Evan Longoria, Tampa Bay Rays third baseman, age 22ġ8. Jon Lester, Boston Red Sox pitcher, age 24ġ7. Felix Hern! andez, Seattle Mariners pitcher, age 22ġ6. Troy Tulowitzki, Colorado Rockies shortstop, age 23ġ5. Cole Hamels, Philadelphia Phillies pitcher, age 24ġ4. Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals third baseman, age 23ġ3. Joakim Soria, Kansas City Royals pitcher, age 24ġ2. Nick Markakis, Baltimore Orioles right fielder, age 24ġ1. Jose Reyes, New York Mets shortstop, age 25ġ0. Francisco Rodriguez, Los Angeles Angels pitcher, age 26ĩ. Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder, age 23Ĩ. Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox second baseman, age 24ħ. Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers left fielder, age 24Ħ. David Wright, New York Mets third baseman, age 25ĥ. Tim Lincecum, San Francisco Giants pitcher, age 24Ĥ. Hanley Ramirez, Florida Marlins shortstop, age 24ģ. Prince Fielder, Milwaukee Brewers first baseman, age 24Ģ. Making James’ list of the top 25 young players in order were:ġ. Only four teams–the Brewers (Prince Fielder and Ryan Braun), the Mets (David Wright and Jose Reyes), the Red Sox (Dustin Pedroia and Jon Lester), and the Dodgers (Matt Kemp and James Loney)–placed two players in James’ list of top 25 young players. The Dodgers are the exact opposite of the A’s they have very impressive young talent in Kemp, Ethier, Billingsley, Loney and Kershaw, Broxton and Martin, but their issue is depth.” Angels of Anaheim and the Oakland A’s: “Nobody on the A’s is all that good, at least not yet, but they lead the world in guys who should get better. James lists the Dodgers as the #13 team in all of baseball for young talent, just below the L.A. He makes several adjustments, including for injuries suffered during the year and the differences in predictability between pitchers and position players, and then takes into account the number of years the player should be at his peak performance. He employs two widely used statistics–“Runs Created” for position players and “Runs Allowed” for pitchers–as the basis for comparison. To achieve his inventory, James first eliminates from the list all players who were 30 years old or older in 2008. In baseball, you get over being ‘young’ really quickly.” What is remarkable about this year’s list, he says, is that there is little turnover this year compared to last, which means that relatively little new talent emerged. “Tim Lincecum, Jon Lester, John Danks and others emerged as major young talents–others including Jair Jurrjens, Ricky Nolasco, Mike Pelfrey and Edinson Volquez.” James points out that evaluating the best young talent is a transitory task: “Virtually everyone who is on this list now will drop off within two years. “In pitching, on the other hand, it was a good year,” argues James. But the only really huge talent to emerge in 2008 was Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays.” “Some young position players took a step forward (Dustin Pedroia, Matt Kemp, James Loney, Stephen Drew, Joey Votto, Josh Hamilton, Jose Lopez, Geovany Soto, Nate McLouth) others took a step backward (Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Zimmerman, Alex Gordon, Jeff Francouer). “2008 really was not a great year for young talent, except pitchers,” James says in his new book. In The Bill James Handbook 2009, to be published on November 1, 2008, James also judges the Dodgers to have the thirteenth-best overall young talent in Major League Baseball, up seven places from last year. In the second year of his newly developed “Young Talent Inventory,” groundbreaking baseball analyst Bill James names Los Angeles Dodgers center fielder Matt Kemp 7th and first baseman James Loney 20th on his list of the top 25 major league ballplayers under 30 years old. I’m certain that Chad Billingsley got short-changed in this discussion and DeWitt is not even mentioned in the list of talented yong Dodgers, but in any event, enjoy debating…īill James names Matt Kemp and James Loney among top 25 young talent in baseballĬlaims Dodgers #13 among all major league teams in young talent Personally, I’d like to think we’re higher than the 13th best young talent in the Majors, but I can’t say that I know every other organization or have studied them to be able to compare. Just got this press release that you can all debate.
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