Most Young Regulars
Posted by Steve Lombardi on August 6, 2010
How many teams, prior to this season, had 5+ players on their roster age 25 or younger, qualify for the batting title?
| Rk | Year | Tm | Lg | #Matching | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1979 | Montreal Expos | NL | 6 | Gary Carter / Warren Cromartie / Andre Dawson / Larry Parrish / Rodney Scott / Ellis Valentine |
| 2 | 1942 | Boston Red Sox | AL | 6 | Dom DiMaggio / Bobby Doerr / Tony Lupien / Johnny Pesky / Jim Tabor / Ted Williams |
| 3 | 1999 | Kansas City Royals | AL | 5 | Carlos Beltran / Johnny Damon / Jermaine Dye / Carlos Febles / Mike Sweeney |
| 4 | 1984 | Minnesota Twins | AL | 5 | Tom Brunansky / Gary Gaetti / Kent Hrbek / Kirby Puckett / Tim Teufel |
| 5 | 1980 | Detroit Tigers | AL | 5 | Steve Kemp / Lance Parrish / Rick Peters / Alan Trammell / Lou Whitaker |
| 6 | 1979 | Detroit Tigers | AL | 5 | Steve Kemp / Lance Parrish / Jason Thompson / Alan Trammell / Lou Whitaker |
| 7 | 1978 | Montreal Expos | NL | 5 | Gary Carter / Warren Cromartie / Andre Dawson / Larry Parrish / Ellis Valentine |
| 8 | 1977 | San Diego Padres | NL | 5 | Bill Almon / Mike Champion / Mike Ivie / Gene Richards / Dave Winfield |
| 9 | 1940 | Boston Bees | NL | 5 | Eddie Miller / Chet Ross / Bama Rowell / Sibby Sisti / Max West |
| 10 | 1921 | Philadelphia Athletics | AL | 5 | Joe Dugan / Jimmy Dykes / Chick Galloway / Cy Perkins / Whitey Witt |
| 11 | 1911 | Boston Red Sox | AL | 5 | Larry Gardner / Harry Hooper / Duffy Lewis / Tris Speaker / Steve Yerkes |
.
It's pretty interesting to see the 78-79 Expos and 79-80 Tigers here. Fans watching baseball in the late '70's got to see something unique with these two teams at that time.
August 6th, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Interesting. Obviously Parrish-Whitaker-Trammell were the nucleus of the '84 Tigers. And Carter-Dawson helped the Expos put up some good seasons in the early-mid '80s. Tim Raines doesn't even appear here, but he did play some in '79 before becoming a regular in '81.
Did these other teams become successful in ensuing seasons?
The Red Sox would win 4 of the next 7 titles before getting cursed, and these guys were a big part of it.
The A's, who had been horrible, slowly improved and got over .500 by '25. But these guys were not an important part of the great teams of the end of the decade.
The Braves won the pennant in '48, but these guys had little to do with it.
The Red Sox were very competitive over the next several seasons, winning a pennant in '46, and these guys were the core.
The Padres won a pennant 7 years later but with a different group of players.
The Twins won two Series in the next 7 seasons with these players as the key.
The Royals traded their players away.
So there seems to be a good chance for success in a few years if you have a bunch of young regulars. Of course, they have to be the right guys -- you can't just stick anything out there and expect it to bloom.
You might get a few more teams if you lower the PA threshold when the season was shorter.
August 6th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
It's pretty interesting to see the 78-79 Expos and 79-80 Tigers here. Fans watching baseball in the late '70's got to see something unique with these two teams at that time.
Not only that. Ron LeFlore, in his ages 30-32 seasons, scored 331 runs and stole 243 bases for the 1978-79 Tigers and 1980 Expos.
August 6th, 2010 at 4:48 pm
Im pretty surprised the Whiz kids dont make this list
August 6th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
When I was at that game in Washington last week, I was pleasantly surprised to see that the relocated and renamed Expos are going to be honoring Andre Dawson in a game this month. Gary Carter is also scheduled to appear.
The Dodgers, Giants, and sometimes the Braves seem to me to be the only post-1950 relocated teams who honor the heritage of their past locations as part of their continued existence. The St. Louis Browns, Philadelphia and Kansas City Athletics, both Washington Senators, and what little there was of the Seattle Pilots do not appear to play much of a role in the histories of the Baltimore Orioles, Oakland A's, Minnesota Twins, Texas Rangers, and Milwaukee Brewers respectively. I don't know if the Cardinals, Royals, or Mariners honor the teams that once played in their same cities.
I noticed at Nationals Park last week that there's a listing of Washington sports heroes in general that's displayed. It contains Senators from both eras mixed in with one-time members of the Redskins and other local teams. The Phillies formerly honored the Athletics in their Hall of Fame (it's not quite called Hall of Fame, but the name escapes me right now, even though this is induction weekend), but I heard that after the move from Veteran's Stadium to Citizens Bank Park, this practice was stopped. To be honest, they probably honored everyone worth honoring, because there weren't any newcomers after 1954, but just in case someone's long ago achievements become greater thanks to recent research, this shouldn't be overlooked.
August 6th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
The cardinals have a George Sisler statue near home plate and the Brewers retired #44 for Hank Aaron, he did play 2 seasons for the Brewers but this is clearly honoring his Braves days.
August 6th, 2010 at 8:31 pm
There's something to be said for the 1999 Marlins as well. Although they only had 4 players under 25 qualify for the batting title, they had this roster:
C Mike Redmond, 37 games prior to 1999
1B Kevin Millar, 2 games prior to 1999
2B Luis Castillo, 160 games prior to 1999
SS Alex Gonzalez, 25 games prior to 1999
3B Mike Lowell, 8 games prior to 1999
LF Bruce Aven, 13 games prior to 1999
CF Preston Wilson, 22 games prior to 1999
RF Mark Kotsay, 168 games prior to 1999
Each one of these players played the most games at their position for the 1999 Marlins. Only Castillo and Kotsay weren't considered rookies (based on the 130 AB requirement for the ROY award).
August 7th, 2010 at 1:58 am
Goes to show how good the Royals might have been had they kept that core from 1999 at least for a few more year. Damon and Beltran are still fulltime players, Dye essentially just retired this past year, Sweeney is still hanging on though his last good year was in 2005 and only Febles washed out. You've got a solid top of the lineup there.
1.Damon
2.Beltran
3.Dye
4.Sweeney
That's a playoff quality a shame the royals couldn't keep it together. They might have won a ring or at least made the playoffs with that group. Assuming some decent pitching.
August 7th, 2010 at 9:23 am
Of course, the requirements for the BA title have not always been 502 plate appearances. In 1981 and 1994-95, for example, it was adjusted to whatever 3.1 PA x number of team games came out to; prior to 1961, the leagues did not play 162 games.
August 7th, 2010 at 10:33 am
@Jim:
If the criteria were revised to include pitchers who qualified for the ERA title, then the Whiz Kids, the 1950 Phillies, would probably make the list. They had four regular position players under 25, and three starting pitchers.
August 7th, 2010 at 11:36 am
I was eight years old and living in Montreal in 1978, and listening to the Expos on the radio while sitting on the front stoop with my dad is one of the defining things in my life. I was appalled to find out what a terrible player Rodney Scott was when I got into sabermetrics in the late 80s (how on Earth did he draw a vote for the 1980 MVP with a 69 OPS+), though he an Ron LeFlore and Raines have left with with an aesthetic interest in the stole base down to this day.
Scott aside the rest of them were pretty decent players, at least for a while. I do wonder even now what happened to Ellis Valentine from 1981 onwards. It was necessary for me to be the first to "Like" him when you put the Facebook thing up the other day!
August 7th, 2010 at 3:42 pm
The 2009 DBacks just miss this list - Mark Reynolds (25) & Justin Upton (21) both qualified while Chris Young (25 & 501 PA), Gerardo Parra (22/491) & Miguel Montero (25/470) all just missed enough PAs.
Furthermore the 2008 DBacks just miss with Conor Jackson being 26 and Justin Upton only getting 417 PAs but Young, Reynolds & Drew all qualified and were under 25.
August 7th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
The '82 Blue Jays just missed with Willie Upshaw, Damaso Garcia, Alfredo Griffin, Jesse Barfield and Lloyd Moseby. Barfield missed with 446 PA. They were a core for a while.
August 7th, 2010 at 6:58 pm
Even though Dye hasn't played this year, he's be no means retired (officially or otherwise); he's been angling for a FA contract from someone, anyone..
August 7th, 2010 at 9:13 pm
@7 - I didn't know much about Mike Sweeney until this week. In fact, part of my confusion is that there was a Mark Sweeney who reached the majors about the same time (2nd half of the 1995 season) and mainly played the same position (first base). But Mark, who hasn't appeared in a major league game since 2008, was a career National Leaguer who batted and threw lefthanded, and until this week, Mike was a career American Leaguer who bats and throws righthanded. Mike Sweeney has a few All Star appearances under his belt, possibly as a result of eventually being the only guy on the Royals worth considering after the other guys from that 1999 team departed. But Mark has appeared in the postseason, while Mike has something like the 5th most appearances of any active player without a postseason game. Mike has only worn two different numbers in his major league career, 29 and 5, while Mark has worn ELEVEN different numbers (none of which are 29 or 5). Mike is one of about a million ballplayers from southern California, while Mark was born and went to high school in Massachusetts and played baseball for the University of Maine. They were also drafted in the same year, 1991, although Mark is four years older.
August 8th, 2010 at 3:01 am
The 1967 Red Sox were a young team, and had 7 young players who were regulars although Joe Foy missed by a hair with 499 PA, Tony C got beaned in August, and Mike Ryan I believe had a couple of DL stints but still had the most PA among Red Sox catchers. Other players who did qualify were George Scott, Reggie Smith, Rico Petrocelli and Mike Andrews.
August 8th, 2010 at 11:01 pm
I think a lot of the Whiz Kids were in the 25-30 range.
As far as that A's team, Jimmy Dykes I believe was the only to have an impact in the great years. Cy perkins might have still been around as Cochrane's backup, but I cant remember without looking.
August 10th, 2010 at 7:53 am
[...] Most Young Regulars (Baseball-Reference). Speaking of which, here we have the ‘77 Padres. You know, this could have been a good team in the making. Dave Winfield ended up in the Hall of Fame, Gene Richards was darned good until he reached 30, Mike Ivie should have been good… Even George Hendrick and Tenace were still in their primes. The pitching, though… when Bob Shirley is your best starter, that’s a problem. [...]