throughout baseball, and other than a mid-May bout with a balky Achilles tendon, he seems more than healthy enough for the long run.
If you ask Dmitri about his season so far, he’s quick to give credit to hitting coach Lenny Harris. “Lenny wants us to be aggressive at the plate,” he says, “so that’s pretty much what I’m trying to do.” He’s only struck out 32 times in 187 AB’s, so he’s not being overly aggressive. He runs pretty well for a guy his size — 6’2″, 220 pounds — but he’s not much of a threat to steal a base. The point is he knows how to run the bases, which is more than you can say for many players with fargreater foot speed.
The smart money would have Young ending up back in the American League where he could DH every day. The Yankees, who have lost first baseman Doug Mientkeiwicz and DH Jason Giambi to injury, are rumored to be trying to pry Mark Teixiera away from the Rangers, but Dmitri could be an attractive plan B. He’d cost less at the outset, and with Teixiera on the cusp of free agency — and stating publicly that playing for the Orioles would be “a dream come true” — might be a better short term investment.
Dmitri Young has been a solid citizen — and contributor — for the 2007 Washington Nationals. The big switch-hitter deserves another shot at postseason participation, and I’m betting he gets it by Aug. 1, if not sooner.
Hear Phil Wood Saturdays at 10 a.m. on SportsTalk 980 AM and weekly on Comcast SportsNet’s WPL through the World Series.
