I was surprised a bit that the Texas Rangers were again talking about moving Michael Young to third base. Being a bit of a fan and after watching the team countless times on FSN I had heard the rumors before but each year Young has remained at short.

Young has been an above average regular at short despite the knocks against him and won the Gold Glove last season. Of course the Rangers are looking to move him to third base because of the emerging presence of Elvis Andrus in the minors.

Andrus is the type of player who can cover large amounts of territory. He’s got that ability but he’s also error prone making 32 errors at Double-A last season, 31 in 2007 and another 32 in 2006. In total Andrus has made 95 errors in what amounts to 340 games at short in his minor league career. For those with calculator minds that is an error ever 3.57 games. Granted Michael Young is more experienced but he has made just 81 errors in 787 games or one ever 9.71 games.

As a fan and a viewer of the game I’m not sure Andrus is ready for the majors even mid-season this year. He’s just over 20 years of age and aside from running in the infield and stealing 54 bases against Double-A catchers he’s not shown much else. Andrus is just a .275/.343/.361 hitter and while he still is growing one has to wonder why the Rangers would want to rush such a young player when the team is likely a year or more away from competing.

If Andrus doesn’t play at short much or at all this year and Michael Young is moved to third it will weaken the defense, and while Young is an above average hitter at short his .284/.339/.402 line with 12 home runs and 82 RBI is quite a bit off of what you want from a regular at third base. Throw in that he is still owed $62 million over the next five seasons and you got a huge problem in Texas. Young would be 37 when the deal is up.

The other thing the Rangers and General Manager Jon Daniels is saying with their desire to move Young to third is that Hank Blalock isn’t expected to be playing the field much this year. Blalock who is one of the finer fielding but injury prone third-basemen in baseball would likely spend the year at DH. Blalock has appeared in just 70 games at the position the last two seasons but at the age of 28 and with a chip on his shoulder one has to expect Blalock would have reason to try and play a full season at a position. Blalock still shows power from the left side of the plate and he’s always hit for solid average.

If Blalock was to primarily play DH then Travis Metcalf would be the teams regular at thid base and this could be one reason the Rangers feel the need to move young to the hot corner. One could argue that anyone who was playing short is a better bet in the lineup then Metcalf would be at third. In 80 games Metcalf has totaled a .249 average, .300 on-base percentage but has shown strokes of power with 11 home runs, 14 doubles and a .475 slugging percentage. He’s also been a below average fielder and the team remains down on him after he lost his power stroke following the 2005 minor league season.

Daniels said earlier today that he expects Michael Young to be with the club and play third base when spring training starts. This comes a week after there was a flurry of rumors about the Rangers trying to trade Young. It was also revealed today that Young had requested a trade after hearing of the teams plans to move him to third.