Former MLB hurler Chris Young has joined Major League Baseball as vice president of on-field operations, initiatives, and strategy, per a league announcement. It seems fair to presume, then, that his playing days are over.
Young, who turns 39 later this month, spent Spring Training with the Padres. But he was released after triggering his opt-out clause when the team decided he would not crack the Opening Day roster.
The towering hurler pitched in parts of 13 MLB campaigns, working to a 3.95 ERA over 1,297 2/3 total frames. He spent a plurality of his time with the Padres after debuting with the Rangers. Young also pitched for the Royals, Mets, and Mariners. His best overall season came in 2007 with the Padres, when he earned his lone All-Star nod and ended with 173 innings of 3.12 ERA ball.
While he dealt with some injuries along the way, the former third-round pick from Princeton ended up with a quality major-league career. He tallied 16.7 total rWAR in the majors — leaving him with a narrow lead in that regard over his still-active, like-named contemporary Chris Young (the outfielder).
In his new job, Young will have input in a variety of areas. Per the announcement, he’ll deal with “play on the field, including the application of playing rules and regulations, on-field standards and discipline, pace of play and other special projects.” The definition seems broad enough to suggest that Young’s role will likely take form over time.
I think it’s outstanding to put a recent former player in a role like this. Someone who is very close and familiar with today’s game. He will know what will and won’t work as far as rules impact on players.
he’s a very smart dude, so this is the right move for hin
He’s a bright guy and he worked pretty quickly as a pitcher so he might have some insight into pace-of-play stuff. He also was reasonably successful throwing 85 MPH and that’s got to be some indication of baseball smarts.
This is Brent Suter in 15 years
The pitcher Chris Young owned the outfielder Chris Young:
19 Plate Appearances, 0 hits, 8 strikeouts, 3 walks for a .158 OPS. Woof.
This comment caused me to look up this pretty fascinating comparison:
Chris Young (SP): 13 seasons, 16.6 WAR (per b-r)
Chris Young (OF): 13 seasons, 16.3 WAR (per b-r)
Of course, the latter is still playing, but still, I like the Chris Young consistency
This caused me to remember an article I read a few days ago on the MLB site. They polled 35 position players and 35 pitchers to see what stat they valued most……not a single one mentioned WAR mlb.com/news/mlb-players-vote-for-stats-they-value…
I didn’t post this to start a WAR (yes, bad pun intended), I just thought it was interesting that some stats revered by sabermetrics are blasé to players and others that some in the stat community push aside, like RBI’s, came in 3rd among players.
I do realize it’s a small sample size.
It is not surprising at all. Advanced stats, especially one like WAR, are generally averages factoring for multiple aspects. When in a game situation you can not possibly figure out how any given play will factor into them and to what extent. And it is a team game first and foremost, so focusing on what would help your club win at very specific moments will be on your mind more than what your overall average production value is over long periods of time
At the same time, a big chunk of the players did tend to pick things which influence stats like WAR heavily – especially those which answered the question in a more performance over team wins way
Lastly, if you ever have a chance to talk to players fairly regularly, I think you’ll likely find quite a few like Nelson – especially amongst pitchers. I know I have. Unless they have a Bauer like brain they can drive themselves nuts getting into all the details and instead quite a few seemingly have a tendency to take things more hitter by hitter as they are going through it. Doing that well will produce the end averages you want for better advanced stats anyway.
If baseball wasn’t such a game of failure I think players would think of things extremely differently too.
WAR isn’t a statistic. It is a valuation of a player’s worth. Huge difference. Stats are things like BA, RBI, etc.
I mean, it makes sense. RBIs (for example) are directly correlated to results. When a batter earns an RBI that’s a direct contribution to the team and the game. WAR is a good stat for analysts because it’s a good comparative metric, but I wouldn’t expect players to focus on it too much.
Dude that’s why I mentioned it in the post! I oddly noticed this fact the other day and never thought I’d have cause to mention it, then was blessed with this news.
I’m really gonna miss the double Chris Young era.
Ironic considering that time he and Derrek Lee brawled.
You’ve watched that fight, right? Lee swung first. Young was trying to apologize to him.
Jeff, why doesn’t MLBTR use middle initials when to players with the same name are frequently in the news? And it sucks getting directed to the wrong BR site, though I admit that is a first world problem! Thanks for a great website/APP!