This league is loaded

[Jordan4life_2007]

As I was reading through one of my 17 fantasy baseball magazines the other day, I came to a revelation: This league is LOADED with dominating young pitching. Baseball has been my #1 sport for going on 19 years, and I can't think of a period in that time that there was so much talented young pitching out there; guys dominating at such early ages.

 

Tim Lincecum: 25

Felix Hernandez: :23

Clayton Kershaw: 22

Tommie Hanson: 23

Ubaldo Jiminez: 26

Josh Johnson: 26

Matt Cain: 25

Cole Hamels: 26 (I know he had a down year in '09. But can't forget '07 and '08).

Jon Lester : 26

Yovani Gallardo: 24

Zack Greinke: 26

John Danks: 24

Jair Jurrjens: 24

 

Young studs like David Price, Wade Davis, Brett Anderson, Neftali Feliz (I think he ends up in the rotation), Rick Porcello, Max Scherzer have already shown terrific flashes of their talent/potential. Then we've got Stephen Strasburg and Aroldis Chapman on the way. This is going to be fun.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Jordan4life

[SoxAce]

Tommie Hanson: 23

 

I like the spirit (probably cause I LOVE Hanson), but I would rather wait to proclaim a guy "dominant" when he hasn't pitched more than 21 starts. (and only 1 season, as I would almost say the same for Yovani Gallardo too) I'll take his teammate Jair Jurrjens instead though. Really underrated young pitcher. Needs a Chad Billingsley shoutout too. Potentially Gallardo, Matusz, Parker, Hughes, Bamgarner, Cahill, Latos, etc.. all have chances.

Edited March 26, 2010 by SoxAce

[witesoxfan]

Billingsley's good but he doesn't go without red flags. All of his peripherals got worse (not by much, but they did), and a career WHIP of 1.38 doesn't exactly scream dominant to me. He's good, but he gets grouped in with the Gavin Floyds and Nick Blackburns of the league, not the Tim Lincecums and Felix Hernandez's.

Edited March 26, 2010 by witesoxfan

[SoxAce]

Billingsley's good but he doesn't go without red flags. All of his peripherals got worse (not by much, but they did), and a career WHIP of 1.38 doesn't exactly scream dominant to me. He's good, but he gets grouped in with the Gavin Floyds and Nick Blackburns of the league, not the Tim Lincecums and Felix Hernandez's.

 

He was alittle banged up last season too, and to me.. he had a lesser Cole Hamels type down year. He got a little unlucky last year and may return to grace too. I expect a very good season from Bills a 3 era/125 era+ year from him (basically a repeat of his 08 season), though if he is what he was again, I'll gladly admit I was wrong about him. If I was to put him in a tier though, I would say Zambrano or Kazmir especially with their high walk rates, but real good stuff. "Dominant" could be another story.

Edited March 26, 2010 by SoxAce

[daa84]

you can't remember because as time goes on it distorts our memories of the past....some of those guys aren't going to pan out ....some will excel....some will become solid major league pitchers....my best guess is that 2-3 maybe 4 of those guys go on to become HOFers...

 

i mean if you look back at the early part of this decade you had .....oswalt, peavy, sabathia, santana, buehrle, zambrano, prior, beckett, burnett, zito, mulder, webb

 

yes the young pitching is impressive...but in 5-10 years we will think differently about alot of those names than we do now

[MattZakrowski]

Billingsley's good but he doesn't go without red flags. All of his peripherals got worse (not by much, but they did), and a career WHIP of 1.38 doesn't exactly scream dominant to me. He's good, but he gets grouped in with the Gavin Floyds and Nick Blackburns of the league, not the Tim Lincecums and Felix Hernandez's.

 

Gavin Floyd's peripherals were really good last year.

[Steve9347]

Gavin Floyd's peripherals were really good last year.

Gavin Floyd has the highest HR rate since 2006.

[Balta1701]

Gavin Floyd has the highest HR rate since 2006.

What happens if you exclude 2006-2007?

[Steve9347]

What happens if you exclude 2006-2007?

I don't know. I just read that in ESPN the Mag haha.

 

Speaking of awesome pitchers, there's a really cool "dissecting the at bat" with Jake Peavy and Andre Ethier. Everyone should check that s*** out. It's very neat to be in the mind of Jake as he records a tough out.

[SouthsideDon48]

And there's even more pitchers on their way, and one that immediately comes to my mind that I think will be special someday is Jacob Turner in Detroit's farm system. He's one of the guys I'm keeping my eyes on for fantasy baseball dynasty/keeper leagues.

[Kalapse]

What happens if you exclude 2006-2007?

20th highest HR/9 out of 77 with at least 300 IP.

[witesoxfan]

Gavin Floyd's peripherals were really good last year.

 

That's fine, there are a lot of pitchers who put up really good peripherals on a yearly basis. It doesn't change the fact that I'd say Gavin Floyd is in the second tier of pitchers in the league, right along with Blackburn and Billingsley.

[daa84]

20th highest HR/9 out of 77 with at least 300 IP.

and if you correct for park factorsit brings him back to the pack some as well...at least i would imagine so

[southsider2k5]

Gavin Floyd has the highest HR rate since 2006.

 

Good pitchers can still give up lots of homers. Bert Blyleven is a perfect example.

[Kalapse]

Good pitchers can still give up lots of homers. Bert Blyleven is a perfect example.

Bert Blyleven between ages 22 and 34 put up a HR/9 of 0.60 (his HR/9 was under 1.0 each year) that would have been the 9th best in baseball last season and it was the 11th best out of the 65 pitchers who threw at least 1500 IP between '73 and '85.

 

If you want an example I guess you could go with Buehrle though it's not a great one. Of the players in the last 40 years to throw at least 1500 Innings and post a 120+ career ERA+ (24 pitchers) Buehrle has the highest HR/9 at 1.03.

 

Of the starters to work at least 1000 IP and have a career ERA+ of at least 110 since 1970 only 7 of them have a HR/9 of 1.0 or greater and only 3 guys are at 1.10 or higher: El Duke at 1.21, Radke at 1.20 and Bartolo Colon at 1.11.

 

Lucky for Gavin his ERA+ isn't horrible since he became a full time start in '07: 1.17 and it was down quite a bit last year from the year before.

[Jordan4life_2007]

you can't remember because as time goes on it distorts our memories of the past....some of those guys aren't going to pan out ....some will excel....some will become solid major league pitchers....my best guess is that 2-3 maybe 4 of those guys go on to become HOFers...

 

i mean if you look back at the early part of this decade you had .....oswalt, peavy, sabathia, santana, buehrle, zambrano, prior, beckett, burnett, zito, mulder, webb

 

yes the young pitching is impressive...but in 5-10 years we will think differently about alot of those names than we do now

 

Where's the fun in predicting future injuries, poor performance? Yeah, it's probably inevitable. But I'm just going by a combination of what I see right now and what's soon to be on the way. Those names you threw out from earlier last decade were, and in some cases still are, very good. I still don't think it's as deep a crop as what we've seen the last 2-3 years.

Edited March 26, 2010 by Jordan4life

[scenario]

One of the things in Gavin's favor is his curveball.

When it's on, it's unhittable...

A "here it comes, try and get it" pitch.

Very few pitchers in baseball have that kind of unhittable out pitch.

 

The problem is, when it's not on he's a fairly pedestrian fastball-change guy who tends to leave the ball up too often (a #4 type).

 

But when it is on... I think he matches up well with pretty much any #2 starter in the league.

 

 

 

[chw42]

That's fine, there are a lot of pitchers who put up really good peripherals on a yearly basis. It doesn't change the fact that I'd say Gavin Floyd is in the second tier of pitchers in the league, right along with Blackburn and Billingsley.

 

Gavin's ceiling is much higher than Blackburn's. I'd say he's about as good as Billingsley though.

[SouthsideDon48]

Gavin's ceiling is much higher than Blackburn's. I'd say he's about as good as Billingsley though.

Agreed, I also don't think Blackburn ought to be considerred a 2nd-tier pitcher. I think he's more of a 3rd tier guy, because he never really impressed me enough.

[Jerksticks]

On the Floyd/Danks train, Gavin is driving.

[witesoxfan]

Gavin's ceiling is much higher than Blackburn's. I'd say he's about as good as Billingsley though.

 

I would completely agree with that, and would in fact go beyond that statement. I'm just going based on the numbers presented.

 

If his curveball ever becomes a consistently good pitch for him, then he's a top of the rotation starter in almost every rotation in the majors. Solid fastball, good and very underrated changeup, and a great curveball...game snivs.

[Jordan4life_2007]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

 

Good article on the plethora of young elite arms up and down the league.

Edited March 29, 2010 by Jordan4life

[daa84]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

 

Good article on the plethora of young elite arms up and down the league.

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...&id=5067570

and another

[Quin]

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20...sp&c_id=mlb

 

Good article on the plethora of young elite arms up and down the league.

 

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/stor...&id=5067570

and another

 

I like how neither one even mentioned Danks or Floyd. I understand Gavin is 27, but Danks is 24 and could easily be mentioned with the wave of new pitchers.

[Jordan4life_2007]

I like how neither one even mentioned Danks or Floyd. I understand Gavin is 27, but Danks is 24 and could easily be mentioned with the wave of new pitchers.

 

Yeah, I'd definitely have Danks in there. It's a shame how many wins he's been screwed out of in his short career.