Uh-Oh…

Zero clue + Zero minor league options = Big Trouble

There were plenty of rumors about an attitude problem when the Twins decided to ship Matt Garza to Tampa Bay in a trade that brought the Twins Delmon Young. Today, Fangraphs finally asked the question “What to do with Delmon?” after Young earned the leagues least valuable player award for the first 1/3 of the season. For all the talk I heard from people who were in a position to know about Garza’s issues, it sounds as if Young has more than his share of issues as well.

While Delmon has had a terrible go of it lately, losing his mom to a battle with cancer, it’s hard to feel positive about a player Peter Gammons once compared to Frank Robinson when you read this quote from manager Ron Gardenhire.

“That’s the problem; he’s not into talking about mechanics. He doesn’t like to talk about mechanics. So it’s a little bit of a struggle,” Gardenhire said. “He’s been through quite a bit, so you give the benefit of the doubt here. You let it play out a little longer, and then you have to see where you’re at. Give the benefit of the doubt; he missed 12 games in 12 days, and he’s been through a whole heck of a lot.”

Watching Young’s approach at the plate is painful, and mechanically he’s just as big of a mess. The Twins two biggest trades, the Garza trade and the Santana trade have been centered around two young outfielders with plenty of tools, but little or no toolbox. When watching Carlos Gomez, at least we know he’s trying and know he’s going to track down just about anything in centerfield. Yet for Gardy to openly question both players baseball IQ, is seemingly an indictment on not only the players, but the front office that made the moves for them.

“Gomez can take 200 swings a day, but if your plan isn’t good, and when you get to the plate if you abandon everything, it doesn’t do you any good,” Gardenhire said. “That’s the conversation we had yesterday — have a plan, go down to the cage, work on that plan of what you think the guy’s going to do to you, then get in the box and execute that plan.”

Both Young and Gomez can walk a few lockers down and pick the brain of either Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau, and find two guys who have approaches that are easy to emulate. While Morneau might swing at a ton of pitches out of the zone, he’s at least got an idea of what pitchers are trying to do with them.