I just wanted to make a quick note today about Kevin Youkilis. His big three-run home run last night helped Josh Beckett capture his sixth win of the season on the heals of an utterly dominant and almost perfect performance. Youk has had to make a lot of adjustments this season: playing third base almost full time and serving as protection for Adrian Gonzalez in the batting order. While the season didn’t start out great for Youk, he has still been an offensive monster so far in the 2011 season, something his .259 AVG understates.
Strikeouts were a problem in April. Youk held a strikeout rate of over 33 percent that month and he hit only .218. However, AVG in his case means very little. Youk walked 21 times in April (20.6 percent walk rate) and held an OBP of .392. Given the odd nature of Youk’s strikeout rate being so high, one had to imagine that it wouldn’t stay that way for long. Sure enough, Youk dropped that high strikeout rate like a bad habit. In May his strikeout rate was only 20.2 percent and so far in June he’s managed to hold down the K’s to the tune of a 23.3 percent strikeout rate. While the high walk rate from April also dropped, it’s still has been at a very healthy 11-percent since May 1st. Youk’s .383 OBP ranks him in the top 25 in baseball and there is certainly reason to think he’ll continue to improve upon that number based on past performance.
Youk’s .383 OBP is better than those of Alex Rodriguez (.364) and Adrian Beltre (.313), both of whom he trails in All-Star Game voting at third base.
Youk also compares well to both of those players in terms of power production. He has 10 home runs compared to 13 from A-Rod and 12 from Beltre. He also has a .486 SLG, which is better than Beltre (.464) and not far behind A-Rod (.502). Youk has a higher ISO (.277) than both A-Rod (.225) and Beltre (.202).
Where both A-Rod and Beltre separate themselves from Youk is clearly on the defensive end. But both of those two have been playing the position consistently for years while Youk is seeing near full-time action there for the first time in his major league career.
If we can be lenient on his defensive shortcomings at third and look past a .259 AVG (which we should), we have a player with a .869 OPS (in the top 30 in baseball) and a .383 wOBA (in the top 25 in baseball). That’s great production.
Given his strong track record, there is reason to believe that even better numbers are on their way.