I would first like to address the attitude problem of Young. I fully understand to be a bit "turned-off" by some of the problems Delmon has caused in his few years as a professional. But there are a few things that have to be taken into consideration. For one, he is very young. Obviously, we would like to see an 18, 19, 20 year old who can handle himself in every situation. Unfortunately, most of the time, experience brings maturity. At just 20 in AAA (and the spotlight), things are going to happen. Throwing the bat at the ump is inexcusable - I expect he learned his lesson from that and nothing of the sort will happen again. But things like whining and what-not do come with the age and maturity level. He was portrayed, from day one, as the 'future' of baseball. It is tough, as a teenager, not to let that go to your head. I believe Delmon gained a whole lot of maturity this year with everything that went wrong off the field (well, I guess the bat-throwing incident is on the field... I digress), and this is evidenced by his behavior in his stint with the Big League club. He is, by no means, out of the doghouse yet, but I believe that his attitude will not be an issue from here on out.

Next order of business is the statement that he has a frame that "gains weight easily." This statement is ludicrous. Why? Because his brother was extremely lazy? Or is it because he is an absolute monster? Or is it because he came into professional baseball still underdeveloped with a bit more fat on his body than you would like to see? As long as his work ethic (which is excellent) continues to be what it is, he will be fine.

Plate discipline is a big issue with Delmon Young's projection. Whenever he is brought up, the first thing someone will say is, "He has zero plate discipline because he does not walk!" Uh, have you ever seen the kid play? He rarely swings at pitches out of the zone. Rarely. I know it would be impossible to track this, but I would love to see how often he swings at bad pitches. His problem is not discipline, it is his approach. Whether it is because he still feels like it is high school, or A, or A+, or because of his immaturity, it seems rather apparent that he feels like he can hit any pitch that goes over the plate out of the yard. He does not take strikes. He does not take breaking balls. He takes balls, but anything over the plate he hacks at. And when I say hack, I mean he swings out of his shoes. So there is a few problems with this:

1. He swings at a lot of 0-0, 1-0, even 2-0 breaking balls, something a good hitter does not do (unless it is hung).
2. He swings at a lot of pitches that are not in "his" zones. They may be strikes, but even the greatest hitters have their weak spots.
3. Even with two strikes, he swings out of his shoes rather than shorten up. A guy of his size and power will still be able to drive the gaps with if he shortens the stroke - taking huge cuts with two strikes results in quite a few strikeouts.

It is his plate approach that needs to be refined. That is something that WILL come, and is often the reason why hitters have trouble with high-K, low-BB totals in their early seasons. Plate discipline is not something you can be taught, but approach is something you can learn. I don't think it is a question of "if" Delmon will learn he cannot get by with his current approach, but when; he is very confident about his abilities, and I think it is going to take a bit of failure before he realizes he cannot take every single pitch thrown over the plate over the wall.

And please, do not compare Young with Francoeur. Francoeur has a plate discipline issue - anything that starts near the plate he swings at. He cannot lay off breaking pitches down in the dirt. Delmon does not have issues with that. They may have similar BB, K numbers, but that is where the similarities end.

Also, he's not the catcher at VB. He was the C/1B/DH for Visalia and he's more than likely going to start 2007 in Montgomery.

I'm a big fan of him, but I think he needs stability before we can start his hype machine up again.

If you want to see Delmon criticized for "attitude", go watch Jim Rome.

Not to mention, he'd probably be top 10 in quite a few systems.

Posting a 790 OPS as a 2B in AA is quite impressive and the only thing Johnson needs to improve is plate discipline.

Not too many guys in the minors had double-digits in 2B, 3B, HR, and SB. If his SB% goes back to his career norms before 2006, he'll be a 15HR/30SB player in the minors.

AAA is the true challenge for him and we'll see how he does, but he's been a sleeper prospect for a lot of Devil Rays fans for a couple of years now.

Some people, including some at BA, look at him in the same light as McGee and Davis.

I personally think he's going to end up being the closer of the future in TB, but for now he's a great starting prospect with mid-90's velocity and still has that curve.

I think John slighted him a bit with a B-, but it's a matter of personal preference and probably has more to do with underrating the depth of the Rays organization (Walker, Sonnanstine, Barratt) than underrating individual players from 11-20.

I even think he is one of those players ala Vernon Wells and Hanley Ramirez who basically are bored in the minors (whether its their ego or whatever) and will improve markedly in the majors.

J.P. is a C-to-C+ prospect to me, just due to the lack of a 90's fastball. He's got good control, but he's got a BP fastball right now(he's coming off shoulder problems).