if you describe why Michael Young would help the team… and how we could afford such a contract.

$16 million per year? That’s the same that Albert is making right now and more than Carp. We’ve got plenty of albatross contracts coming off the books next year, so why waste all of that payroll freedom on one guy? A guy who will be turning 32 later this year and will be 36 when the deal is over. He’s a good player, but his OPS+ has been dipping for four years running now, and it’s at 101 right now. i.e. 1% above MLB average (I believe).

In summary: no thanks

age is yes a factor, and no I don’t believe that he would ever clear waivers, I think that this would be a decent trade
IF and I do mean if Texas ate some of the contract reasons for signing,
He gives you a .300 batting average for the top of the lineup, has decent speed with double digit steals every year furthermore he has turned in 90 plus RBIs consistently, he plays SS so let’s see Cesar’s 10 RBIs versus Young’s 90… need we say more?
If you don’t want him at SS throw him over to 2nd, seems like an impact bat to me but if Skip was part of the deal, I’m not quite sure who the leadoff hitter would be… I wouldn’t want to waste young in the 1 hole

is grossly overpaid, is 31 years old, and has a career .731 OPS away from The Ballpark at Arlington.

Now if Texas wants to eat 60-70% of his contract then it might be worth exploring, but otherwise makes no sense.

that I decided to offer an alternative, although it probably won’t appeal to TLR and the “win now” crowd. Rather than burn prospects for either rentals or overvalued/overpaid players, why not find some near MLB ready SS who is blocked by a proven performer who isn’t going anywhere?

I did a quick and dirty search of current stats to identify relatively entrenched SSes and then did a quick troll through their minor league AA and AAA affiliates looking for potential prospects. I didn’t go any lower than AA as we want someone who could help relatively soon and there is no sense in blocking either Kozma or Vasquez.

The orgs I checked out (with current regular) were Arizona (Steven Drew), Atlanta (Yunel Escobar), Florida (Hanley Ramirez), Colorado (Troy Tulo), Philadelphia (Jimmy Rollins), the Mets (Jose Reyes), the Yankees (Jeter), Texas (Michael Young), and Tampa Bay (just ‘cause they have so freakin’ much talent).

I am going to throw out some names and slash lines just for discussion. I claim very little to no knowledge about any of them, but I would love to hear from anyone who claims expertise.

Arizona has Jesus Merchan who is currently sporting a .342/.379/.430 line in AAA

Florida’s Manuel Mayorson is producing a line of .307/.364/.408 with 20 steals in AA

The Phillies have Jason Donald with a .308/.388/.509 line in AA

Texas has two potential prospects with AAA Joaquin Arias at a relatively meager .283/.318/.391 plus 23 steals and not yet 20 year old Elvis Andrus with a line of .291/.345/.361at AA plus 44 steals

Tampa Bay has Ben Zobrist just abusing AAA to the tune of .353/.441/.541. He also hist .230/.288/.486 in 23 MLB ABs with 5 HRs.

So there you have it. Seems to me the price for many of these guys would be a lot less and the upside might be just as good. Maybe we could swap a righty reliever or two, or better yet Joel Pineiro or Braden Looper.

Ideally, we could land either a leadoff hitter or a guy for the 9 spot so Skip could move on.

For those of you who have been around for a while, never forget that Whitey Herzog swapped a journeyman pitcher for a young CF who was blocked in the Yankees system. Some kid named McGee.

and Albert breaking out of his slump in a big way. They always seem to play good when I am blacked out. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much, only 2 more blackouts after tonight.