As you are aware by now, Kevin Youkilis was traded from the the Red Sox to the
White Sox this past weekend.
I am pretty sure Kevin Youkilis never really appears in the film "Moneyball" but he is definitely present. He is referred to by the Paul DePodesta/Peter Brand charater as "The Greek God of Walks". I don't know if this was ever a nickname for Youk prior to Moneyball the book being released, but it is so iconic sounding it is easy to understand why it stuck.
The epilogue to Moneyball (flim) mentions that the Red Sox went on to win the World Series partiall using the theories developed by the Oakland A's - Those Boston Red Sox teams of course featured Kevin Youkilis.
It is hard to imagine that a guy that could play a couple of different positions ended up as the odd man out in Boston - Glancing at his numbers I noticed two things 1) He hasn't played over 140 games since 2008 and the player for whom Youkilis has the best comparables with for a 32 year old is another Red Sox player. Trot Nixon.
At age 33 and beyond Nixon's career had less then 400 plate appearances remaining and only 4 more Home Runs (out of 137 career Homers)
The rest of Youkilis age 32 top-10 comps is a mixed bag:
| Comp | Final MLB Season Age | Comments | |
| 1 | Trot Nixon | 34 | 395 AB after age 32 season |
| 2 | Mosies Alou | 41 | 3 Time all-star at 33 and beyond. |
| 3 | Rusty Greer | 33 | Batted .296 in final season, 1 Homer - Retired due to back injuries. |
| 4 | Bob Nieman | 35 | 400 PA beyond age 32, 7 Homers, Hit .378 in 82 AB at age 34. |
| 5 | Marty Cordova | 33 | Batted .233 in 39 PA during age 33 season then retired. |
| 6 | Dante Bichette | 37 | All Star in age 34 season (1998 Led League in Hits 219) Hit 20+ HRs at ages 33-36 (3 of those seasons were in Colorado) |
| 7 | Dolph Camili | 38 | 1941 NL MVP (age 34 - 34 HRs, 120 RBI) DNP in 1944 retired following 1945 season at 38. |
| 8 | Brad Hawpe | 32? | Hawpe is actually a few months younger then Youkilis - He had Tommy John surgery in 2011 and is currently out of baseball. |
| 9 | Bernard Gilkey | 34 | 225 PAs at 33 and beyond, 3 Homers .254 BA. Retired following age 34 season |
| 10 | Milton Bradley | 33 | Assorted off the field issues, never played more then 141 games in a season - at any age. |
Three of the ten players in the group played beyond 35 Moises Alou who had a very good beyond 32 career, Dante Bichette with perhaps Rocky Mountain enhanced numbers and Dolph Camili who played in the 1940s.
So who is Kevin Youkilis Moises Alou, Marty Cordova, Bichette or Gilkey?
Sources
Baseball-Reference.com player pages
Moneyball 2011-2012
Links to previous MB 2011-2012 posts
etc
Here is a link to a Moneyball and Collecting related article in Beckett that I first saw referenced by Chris Olds via Twitter.
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