Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Kevin Youkilis is Ridiculously Good



After staring at the screen looking at Youk's stats for 15 minutes, I still can't believe it. Through 46 games, he has 39 runs, 67 hits, 16 doubles, 7 HRs, 28 RBI, 2 stolen bases, .354 batting average, .431 OBP, and .550 slugging percentage......read that line again. HE IS SICK! Not to mention his current 20 game hitting streak. He ranks in the top 10 in the AL for BA, OBP, OPS, runs, and SLG. After watching Youk leg out that inside the park home run yesterday, I was so amped up I did 5 push-ups....seriously. I don't think I'm going out on a limb here when I say that Youk is one of the top five best values in the majors currently (excluding pitchers), seeing as how he is making $425,000 this year. He and Mike Lowell have been the backbone of the Sox offense through this point in the season, and just wait until Manny and Ortiz wake up, this line-up will be absurdly good.

By all accounts of his teammates, Youkilis is one of the hardest workers in the off-season. Papa Jack has worked extensively with him during his tenure with the Sox, and claims that Youk was constantly working on improving his hitting night and day in the cage. To top that off, he is a home-grown talent that only a few years ago was riding the Peter Pan bus between Pawtucket and Boston on an almost weekly basis. In an era where teams seemingly have to choose between being a perennial contender by spending a ton of money or developing their system over time, with the hopes of making a run every 5-10 years, I think Youk is one of the bright spots on the Sox front office's resume. I had to put a picture of Youk up there just because every time I see him he redefines the term hideous, but in an attempt to offset the shock, I wanted to add a picture of the epitome of a butt that won't quit.

Viva Orlando!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

thanks for the pic of Vida Norman!!!!

Simply Suds said...

I'm not one to normally call someone out on a blog, but I hope you realize that Papa Jack was fired last October and Dave Magadan is the new hitting coach. Don't you think you should mention him as getting some credit for this tear Youk is on ?

Step your game and your facts up Norman.

Norman P. Orlando said...

I got nothing but love for your suds, and the nature of a blog is to promote an on-going dialogue, so feel free to call me out whenever. However, my point was, it was widely known that Youk was Papa Jack's protege while he was in town and worked with him extensively on his swing. I don't think Magaden could have really done that much in his first year, thus I don't think he deserves much of the credit if any. Either way Youk hit an absolute bomb last night and extended his streak, while the Yanks were absolutely embarassed....I'm in NY right now so I had to watch the whole game and it was disgusting.....stick a fork in them.