Do the Phillies Know Who the Good Baseball Players Are?

This offseason, the Philadelphia Phillies stood at a crossroads. Their expensive and aging roster was only good for 81 wins and a third-place finish in 2012. The team's general manager, Ruben Amaro, had to decide whether to make another run at a championship with his existing core, or begin to rebuild with younger players. He chose the first course of action. In his mind, the Phillies are still good enough that a few smart additions could mean a World Series title. And he's right, because any team that has a pitching staff led by Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, and Cole Hamels is automatically in the mix. He just needed to make a few upgrades on offense to give this Phillies core one last chance at a title before Chase Utley's knees implode.

Amaro sought out players who could fill his four biggest needs on offense: right field, center field, third base, and middle-infield depth. The four players he ended up acquiring -- the players who are supposed to bolster Philadelphia's roster for a championship run -- are so deeply flawed that they have me questioning whether Ruben Amaro knows what a good baseball player looks like.

1. Michael Young, Third Baseman
Ah, Michael Young. He was quite an excellent player once. This is no longer the case. Actually, Young was probably the worst everyday player in baseball last year. He came to the plate 651 times last year and only drew 33 walks (by comparison, he grounded into 26 double plays). That comes out to a .312 on-base percentage. His power numbers were nonexistent: a .370 slugging percentage with just eight homers. He's technically a third baseman, but being virtually immobile, he isn't any good at that either, which is why his Texas Rangers stuck him at DH most of last year. However, the Philadelphia Phillies play in the National League, where playing Young at DH would be entirely illegal. If Young plays the field every day and continues to rack up almost as many double plays as walks, he could very well repeat as the Worst Player in Baseball.
Viable Alternatives: Kevin Youkilis, Jeff Keppinger, a scarecrow

2. Delmon Young, "Right Fielder"
But if someone is going to challenge Michael for that title, it's going to be his long-lost brother Delmon. Now, Delmon's power numbers were better than Michael's last year: 18 homers and a .411 slugging percentage. But remarkably, his plate discipline was somehow even worse. He swung more often than any other player in baseball (60% of the time), even more than Josh Hamilton. He only walked 20 times in 608 plate appearances -- while grounding into 20 double plays. He drew ball four 3.3% of the time, which was the second-worst walk rate in all of baseball, behind only Alexei Ramirez. At least Ramirez plays good defense.

"But perhaps Delmon Young plays good defense too," one might respond. One clearly has not ever seen Delmon Young. This is a man whose contract with the Phillies includes weight clauses. Weight clauses. Meaning that six times during the season, Young gets on a scale and can earn an additional $100,000 from the team each time he measures in under 230 pounds. No, Delmon Young can't play much defense, which was okay when he could DH for the Tigers in the American League. Like Michael, Delmon can do no such thing for the National League Phillies. Which means Delmon will be "running down" fly balls in right field all year, which could do irreparable damage to Roy Halladay's career ERA.

The icing on the cake: last season, Young was involved in a public altercation, described in this paragraph by the New York Times:

"According to the police, a heavily intoxicated Young yelled anti-Semitic slurs and attacked a group of tourists outside the New York Hilton, the Tigers’ team hotel, about 2:30 a.m. Friday. According to a police report, Young began yelling the epithets at a group of four tourists who were giving money to a panhandler who was wearing a skullcap and a Star of David pendant around his neck, and the encounter became physical."

So, he's terrible at baseball, but at least he's an anti-Semite.
Viable Alternatives: Nick Swisher, Josh Hamilton, Torii Hunter, Scott Hairston, Domonic Brown

3. Ben Revere, Center Fielder
It doesn't seem fair to include Revere in the same breath as Michael and Delmon Young. Because at least Revere can do two things that the Youngs can't: play defense and run fast. Revere is an excellent defensive center-fielder and he stole 40 bases last year. Unfortunately, at the plate, Revere is completely impotent. Sure, he hit .294 last year. But those hits were almost all singles, because Ben Revere cannot hit for power. Literally -- he's been to the plate over a thousand times in his major league career and he has yet to hit one home run. Of his 275 career hits, only 33 went for extra bases. His career slugging percentage is .323. The sad part? That's still higher than his career on-base percentage: .319.

Like both Youngs, Revere doesn't draw walks. He did so only 29 times last year. So without any plate discipline, or any power, Revere's offensive value relies completely on his legs. He'll swing at the first good pitch he sees and try to beat out an infield single. That's a nearly useless offensive player. At the very least, he'll play a good center field. He'll need to, what with The Weight Clause manning right field.
Viable Alternatives: Michael Bourn, Denard Span

4. Yuniesky Betancourt, Shortstop
Betancourt only signed a minor league deal, so he might not make the Phillies roster. But given the combined age of Chase Utley and Jimmy Rollins (68) and their combined number of healthy knees (??), it's safe to bet on Betancourt making more than a few appearances at shortstop and second base.

He's played over 1,000 career games, and he's never not been useless. His career on-base percentage is an unsightly .290. Heck, Michael Jordan's minor league OBP was .289. He's drawn 129 walks -- since 2005. He, too, doesn't hit for power (.392 slugging percentage) and he's not even a good defender. Speed? Well, he does have 30 stolen bases in his career ... and he's also been caught 30 times. Betancourt's Wins Above Replacement totals for the last six years look like this: -1.2, -0.8, -1.3, -1.5, -0.8, -0.4. Yes, those are minus signs in front of all those numbers. He's been worth negative value in each of the last six seasons.
Viable Alternatives: Me, You

Add up the total WAR that all four of these players contributed in 2012 and you get -2.4. Revere was the only one with positive value. Add up the total number of times that these players walked in 2012, and you get 91. Carlos Pena walked 87 times last year, by himself, and the Astros signed him for less than what the Phillies are paying Michael Young. When asked on the radio about his team's aversion to walks, Ruben Amaro replied,

"I don't care about walks, I care about production."

I don't care about walks, I care about production. If this is what Amaro really believes, then the Phillies are in serious trouble. Failing to understand that walks are a form of production is crazy. Maybe Amaro is waging his own mini-war on Moneyball philosophy. If so, he's losing. The three teams with the highest on-base percentage last year were the Cardinals, Yankees, and Tigers -- in other words, three of the last four teams standing in the playoffs. The Phillies finished just 17th in OBP and ended up in third place.

Apparently, Ruben Amaro didn't settle on these four players because there were no other alternatives (which, by the way, is false). He actually sought them out because he thinks they are good at baseball. He sees players not in terms of the value they provide, but in terms of broad labels. He looks at Michael Young and sees "Hardened, Grizzled Veteran." Delmon Young: "Power Bat With Playoff Experience." Ben Revere: "Pesky, Gritty Glue Guy." Yuniesky Betancourt: "Savvy Middle Infielder."

The Phillies needed an infusion of skilled offensive players to help get them back to the World Series. Instead, they got Michael Young, Delmon Young, Ben Revere, and Yuniesky Betancourt. The Phillies needed a shot in the arm. They got a punch in the face.

3 Keys to the World Series

1. Barry Zito's Left Arm
Here's a misleading statement: Game 1 of the World Series will be a matchup of two former Cy Young winners. One of them is Justin Verlander, but the other is Barry Zito. Barry Zito, Game 1 starter for the San Francisco Giants in the World Series. This guy didn't even make the Giants' playoff roster when the Giants won it all two years ago. Zito's fastball is slower than the majority of Justin Verlander's pitches, and that isn't hyperbole. His fastball averaged 83.7 miles per hour this year, the slowest in baseball except for R.A. Dickey, who throws knuckleballs for a living. Verlander's changeup averaged 86.7 mph and his slider averaged 84.6 mph. Barry Zito isn't very good at pitching.

The cool thing about baseball is that Barry Zito might still beat Justin Verlander despite everything we know about these two pitchers. Imagine this actually happened. People would still claim that you can predict this sport! They would look very silly!

Fun Fact About Barry Zito: He made only made $1 million less than Justin Verlander in 2012. That wasn't a clerical error!

A Second, Almost-As-Fun Fact About Barry Zito: Take a gander at this post-Game 7 celebration photo:

That sleazy, hairy man with an 84-mph "fastball" on the far right? Barry Zito. Immediately to his left? Barry Zito's wife. What's up with that?

2. Delmon Young's "Glove"
Games 1 and 2 of the World Series will be played in San Francisco (because, if you remember, Melky Cabrera's testosterone helped win the All-Star Game), as well as potential Games 6 and 7. In the Giants' National League park, there won't be a DH, leaving ALCS MVP Delmon Young with nowhere to play. Because Tigers manager Jim Leyland has some kind of obsession with Young, he'll probably stick him in left field, which--and I can't stress this enough--would be a good thing for an audience searching for comic relief, but a bad thing for the Tigers' chances of winning baseball games. Left field at AT&T Park is very spacious. Among players who had at least 220 innings in left field (Young had 226, presumably as part of some cruel social experiment), Delmon Young was the worst defender of them all. Worse than well-known corpses like Bobby Abreu and Raul Ibanez and Jason Bay. A visual representation of Young's defensive skills:

You'd better hit like Barry Bonds if you field fly balls like that. Unfortunately, Delmon Young is the closest thing to the opposite of Barry Bonds. He walked 20 times all year. ALL YEAR. Barry Bonds was intentionally walked more than 20 times in 15 different seasons. Young swung the bat a greater percentage of the time than any other player in baseball (More than Josh Hamilton! Almost 60% of the time!). Only Alexei Ramirez had a lower walk rate than Young. Etc etc.

The point is: regardless of the fact that the Yankees couldn't get him out, Delmon Young is a bad hitter, and certainly isn't worth taking a massive defensive penalty in left field for a few games. The Tigers have a number of solid outfield options, including Andy Dirks and Quintin Berry and Avisail Garcia. Any of them would be a better World Series left fielder than Delmon. We're going to see Delmon out there anyway. So strap in.

Fun Fact About Delmon Young: He's walked 145 times in his six-plus-year career. Barry Bonds once walked 232 times in a single season.

3. Buster Posey's Bat

Buster Posey is probably going to win the National League MVP award, even though he looks like a 12-year-old in a Giants jersey who happened to wander into the Giants dugout while his parents were buying him a Pepsi:

Despite being his team's best hitter, Posey actually hasn't done much in the postseason so far. He has eight hits in 12 postseason games, and didn't have an extra-base hit against the Cardinals in the NLCS. He's a crucial lineup cog for the Giants. In front of him, Angel Pagan, Marco Scutaro, and Pablo Sandoval have been wreaking havoc, so he'll have plenty of chances to hit with runners on base. If he doesn't come through in those situations, he's followed in the lineup by Hunter Pence, who has shown no ability to knock runners in (except apparently when a pitch breaks his bat, hits the shards three times, and squirts away from the shortstop into the outfield). The Giants are leaning heavily on Barry Zito, so obviously they'll need to score some runs. Posey needs to be a huge part of that.

Fun Fact About Buster Posey: He's the only player currently in the Giants' starting lineup who also started for the team in the 2010 World Series. That 2010 lineup: Andres Torres, Freddy Sanchez, Posey, Pat Burrell, Cody Ross, Aubrey Huff, Juan Uribe, Edgar Renteria. It's amazing that the Giants have completely turned over every offensive position except catcher since 2010, yet they're back in the World Series.

So, Who Wins?

Head says Tigers, heart says Giants. The Tigers have a more powerful lineup and a better rotation that's rested and ready to go, but they also have the onus of Delmon Young. The Giants have the better bullpen, defense, and more speed, but the onus of Barry Zito. I'll pick the Tigers to win in six. But the team with Buster, The Freak, The Panda, SCU-TA-RO, Vogelsong, and the Enigma Known As Barry Zito is just a lot more fun.