Somebody Call Brian Cashman
Posted by Steve Lombardi on December 6, 2007
Via Baseball-Reference.com's Play Index Pitching Season Finder...
Teams, since 1973, who have had 2+ starters age 23 or younger make 30+ starts each during a season:
Year Lg Team Number Players Matching +----+--+---------------------------------+------+-----------------------------------------+ 1980 AL Chicago White Sox 3 Britt Burns / Richard Dotson / Steve Trout 2007 AL Tampa Bay Devil Rays 2 Scott Kazmir / Edwin Jackson 2006 AL Detroit Tigers 2 Jeremy Bonderman / Justin Verlander 2003 NL Chicago Cubs 2 Carlos Zambrano / Mark Prior 2002 AL Chicago White Sox 2 Mark Buehrle / Jon Garland 2001 AL Oakland Athletics 2 Barry Zito / Mark Mulder 1998 NL Florida Marlins 2 Livan Hernandez / Brian Meadows 1996 AL Minnesota Twins 2 Frank Rodriguez / Brad Radke 1993 AL Chicago White Sox 2 Alex Fernandez / Wilson Alvarez 1988 NL Atlanta Braves 2 Tom Glavine / Pete Smith 1986 AL Milwaukee Brewers 2 Bill Wegman / Juan Nieves 1986 NL New York Mets 2 Dwight Gooden / Sid Fernandez 1986 AL Texas Rangers 2 Ed Correa / Bobby Witt 1985 AL Kansas City Royals 2 Danny Jackson / Bret Saberhagen 1984 AL California Angels 2 Mike Witt / Ron Romanick 1984 NL New York Mets 2 Ron Darling / Dwight Gooden 1978 AL Oakland Athletics 2 John Henry Johnson / Matt Keough 1976 NL St. Louis Cardinals 2 Pete Falcone / John Denny 1973 NL Cincinnati Reds 2 Don Gullett / Ross Grimsley
There's only two World Champs in there, by my quick count.
December 6th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
2 out of 19 isn't bad. Then again, this is all after the fact. Any pitcher that young who makes that many starts must be either doing well or on a really bad team. Given their concern for their young arms, I doubt that the '08 Yankees will make this list.
December 6th, 2007 at 5:24 pm
Tom Glavine was 22 once? My how time flies.
December 6th, 2007 at 7:26 pm
Glavine was once 22, but interestingly, he was never 21. He managed to skip that year.
I agree that 2 out of 19 is good.
December 7th, 2007 at 1:37 am
Not only is 2 for 19 not so hopeless, but the list also includes a pennant winner ('06 Detroit), some very strong playoff teams ('73 Cin, '01 Oak), and another couple playoff teams ('03 ChC, '93 ChW). You can't just compare every team that has a couple young starters; some do it out of necessity and some by choice. Barring catastrophe, the Yankees will be a good team this season, and that might happen with 3 youngsters making 30 starts or with zero doing it. I'll guess that 1 will do it.
December 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am
It's better than 2 of 19. 6 our of 19 of these duos won a pennant together if not the year in question, in a year some time thereafter.
*Ron Darling / Dwight Gooden
*Jeremy Bonderman / Justin Verlander
*Dwight Gooden / Sid Fernandez
*Don Gullett / Ross Grimsley
*Ron Darling / Dwight Gooden
*Danny Jackson / Bret Saberhagen
December 7th, 2007 at 9:43 am
kingturtle - your point is well taken, but you really can't count Doc 3 times when he only won 1 pennant with the Mets.
December 7th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Oops. I counted Ron Darling / Dwight Gooden twice. So make that a total of 5. And if Doc Gooden can't be counted twice, then I'll make the total 4.5.