Greek God of Walks cashes in

So Kevin Youkilis is the latest Red Sox player to cash in with a contract extension to buy out a couple of years of free agency; reports are that he'll make $40 million or so over the next four years with a team option for $13 million at the end of the deal.

Some things to ponder:
* Youkilis, immortalized as the "Greek God of Walks" by Billy Beane, actually has seen his walk total decrease in each of the last three seasons -- from 91 to 77 to 62. In that time, though, his batting average has climbed -- from .279 to .288 to .312. His on-base percentage, therefore, has remained almost stable -- from .381 to .390 to, interestingly, .390 again.

Walks are great. But on-base percentage isn't just about walks; getting hits is at least as valuable as getting on base. And Youkilis' newfound aggressiveness -- combined with the plate discipline he's always had -- made for a huge surge in his power numbers this season. He hit a career-high 43 doubles (he had 42 in 2006 and 35 in 2007) and a career-high 29 home runs (he hit 13 in 2006 and 16 in 2007).

Not surprisingly, his slugging percentage has continued to climb -- from .429 to .453 to .569. That's a leap from Brian Roberts and Jose Lopez territory to Alex Rodriguez -- and, yes, Mark Teixeira -- territory.

Sometimes it pays to take a hack once in a while -- and it helps if pitchers know you're going to be selective.

* Red Sox fans have been eager to compare Youkilis to Teixeira, to tout The Goateed One as a more cost-effective equivalent to the Steinbrenners' newest toy. Youkilis, should he perform the way he did last season, certainly is capable of putting up comparable numbers to Teixeira. At $10 million per year over the next four years, he's something of a bargain. But let's not get carried away.

Teixeira has been one of baseball's preeminent power hitters for the last five years; he has hit at least 30 home runs and had a slugging percentage over .500 in each of the past five seasons.

Youkilis, on the other hand, still has never hit 30 home runs -- though 29 is nothing to sneeze at -- and only once has had a slugging percentage over .500.

Oh, and Youkilis is 13 months older than Teixeira.

* Here's another way to look at it: baseball-reference.com similarity scores.

Youkilis has three full seasons in the major leagues. After this past season, his first really great season, here's a sampling of the players whose numbers were most similar to his at age 29: Lyle Overbay, Moises Alou, John Kruk and Jeffrey Hammonds.

Teixeira, on the other hand, has the following players on his Age 28 list: Carlos Delgado, Kent Hrbeck, Fred McGriff, Jim Thome, Will Clark, Jeff Bagwell and Willie McCovey.

That's not to say that Youkilis can't catch up to Teixeira and start putting up .300/.400/.500 seasons on a regular basis. Kruk was something of a late bloomer; he hit 20 home runs with the Padres at age 26, but his best seasons came with the Phillies when he was 30, 31 and 32. Alou, likewise, didn't hit 30 home runs for the first time until he was 31 years old and did so three more times while he was in his 30s. (There's an elephant in the room with this, of course. But we'll let that slide for now.)

But there was a reason the Red Sox went after Teixeira so hard. Barring catastrophic injury, he's a sure thing. He's going to hit 30 home runs and slug .500 every year. Youkilis might do that, too -- or he might go right back to being the player many of us thought he'd be: A player who hits 15-20 home runs and gets on base at a .400 clip and hits line drive after line drive off the Green Monster.

No one knows which type of player he'll be. Even Youkilis doesn't know; the fact that he agreed to this contract tells you that. If he thought he was going to put up Teixeira-type numbers again next season, he'd have held out for something closer to Teixeira-type money.