Was watching the Diamondbacks game and the broadcasters were talking about this rookie centerfield sensation named Chris Young. His name sounded familiar, I looked him up in the Baseball America Prospect book, and there he was the #2 prospect for the Chicago White Sox. He was traded from the White Sox to Arizona along with El Duque & Luis Vizcaino in exchange for Javier Vazquez. Everybody has been second guessing Chicago for trading Aaron Rowand to Philadelphia, but that would have been alright had the Sox replaced Rowand with Chris Young rather than Brian Anderson. Also we could have used Luis Vizcaino in the bullpen and Orlando Hernandez couldn’t do any worse than Vazquez (also Hernandez worked well with Sox Ace Jose Contreras). Or we could’ve traded El Duque for bullpen help (the D*Backs traded him to the NY Mets for Jorge Julio) and moved Brandon McCarthy to the rotation.
But this is about Chris Young, who hit a two run shot & almost took away a homer while I was watching, made a spectacular catch the night before, and is hitting .375 (3 for 8). Young batted .276, with 21 homers, 32 doubles, along with 17 steals in Triple A before getting called up to the big leagues. Chris hit .277 last year in Double A, with 26 homers, 41 doubles, & 32 SBs and had a .262 average in A Ball with 24 home runs, 31 two base hits, 5 triples, & 31 steals.
Brian Anderson is one year older than Young and a little more polished than Young, having come out of the University of Arizona while Chris was drafted out of high school. The most homers ever hit by Anderson are 16 last year in Triple A. Both guys are exceptional centerfielders, but Chris Young is exciting, while Brian Anderson barely has a pulse. If given the choice, I’ll take Chris Young.