As the baseball season drags on and people start to get
psyched about the NFL, I find myself completely amazed at how much super young
talent there is in the Majors right now.
We all know that baseball’s popularity has dipped with the younger
audiences when compared with football or basketball. The games take longer and are more often meaningless, there
is less excitement and suspense, star power doesn’t mean as much, the games
don’t work as well on TV, ticket prices have gotten outrageously high, drug
scandals… all these reasons and more have caused MLB to lose its undisputed
spot as “America’s Sport.” And yet
between this year and last year, the number of young superstars that have
broken into the league is astounding.
Just like the NFL had a ridiculous 6 out of 12 playoff teams last year
helmed by a first or second year quarterback (including Christian Ponder
despite his injury), really good and often playoff-bound teams in baseball are
being led by rookies or sophomores throughout both leagues. If you wanted to make a 25 and and
under list, it would be unbelievably long with names like Stephen Strasburg,
Jason Heyward, Craig Kimbrel, Matt Harvey, Matt Moore, Justin Upton, and
countless others who are just entering their prime and have at least 8-10 years
of superstar, face of the franchise play ahead of them. But I’ll go even deeper than that. The following list includes 10 players,
count ‘em 10, that are 22 years old
or younger. That’s right, if not
for ungodly physical and athletic talent, these guys could be getting ready to
graduate from college and test the job market. Instead they’ll be making millions sooner rather than
later. 22 years old means that a
decade from now, they will be right in the heart of their prime playing
years. They won’t even hit those
prime years for at least another 3 or 4 years. And yet right now, this season they are putting up
ridiculous numbers and leading their teams to playoff berths and, in some
cases, probably World Series titles.
I can’t remember a time when there was this much incredibly young talent
in the Majors. 99% of players
aren’t even in the Big Leagues at 22.
So if you are a fan of one of these 10 teams, with 10 young superstars,
you are excited about the future.
And that bodes well for the sport of baseball...
Bryce Harper (20), Manny Machado (21), Mike Trout (22)
These guys are already household
names, and somehow Mike Trout looks like the old man. You watched them break out last year, and they are playing
just as phenomenally this year.
Surprisingly, none of these teams look like a lock for the playoffs,
with Machado’s Orioles having the best chance at snagging a wild card as the
season winds down. Nonetheless,
these three are no-doubt, knockout franchise players who will dominate the
league for the next 15 years, or in other words until cars are replaced by
hover mobiles and robots take over the world.
Yasiel Puig and Wil Myers (both 22)
Once again, these rookies have
broken into the league in astounding fashion. Yasiel Puig took the league by storm, sparking a stacked
Dodgers roster into becoming the best team in baseball, making ridiculous plays
in the outfield, breaking records for the most singles-turned-into-doubles, and
then getting embroiled in a meaningless All-Star controversy to top it all off.
Wil Myers joined the party a
little later, but has still sparked his own Rays lineup and given his team the
best offensive punch to go along with their lights-out pitching that they have
had in years, maybe ever. Both
will lead their teams into the playoffs in all likelihood, and it wouldn’t
surprise me a bit if they met in the World Series. It won’t be long now before we see a Myers-Puig label leading
the way on MVP ballots.
Jose Fernandez, Julio Teheran, Shelby Miller, Gerritt Cole
(all 22)
That’s right, there are pitchers on
this list too. Not quite as hyped
as slightly older guys like Matt Harvey, Stephen Strasburg, and Clayton
Kershaw, these young guns have all broken into the league this year to great
fanfare from their respective franchises and fanbases. Fernandez toils in relative obscurity
for the hapless Marlins, but has been a lights-out, rare source of excitement
for an otherwise awful team (2.58 ERA with 143 strikeouts in 132 innings). The other three in this group all
figure heavily into a playoff-bound rotation. Teheran may very well already be the ace of the team with
the best record in baseball along with Minor, Medlen, and Beachy, and he will
lead the Braves into a very tough NL playoff picture. Shelby Miller lines up behind Adam Wainwright and Lance Lynn
to give the Cardinals a nasty three-man playoff rotation. And Gerritt Cole may be the most raw of
any of these young players, but you have to think that if the Pirates are going
to overcome 20 years of futility and stand up to the likes of the Dodgers and
Braves in the playoffs, it will take this young arm along with the steadiness
of older guys like AJ Burnett.
Either way, all these pitchers have made big-time contributions this
year, and look poised to grow into aces very soon if they haven’t already.
Jurickson Profar (20)
One more name to finish out this
group of 10, Profar is the youngest of the bunch, even younger than Harper by a
few months. He isn’t necessarily a
starting fielder for the Rangers yet with Adrian Beltre ahead of him at third,
but he gets time at DH and has proven to be yet another dangerous bat in an
already stacked lineup. To think
that this guy at 20 years old is making Major League contributions to a team as
good as Texas, it is scary to think how good he could be 4 or 5 years from now
with some experience under his belt and a starting job at third base. That goes for this entire list of
players. 10 guys between 20 and 22
years of age that will be around for 15, maybe even 20 more years. They truly are just getting started,
not even close to their prime yet, and they are proving with every great play
and every big hit that despite the steroid scandals and the dips in attendance,
baseball will be as exciting as it has ever been 5 and 10 years from now.
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