Player Focus: Chris B. Young

23-year-old D-Backs outfielder Chris Young is batting .237 with 26 HR & 47 RBI through 8/22. As a lead-off hitter, I feel that his main purpose at the plate should be to get on base. With his subpar .289 OBP, low batting average & 97 strike-outs (most on the team), maybe its time to move Young to a different batting spot. Clean-up would be better suited for him, so that he could drive in more runs with his team-leading home run hitting. With fewer at-bats, I think that he would also be able to reduce his strike-outs & raise his BA. His base stealing ability would just be an added plus (he's stolen 21 bases on 23 attempts).

Young's 05 Bowman's Best Auto RC #'d 974 (his only base Auto RC that I've seen) has been a hot seller on auction (it's from one of those sets that Topps went overboard with parallels that are so closely #'d to each other). I saw one of his 05 Bowman Chrome Gold Ref #'d 50 sell for $66.00 TAC last week.

I think that Young has the potential to be a good investment, but is a little risky right now. Will the D-Backs stick it out with him in the lead-off spot, hoping that he'll improve his OBP to go along with his decent home-run hitting & base stealing, or will they move him to the middle of the line-up, where he can generate more RBI for their offense?