Can Young, at age 36, play third better than he ever has before?
“I expect to,” he said. “Preparation is the key to anything and I feel like I’m prepared and working hard, and I want to keep doing that during the season. I feel comfortable now, but there is always work to be done. I know I haven’t been at third in a while, but I do know what it takes to play third base at a high level and I have definite goals in my head about the type of third base I intend to play. I’m going to keep working hard until I get there.”
He’s keeping those goals to himself, and they’re not necessarily numerical.
“It’s the way I feel over there. The third base I know I can play. I don’t feel like I’ve played it to this point in my career. I’ve worked at it and worked at it, but at the same time you need the reps. A lot of things are starting to click over there that I was kind of searching for a little bit earlier. This is a classic example of learning by doing,” he said.
Young’s mediocre defense has been the inspiration behind such legendary animated .gifs as this and this (and probably this, too). If you put any stock in Ultimate Zone Rating, he has been the third-worst-fielding third baseman in baseball since 2009. Overall, he was the second-least-valuable player in the big leagues last season. But he has grit, leadership, and passion for the game, which is what really matters when your team is hovering around .500.
