To paraphrase an recent article by Paul Swydan of Fangraphs. Last year Michael Young sucked! We all know it and we didn't need an article from ESPN to tell us. The real question is will anyone make Ron Washington read this article. I'm pretty sure Jon Daniels knows it too. But will Wash listen? So perhaps the best thing for JD to do is to take a page out of Billy Beane's book and just release MY so Wash can't play him! We will be out MY's $16m no matter what, so lets not let him take up a roster spot too!

That might happen at some point during the season but for $16 million dollars, they are at least going to make sure he sucks this season too before releasing him. I'm not expecting him to not suck but I'm pretty sure he's at least going to get a reasonable shot and proving he can still hit, though I'm preparing myself for the worst and expecting Young to collect over 400 AB this season.

Why compound the waste of money...with the waste of a roster spot?

He was the worst defensive player, and one of the two or three worst offensive players on the roster last season. JD must man up and dump this player...even if it's on the side of the road.

At least give him until his first GIDP or bobble at first base, whichever comes first. So using the last game of last year as a guide, he should be good for about ONE pitch.

Haven't heard this idea before...*insert sarcasm*

There are some players that deserve respect. Unfortunately, the word "respect" has no meaning to some.

With MY it is not the production he achieved but the production he achieved at the price he was paid and the amount of playing time that was given to him when he should have been strictly a utility player off the bench. I blame Wash 100%. If he was making 3 mil and had playing time like Omar did, he would have still been overpaid but someone else would have had the opportunity to produce more or at least develop. Having a still functional player on the bench like MY is better than letting an Olt or Profar rot there. He must have some kind of video on someone.

This is new and exciting.

Samson,

I have respect for all MY has done in the past, which is why he is being paid $16m this year. Now it is time for him to have respect for the orginization and himself, by stepping back and evaluating himself. I have so much respect for him I hope he would stay in the orginization as a bench player this year, but i just dont think his pride will let him except it. I would even hope he would accept a coaching position in the future.

It's not MY's fault he was played too much. It's MY's job to do the best he possibly can when (and where) he is in the lineup, even if the best he can do is spare it up, and it's Wash's job to (a) put MY in position to succeed to the best of his ability, and (b) use MY where and when it most helps the team.

Wash sets the lineups, and it's 100% on him that MY played too much at the expense of others, batted too high in the order, and played too often in the field.

I haven't looked at this site in like 2 months because I was sick of every post calling for MY's head...what do ya know, singing the same ole tune! Give it a rest and let the baseball people make a decision on him, you never know Face may finish his career strong this year, and then you will all love him again. Until then, this site is still just a bunch of whiners who can't seem to get past MY discussions.

Marcus, the Rangers need to take some action to avoid a repeat of MY in 2012. (And we haven't seen any such thing yet. We've even heard Wash say that he sees no reason to change in 2013. Ugh.)

I see no reason to stop the discussion until change happens. If that makes you wanna leave, then Aloha for the time being. If you just came here to whine about the MY discussion, well done.

Old. Tired. Thread.

So we're once again wasting vitriol on a 36 year old player, who plays half his games at DH? The other half he played at a variety of infield positions. He made 6 errors, not 60.

He played as much as he did because Napoli was on the DL for a long time, so Young was the righty 1st baseman. He played more when Moreland went on the DL for over a month. He played some middle infield because Alberto Gonzalez sucked. He played in September because Olt both sucked and then got hurt. You can blame Wsh if that makes you feel better, but look at time Napoli, Moreland & Olt and tell me what options you would have had as manager.

Stop worrying about the silly WAR stat. He had virtually the same season in 2002 and nobody said a word back then, because nobody had ever heard of WAR. Michael Young will be done as a Ranger at the end of this year. He'll get paid $16 million because that was the deal he signed 4 years ago.

@Rich P Olt had 33 AB's last season, dont think you can say he sucked when he didnt get a chance to suck. Put Either moreland or Nap nap at 1b DH Murphy Hamilton in LF gentry/martin in CF. This is what we wanted. This is what we didnt get. We had options... they just werent chosen over FACE also alberto gonzales sucked but Jurickson Profar did not.

Also in 2002 we finished last in the AL WEST, you wonder why no one cared that FACE sucked that year too? Maybe its cause the games didn't matter and we didn't have alternatives then

Michael Young has given his all to the Rangers over the years but he has to man up and face reality, father time has introduced himself to MY! It is time for a classy and professional exit on his part, go out an absolute pro with his head held high and the fans standing ovation to help him go into retirement.........some position in the organization possibly or go into training as a next generation coach or manager. Do it right Michael......don't hold on to something that is not there any longer and risk the wrath of the fans and the media which will do nothing but sully a great career. All things come to an end for great players......some have seen it and gone out with their reputations in tact and some have held on to try and milk a few more years of playing and hurt their overall numbers and ended up looking silly to the fans and hurt their legacy. Mickey Mantle often said he wished he would have retired a few years earlier and he would have ended up a .300 hitter instead of .298 lifetime. Babe Ruth would not throw the towel in and ended up aimlessly playing for the Boston Braves his last season. Go out with class do not risk going out and your fans saying "thank goodness he's gone"!!

He is slowing down, even his speed to first has slowed. But 2013 could be a repeat of 2011 instead of 2012. I have never liked him at third because he matadors the ball way too often, but he is not needed at third, Beltre/olt best in MLB. And speaking of MLB, remember he was voted best defensive SS before Elvis, even I found that hard to buy when Jeter was still very active, but he was.this same criticism popped up prior to 2011 and a ,338 and 106 rbi. But if MY must go JD could make a like trade. So who do you want: A Rod, Vernon Wells, Todd Helton or probably the best option: Alfonso Soriano? Nothimg is decided yet for the Rangers, for who is at catcher, first base or OF erpecially center? The Face got that title for a reason, and looking back the Rangers have not done bad the last three years with MY in the lineup and he is on his last year of his Multi-year contract as a utility inf and would you rather have Chone Figgins. Bottom line, let Michael be Michael one more yearN but I Agree less ABs.

Attacking Young's Glove at SS by saying Jeter is better is very much a pot/kettle situation. Neither one was ever a good defensive player.

I would really love to see a scouting report on Young from last year, regarding bat speed and how it compares to his previous years. If it says what I would expect to see it would explain a lot of what happened last year.

Rich:Stop worrying about the silly WAR stat. He had virtually the same season in 2002 and nobody said a word back then, because nobody had ever heard of WAR.

les: The Face got that title for a reason, and looking back the Rangers have not done bad the last three years with MY in the lineup and he is on his last year of his Multi-year contract as a utility inf and would you rather have Chone Figgins.

WAR has been around for longer than 10 years. And like mln468 said, no one cared about his shitty season in 2002 because the Rangers sucked. To boot, Michael Young was making the league minimum. In 2012 the Rangers were the most talented team in baseball, and Face made more money than anyone on the roster. Crazy.

As for the 2nd statement, (a) the Rangers being a good team and Michael Young being on the roster are mutually exclusive; Texas would easily have won the division with or without him. (b) We're not playing russian roulette deciding between Michael Young and Chone Figgins. That doesn't make any sense. And if you're giving me the option between paying $9M to Figgins as compared to $16.125M for Young, I'm taking the cheaper guy who still has some utility as a pinch runner.

The worst, most expensive player on the Rangers in 2012 -- a year where the Rangers lost the division by 1 game -- cost the team 1.4 wins. He generated the 4th most plate appearances. And, amazingly, he began the season batting cleanup. Blame it on Ron Washington if you'd like, but at least a bit of the blame has to go on Jon Daniels on this one for not forcing Wash's hand sooner.

@JKolar

I'm obviously not a professional scout, but from my experiences as a player and actively watching about a thousand baseball games per year over the last 5-10 years, the deductive reasoning is pretty straightforward. You know it as well as I do.

His hands slowed down quite a bit between 2011 and 2012, forcing him to open his hips sooner and cheat on the fastball more frequently. This especially hurt him on off speed pitches down and away, and because he was so ahead of everything, he tended to roll over quite a bit more. The effect of this sudden phenomena was that his GB% dramatically increased (up to 53.2%) in comparison to his 46% career average.

I think there's something to the whole "running out of gas" theory that a few of the players alluded to after the season ended, and Michael Young may have had a significant drop off in 2012 simply from being tired. That's what the optimistic part of me believes. I'm expecting something of a bounce back in 2013, probably from the -1.4 fWAR mark back up closer to 0.0. He is, after all, playing for a new contract, and certainly has something major to prove.