Tuesday Rockpile: Have You Heard About Michael Young?

Michael Young Mic haelYo ungM ichaelYou ngMicha elYoung.  MichaelYou ngMichaelYo ungMichaelYoung Mich aelY ou ngM icha elYoungM ichaelYou.  Ng Mic hael Young Mi cha elY oun gMich.  AelYoung Mic hae lYou ngM icha elY oun g.

MichaelYou ngMich aelYoungMicha elYoungMich ae lYou ng Mich.  AelY oun gMic ha .  El Young Michael You ng Mi cha elY o u n gM ichae lY oungMich aelYoungMichaelY oung.  

Young MichaelYoung Mich aelY oun gMic hael You ngMich aelYoung Mic hael Young Pinyin Xiang Shen Jung Mic haelYo ungMich aelYo ung Michael Young.  Junge Mickael Junge, ja.

Joven Miguel?

Mich aelYoungMicha elYoungMich ae lYou ng MichaelYou ngMichaelYo ungMichaelYoung.

MichaelYou ngMichaelYo ungMichaelYoung Young Youngity Mic.

Off-topic

I am quite certain no matter what I wrote today, your eyes would replace the words with some derivative of "Michael Young."  Like how a musician playing in the key of A major instinctively plays a D major chord instead of the written D minor chord, you have all been conditioned by now to internalize nothing but Michael Young.  It's quite sick really.  You should get that checked out.  You might need word replacement therapy.

Good think pitchers and catchers report in six days.  Good thing the first workout is a week from today.  Position players arrive in thirteen days, with the first full team workout occurring two weeks from today.  I celebrated by booking my March trip to Scottsdale, optimizing the adventure by attending nine games and staying seven nights.  Win.

And now I have stalled long enough.  Here is the latest on the Michael Young situation:

Young has asked for trade, in doing so alienating his franchise:

"I think it's important to address the inaccurate portrayal that is being painted. The suggestion that I've simply had a change of heart and asked for a trade is a manipulation of the truth. I want to be traded because I've been misled and manipulated and I'm sick of it." - Young

As much as Jon Daniels and Nolan Ryan try to frantically enact damage control, keeping some semblance of leverage in trade negotiations, those comments are incredibly difficult to come back from.

Of the eight teams the Rangers can trade him to, the Rockies have been tied to Young the most and remain the most logical landing place should Texas eat salary.  The remaining potential teams include the Angels, Dodgers, Padres, Twins, Yankees, Astros, and Cardinals.  Young will entertain expanding that list on a case-by-case basis, and Troy Renck continues to forecast against a deal being struck due to the financial hurdles.

But with the Rangers' leverage slipping quickly, it appears that Texas will end up trading Young, and the Rockies remain the most likely destination.  That doesn't mean odds are even 50/50 that he ends up a Rockie, or if he does, that it would be soon.  But I agree with the MLBTR poll that Young as a Rockie is the most likely scenario.

Links

Jimenez hopes to do more by not trying to do too much | Inside the Colorado Rockies
This is an absolute must read about Ubaldo and pitching coach Bob Apodaca's disappointments with Jimenez' season last year.  Yes, there seems to be much to improve.

"Now I think he has the advantage of that breakout season," Apodaca said. "But you look back and say, ‘If we could have just made that adjustment sooner, what kind of season could we have? And what could it have led our team to accomplish?' "

We are getting greedy.  I love it.

Baseball Prospectus | Reintroducing PECOTA: They're Here!  In case you missed it, check out the PECOTA projections.  PECOTA's algorithm is unique in that it gives odds of a "breakout year," "improvement," "collapse" or "attrition."   For the record, Ubaldo comes in at a 10% breakout odds and 44% improvement.  So those of you predicting regression are actually more pessimistic than the emotionless computers.

The biggest breakout candidates for Colorado are Huston Street (26%), Manny Delcarmen at 22% (ugh), Juan Nicasio (20%), Aaron Cook (18%), and Jorge de la Rosa (16%).  The top breakout candidate with a bat is Cole Garner (10%).

Another unique aspect of PECOTA is player comps generated by the algorithm.  Sometimes the computers are spooky, like when the top player comp for Stephen Strasburg a year ago was Mark Prior - or when Felix Pie was a top prospect for the Cubs with a top comp of Corey Patterson.  Sometimes the comps are funny.  This year, Jhonny Nunez is the top comp for both Christian Friedrich and Edgmer Escalona.  Hmm.  Definitely check it out if you have a Baseball Prospectus account.

Baseball Prospectus | Wezen-Ball: Ferris Bueller's Day Off at Wrigley Field  It took almost fifteen years, but we have deduced through baseball that Ferris Bueller's Day Off happened on June 5, 1985.  I'm curious what parade occurred that day, and why anyone needed to be in school then anyway.

Mets name Brad Andress their new strength coach | MLB.com: News
Andress worked for several years with the Rockies, as seen in the story photo.