Yesterday’s post suggested that if you look at Young’s overall WAR numbers over the last five seasons, he doesn’t fare that well compared to the rest of the Phillies. That, in large part, is due to the fact that he’s been a pretty miserable defensive player of late, posting a negative dWAR in four of the last five years. Looking at the top five hitters by WAR on the Phillies over the last five seasons means he’s competing with players who accumulate significant value from their defense (Utley, Rollins, Ruiz and Victorino especially), which Young has not been able to do.
If you look just at the offensive numbers, Young’s bids to get into the top five among Phillie hitters in recent years improve quite a bit. Arguably, Young would have been the best hitter on the Phillies in 2011 among the players that got 400 plate appearances — 2011 wasn’t that long ago and it saw Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, Chase Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Raul Ibanez, Placido Polanco and Shane Victorino all get at least 400 plate appearances with the Phils.
The table below shows where Young’s oWAR for all Phillies hitters and wOBA (for hitters with at least 400 plate appearances) ranks among Phillies for the last five seasons:
| Year | Rank | oWAR | wOBA |
| 2008 | 1 | Utley 5.7 | Utley .389 |
| 2008 | 2 | Rollins 3.5 | Burrell .375 |
| 2008 | 3 | Victorino 3.3 | Werth .374 |
| 2008 | - | Young 3.2 (4) | Young .328 (7) |
| 2009 | 1 | Utley 6.0 | Utley .394 |
| 2009 | 2 | Werth 4.0 | Howard .392 |
| 2009 | 3 | Howard 3.9 | Ibanez .378 |
| 2009 | - | Young 4.0 (T-2) | Young .385 (3) |
| 2010 | 1 | Werth 4.9 | Werth .396 |
| 2010 | 2 | Utley 3.9 | Utley .370 |
| 2010 | 3 | Ruiz 3.2 | Ruiz/Howard .368 |
| 2010 | - | Young 2.7 (T-4) | Young .336 (6) |
| 2011 | 1 | Victorino 5.0 | Victorino .368 |
| 2011 | 2 | Rollins 3.1 | Howard .355 |
| 2011 | 3 | Utley 2.9 | Utley .338 |
| 2011 | - | Young 3.5 (2) | Young .369 (1) |
| 2012 | 1 | Ruiz 4.0 | Ruiz .398 |
| 2012 | 2 | Rollins 3.1 | Pence .340 |
| 2012 | 3 | Utley 2.0 | Rollins .322 |
| 2012 | - | Young -1.0 (26) | Young .297 (7) |
Young has been really good offensively in two of the last five years, hitting 338/380/474 in 2011 and 322/374/518 with 22 homers in 2009.
By oWAR, he would have been in the top two among Phillie hitters twice in the past five years and in the top four in four of the five.
By wOBA, he would have been the best Phillie hitter with at least 400 plate appearances in 2011 and the third best in 2009.
In 2012 he was unarguably terrible, but his career wOBA of .344, had he produced that and not the actual .297 he did put up, would have been second best on the team behind only Ruiz.
Young has had four really good offensive years, only one of which has come in the last five seasons. 2004, 2006 and 2009 were all really good and 2005, when he put up a 331/385/513 line, was probably the best.
January 3rd, 2013 on 8:29 pm
I’m still hoping against hope that Young doesn’t have to make up for the offense we need at both third base and one of the corner outfield positions. Because I’m pretty sure that his best season could not accomplish that.
January 4th, 2013 on 8:56 am
Speaking of.. I’m seeing Justin Upton is back on the trade market. I wonder if the Phils could put together a package to grab him.. the DBacks want to be blown away, so it would probably have to be something like Galvis+Valle+Cloyd.
January 4th, 2013 on 9:07 am
That’s a deal I make I think, though I don’t know Upton’s contract situation. But I’d rather the Fish take them for their right fielder. Probably would not be enough though.
January 4th, 2013 on 10:03 am
I would be absolutely thrilled if the Phillies traded Galvis, Valle and Cloyd for Upton. I think it would take more than that.
I think Upton is due $38.5 million over the next three years.
I will be surprised if Stanton is traded.