Youkilis is a bad example, as he knows the Yankees only have a corner infield opening for a few months. Its often about the money, but playing time is just as important, perhaps even more so.

They do have a DH opening for the whole season though

Yeah, I presume that if they sign Youk, he plays 3rd until A-Rod comes back, and then is the primary DH, getting time at 3rd (a lot) and 1st (a little). He'll get his at bats with this aging team.

Doesn't it seem likely that the guy with 2 bum hips DHs when he comes back rather than taking over third base?

I will not root for Kevin Youkilis.

Eric Chavez got 313 PA for the MFY's last season. One would have to assume that would be the low-end starting point for Youk-as-Yankee.

In related news, Heyman tweetered that Cashman beat the 3/$12MM deal that Keppinger took from the White Sox, but Keppinger took his talents to the South Side anyway. (cite https://twitter.com/JonHeymanCBS/status/276431391904907264)

I have a hard time imagining Youkilis and Joba co-existing as teammates.

i have a hard time imagining both of them staying healthy for long enough to be an issue...if they fight it will be during a rehab assignment in tampa.

If the Yankees sign Youkilis, I will root against the Yankees 11% of the time.

See, if the Yankees sign Youklis I won’t root against him. I’ll just create an elaborate narrative in my head where he’s a total jerk and detested by his teammates, but over the course of the summer, the ice begins to thaw and Youklis and the Yankees all learn valuable lessons about baseball, life, and themselves. And this fantasy narrative can be adjusted, day-by-day, all season long! And then it ends with him being the best man at Joba’s wedding.

The Yankees wouldn't have to give up much for Michael Young, and just pay him for one year.

The Yankees wouldn't have to give up much for Michael Young, and just pay him for one year.

Michael Young is 36 years old, is owed $16 mil, plays awful defense, and last year hit .277 with no power in the best hitters park in the league. It's hard to think of a worse option (outside of comical Adam Dunn at 3B hypotheticals).

I've always thought we gave Young a bit too much grief around here. He's a consistent 105-115 OPS+ guy and yeah the contract is silly and yeah he's got no business playing the field but he's a serviceable enough guy.

Then I looked at his numbers for 2012. Holy hell I didn't realize he was that bad. Yeesh.

It's hard to think of a worse option

Freddy Galvis?

I will not root for Kevin Youkilis.

If the Yankees sign Youkilis, I will root against the Yankees 11% of the time.

That's crazy talk. The guy's not a rapist or murderer.

He's an annoying, assholish player. The Yankees have never had annoying assholish players you rooted for?

Did you root for Reggie? No one's a bigger ass than Reggie.

The Yankees wouldn't have to give up much for Michael Young, and just pay him for one year.

You only take Young if he costs a C- prospect and Texas eats $13-14M of the $16M.

That's crazy talk. The guy's not a rapist or murderer.

As far as we know.

As far as we know.

His ugly eye rapes me!

The Yankees wouldn't have to give up much for Michael Young, and just pay him for one year.

You only take Young if he costs a C- prospect and Texas eats $13-14M of the $16M.

If I'm Jon Daniels, I take that deal, or something similar.

As dreadful as Young was in 2012, I can see a scenario where he's a useful player in 2013. A bit of a dead cat bounce is probably reasonable to expect, and if you play him part time, mostly against LHP, and limit his defensive exposure, he should be better than replacement level. The trouble is Ron Washington WILL play him every day if he's on the roster, and I don't think Texas wants an open pissing match between Daniels and Wash that might result in a divided clubhouse. So the best solution for Daniels is to ship Young outta town.

The Phillies may beat the Yankees to Mike Young, but he will have to waive his no-trade. He appears to have no interest in doing so.

C'mon. You managed to root for Jeter all these years. (And Clemens and O'Neill, and...)

The Phillies may beat the Yankees to Mike Young, but he will have to waive his no-trade. He appears to have no interest in doing so.

I'd be surprised if he did. He's going to lose playing time anywhere but on the Rangers, where his BFF Ron Washington will put him in the lineup every day regardless of how he performs. Plus neither the Yanks or Phils really look any more likely to be playoff teams than Texas; just no upside for Young to leave.

I'd be surprised if he did. He's going to lose playing time anywhere but on the Rangers, where his BFF Ron Washington will put him in the lineup every day regardless of how he performs. Plus neither the Yanks or Phils really look any more likely to be playoff teams than Texas; just no upside for Young to leave.

They could throw him some bonus cash to waive his no-trade.

I have a hard time imagining Youkilis and Joba co-existing as teammates.

After typing that I looked up the stats, and they have faced each other 23 times with only 1 HBP. That shocked me because my recollection is that something about Youkilis appearing in a batters box offends Joba at a very deep, primal level, and his response is to throw the baseball at the abomination as hard as he can.

So, for those whose memories may be better than mine:

1. Am I making all this up from one single incident? or
2. Several Youkilis-Chamberlain matchups have featured balls thrown at the batter, but Joba only hit his target once.

2. Several Youkilis-Chamberlain matchups have featured balls thrown at the batter, but Joba only hit his target once.

That's about the size of it. When Joba made his splash the Sox/Yankees played a series in New York in late August and Joba threw a couple of pitches over or behind his head that got Youk riled up. I'm pretty sure it was the first time the Sox had seen Joba and it kind of snowballed from there.

Youk gets hit pretty frequently. He's right up on the plate and he dives out so he's going to take a few shots. He's also incredibly popular in Boston so when he gets wronged (in fact or in perception) the fans would get behind him.

This is the game I referenced. The 9th inning pitching change where Edwar replaced Joba mid-batter was due to Joba being ejected.

It looks like Mike Young will be a Phillie, if he wants to be.

It looks like Mike Young will be a Phillie, if he wants to be.

He fits well in their "rapidly aging veteran" theme.

He's going to take a financial hit if he waives his no-trade. There is no income tax in Texas; Philly and NYC both take a chunk of change.

I'm so confused, I thought SG left PSB for Bleacher Reports or some such site. I killed my RSS feed for PSB and when Bleacher had no RSS option I thought that was the end of the road for my reading Steve. Yet it appears he's posted nothing on Bleacher, and has a handful of things on PSB. What the what?

Eric Chavez had better numbers across the board than Youk last year. Youk's numbers have declined in each of his last 3 yrs while Chavez has improved. The Yanks couldn't pay Chavez $3 million? I just don't get it.

The trouble is Ron Washington WILL play him every day if he's on the roster

While I understand the dread, at the moment, it's not clear Wash would have a lot of choice. No Hamilton, no Napoli. A starting OF of Murphy, Gentry and Cruz with Moreland full-time at 1B. Young's OPS+ last year was 78 but (without Gentry) the bench OPS+s were 69, 53, 95, 44, 55 and 17. OK, I guess this Olt kid is supposed to be a stud (1B/DH I assume) although I'm not thrilled with that minor-league BA and he's already 24.

Which is really just saying that the first thing Daniels needs to do is get off his butt and give Washington several better options than to give Young playing time, then he can exorcise Young from the roster.

I was also surprised the Yankees didn't bring back Chavez, but from last year it seemed they were scared to play him in the field more than every other day.

Regarding Chavez, I wonder if Arizona intends on making him a full-time starter (as much as his health will allow, anyway), and that was the difference between signing with them and the Yankees. All players want to start all the time, but I'd bet Chavez especially would like another chance at that.

While I understand the dread, at the moment, it's not clear Wash would have a lot of choice. No Hamilton, no Napoli. A starting OF of Murphy, Gentry and Cruz with Moreland full-time at 1B. Young's OPS+ last year was 78 but (without Gentry) the bench OPS+s were 69, 53, 95, 44, 55 and 17. OK, I guess this Olt kid is supposed to be a stud (1B/DH I assume) although I'm not thrilled with that minor-league BA and he's already 24.

Which is really just saying that the first thing Daniels needs to do is get off his butt and give Washington several better options than to give Young playing time, then he can exorcise Young from the roster.

The thing is, 2012 Young was a -2 WAR player. Unless you're making an argument that Texas will be unable to acquire a replacement player for some reason, that bWAR has set replacement level too high, or that 2013 Young will be better than replacement as an everyday player, Texas is better off just getting rid of Young and figuring it out as they go.

Kevin Youkilis is being chased by the Indians and Yankees.

Kind of ambivalent about this. Will Yankee pitchers be allowed to throw at Youkilis during batting practice? At least during spring training?

I've lost track of the restrictive covenants in the Yankees facial hair policy - are goatees permissible? If not, that's probably a deal-breaker for Youkilis, no? Not sure that I'd want to see more of him exposed, either. Tough call, but somebody has to play 3rd. The real problem is that Youkilis hasn't been that good lately. His best years were while playing 1st - it would be a lot easier to adjust to Youkils' presence if he could hit like that again.

The thing is, 2012 Young was a -2 WAR player. Unless you're making an argument that Texas will be unable to acquire a replacement player for some reason, that bWAR has set replacement level too high, or that 2013 Young will be better than replacement as an everyday player, Texas is better off just getting rid of Young and figuring it out as they go.

1. Of course we expect Young 2013 to be better than Young 2012. Obviously he wouldn't be the first old player to completely collapse but there's no reason to expect him to be one of them.

2. Replacement players are something of a myth. The question is what options do the Texas Rangers have under contract for 2013.

3. At the moment, as near as I can tell, Michael Young is at least the 10th best hitter on the Rangers roster. That roster includes platoon players like Moreland, Murphy, Gentry and Cruz among their 9 starters.

Young was -15 Rbat last year. That's terrible. But, all told, Gentry aside since he's currently the "starting" CF, the guys listed as "bench" for the Rangers on b-r were -32 Rbat in 600 PA. Even if you take out the flotilla of Cs, it's about -14 in 250-300 PA. My guess is the only one of those guys who projects to hit better than Young is Olt, who I have already pencilled in as starting DH when calling Young the team's 10th best hitter. It's not my fault the Rangers have no hitting talent.

So what I am arguing is that, near as I can tell, the Texas Rangers have not acquired any of these freely (or un-freely) available players who are better hitters than Michael Young and that it would behoove them to do so. Even last year, the only player who was actually on the Rangers roster who was clearly a better option than even 2012 Michael Young was Gentry. And given injuries to Hamilton, Napoli and Moreland, it's hard to see how Young wouldn't have gotten about 400 PA anyway.

Which means the fans' ire over Young's playing time in 2012 would be more correctly directed at Daniels than Washington since Daniels gave him virtually no choice but to give substantial playing time to Young. And unless Daniels upgrades the roster soon, Washington will again have little choice.

I've lost track of the restrictive covenants in the Yankees facial hair policy - are goatees permissible? If not, that's probably a deal-breaker for Youkilis, no? Not sure that I'd want to see more of him exposed, either.

He's been completely clean-shaven from time to time. He looks even weirder that way.

Michael Young was a +2 WAR player in 2011, when he had a 125 OPS+. Fangraphs had him at +3.7! At what point during the 2012 season do you expect the manager to decide that Young is sub-replacement level? And who was supposed to start in his staid? Yorvit Torrealba? The great Brandon Snyder? Leonys Martin? I don't think it's even so clear cut that Craig Gentry is a better option at DH. I have to agree with Walt here...

I assumed that Youkilis on the Yankees would just keep the mustache and shave the goatee. Kinda like this.

Youkilis with a moustache and no beard isn't nearly as hilariously awful as I expected it to be. I'm pretty disappointed.

The immortal Dann Bilardello, the ex-Reds catcher, once said of owner Marge Schott's restrictive facial hair policy in the 1980s: "We were lucky she let us have eyebrows."

lol

If anyone is a sneer personified, its Youk.

1. Of course we expect Young 2013 to be better than Young 2012. Obviously he wouldn't be the first old player to completely collapse but there's no reason to expect him to be one of them.

Yes, but do we expect him to be better than replacement level? When you're -2 WAR, there's plenty of room for improvement while still being an overall negative to the team. Reasonable people can differ as to whether Young will or won't top replacement level, but we should certainly expect him to be better than 2012.

2. Replacement players are something of a myth. The question is what options do the Texas Rangers have under contract for 2013.

If true, then WAR is a hopelessly flawed stat, and we'd all be better off never talking about it again. Or, you're implicitly arguing that bWAR has set replacement level much too high.

Young was -15 Rbat last year. That's terrible. But, all told, Gentry aside since he's currently the "starting" CF, the guys listed as "bench" for the Rangers on b-r were -32 Rbat in 600 PA. Even if you take out the flotilla of Cs, it's about -14 in 250-300 PA. My guess is the only one of those guys who projects to hit better than Young is Olt, who I have already pencilled in as starting DH when calling Young the team's 10th best hitter. It's not my fault the Rangers have no hitting talent.

So what I am arguing is that, near as I can tell, the Texas Rangers have not acquired any of these freely (or un-freely) available players who are better hitters than Michael Young and that it would behoove them to do so. Even last year, the only player who was actually on the Rangers roster who was clearly a better option than even 2012 Michael Young was Gentry. And given injuries to Hamilton, Napoli and Moreland, it's hard to see how Young wouldn't have gotten about 400 PA anyway.

The concept of replacement level hinges on the fact that there exist replacement players who are freely available talent. Again, your argument here is either that replacement is set too high, such that there is no freely available talent out there better than Michael Young and his -2 WAR, OR you're arguing that the Texas FO is uniquely incapable of finding such a player for some reason.