The "Greek" God

It's not that I like sending my many loyal readers to the competition, but sometimes you have to give credit where it's due. Chad Finn put up a great blog entry about Kevin Youkilis developing into a star on Touching all the Bases. 

Here are some of the numbers from Finn's entry that make your jaw drop with Youkilis:

Youkilis is now batting .316, with 22 homers (a career high), 82 RBIs (one shy of his career high set last season), and a 140 OPS+. He has a team-leading 234 total bases, which is 10 fewer than the personal best set two seasons ago, and he also leads the club with a .564 slugging percentage, which is up 111 points from '07.

The only thing I would say that doesn't agree with Finn here is that he thinks Youkilis has the potential to fade at the end of the year. Yes, history tells us Youk has done worse in the second half, but after the all-star break this year, he is batting .322 with 7 HRs and 18 RBI in 87 ABs. The addition of Sean Casey to give him some rest should pay dividends with Youkilis at the end of the season, because he will be much fresher in September.