Young hurling stars of 2010-11 |

Following our post on the young position stars, here are the pitchers’ top bWAR values over the past 2 years by those who will be 26 or under in 2012.

All seasons of at least 2.5 WAR are listed. As before, the listed age is their seasonal age for 2012.

Player	WAR	ERA+	SO/9	SO/BB	IP	Year	2012 Age	Tm	G	GS	W	L	SV	BB	SO	ERA	GDP	OBP	OPS
Clayton Kershaw	6.9	163	9.57	4.59	233.1	2011	24	LAD	33	33	21	5	0	54	248	2.28	14	.256	.554
Felix Hernandez	6.2	174	8.36	3.31	249.2	2010	26	SEA	34	34	13	12	0	70	232	2.27	25	.273	.585
David Price	5.3	145	8.11	2.38	208.2	2010	26	TBR	32	31	19	6	0	79	188	2.72	18	.296	.637
Gio Gonzalez	5.0	130	8.78	2.16	202.0	2011	26	OAK	32	32	16	12	0	91	197	3.12	18	.318	.654
Felix Hernandez	4.7	111	8.55	3.31	233.2	2011	26	SEA	33	33	14	14	0	67	222	3.47	25	.304	.660
Clayton Kershaw	4.5	132	9.34	2.62	204.1	2010	24	LAD	32	32	13	10	0	81	212	2.91	9	.295	.615
Johnny Cueto	4.3	169	6.00	2.21	156.0	2011	26	CIN	24	24	9	5	0	47	104	2.31	18	.290	.593
Jhoulys Chacin	4.3	124	6.96	1.72	194.0	2011	24	COL	31	31	11	14	0	87	150	3.62	15	.315	.707
Jeremy Hellickson	4.2	126	5.57	1.63	189.0	2011	25	TBR	29	29	13	10	0	72	117	2.95	13	.287	.660
Gio Gonzalez	4.2	128	7.67	1.86	200.2	2010	26	OAK	33	33	15	9	0	92	171	3.23	18	.316	.644
Matt Harrison	4.0	131	6.11	2.21	185.2	2011	26	TEX	31	30	14	9	0	57	126	3.39	30	.312	.685
Trevor Cahill	4.0	139	5.40	1.87	196.2	2010	24	OAK	30	30	18	8	0	63	118	2.97	27	.287	.619
David Price	3.7	107	8.75	3.46	224.1	2011	26	TBR	34	34	12	13	0	63	218	3.49	17	.289	.659
Jair Jurrjens	3.7	128	5.33	2.05	152.0	2011	26	ATL	23	23	13	6	0	44	90	2.96	8	.306	.690
Trevor Cahill	3.5	97	6.37	1.79	207.2	2011	24	OAK	34	34	12	14	0	82	147	4.16	17	.340	.738
Ivan Nova	3.5	119	5.33	1.72	165.1	2011	25	NYY	28	27	16	4	0	57	98	3.70	16	.322	.706
Mat Latos	3.2	126	9.21	3.78	184.2	2010	24	SDP	31	31	14	10	0	50	189	2.92	7	.272	.601
Brian Matusz	3.1	98	7.33	2.27	175.2	2010	25	BAL	32	32	10	12	0	63	143	4.30	9	.322	.718
Craig Kimbrel	3.0	181	14.84	3.97	77.0	2011	24	ATL	79	0	4	3	46	32	127	2.10	4	.266	.499
Jordan Zimmermann	2.9	122	6.92	4.00	161.1	2011	26	WSN	26	26	8	11	0	31	124	3.18	6	.294	.671
Jaime Garcia	2.9	145	7.27	2.06	163.1	2010	25	STL	28	28	13	8	0	64	132	2.70	18	.315	.638
Daniel Hudson	2.9	174	7.93	3.11	95.1	2010	25	TOT	14	14	8	2	0	27	84	2.45	8	.268	.579
Michael Pineda	2.8	103	9.11	3.15	171.0	2011	23	SEA	28	28	9	10	0	55	173	3.74	5	.279	.621
Vance Worley	2.8	129	8.13	2.59	131.2	2011	24	PHI	25	21	11	3	0	46	119	3.01	7	.303	.673
Madison Bumgarner	2.8	111	8.40	4.15	204.2	2011	22	SFG	33	33	13	13	0	46	191	3.21	11	.304	.670
Derek Holland	2.7	113	7.36	2.42	198.0	2011	25	TEX	32	32	16	5	0	67	162	3.95	20	.325	.724
Chris Perez	2.7	226	8.71	2.18	63.0	2010	26	CLE	63	0	2	2	23	28	61	1.71	6	.287	.583
Greg Holland	2.6	228	11.10	3.89	60.0	2011	26	KCR	46	0	5	1	4	19	74	1.80	6	.246	.521
Yovani Gallardo	2.6	111	8.99	3.51	207.1	2011	26	MIL	33	33	17	10	0	59	207	3.52	14	.296	.686
Daniel Hudson	2.6	113	6.85	3.38	222.0	2011	25	ARI	33	33	16	12	0	50	169	3.49	15	.301	.694
Mat Latos	2.5	102	8.57	2.98	194.1	2011	24	SDP	31	31	9	14	0	62	185	3.47	8	.292	.655
Tommy Hanson	2.5	117	7.68	3.09	202.2	2010	24	ATL	34	34	10	11	0	56	173	3.33	12	.301	.648

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/1/2012.

Can Brian Matusz get back on track?
Is King Felix still just 26?
Can Jair Jurrjens shake off 2 years of injuries?
Can Jordan Zimmermann handle a 200-IP workload?
Will switching leagues help Gio Gonzalez reach the next level?
Can Vance Worley do it for a full year?
Will Matt Moore blow them all away?
And … what about Naomi? (If you watched “Electric Company” as a kid, you know.)

P.S. Apologies to anyone who expected to see stats on the great Gaelic sport of hurling.

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Luis Gomez

12 years ago

Good question about King Felix, but he is from Venezuela and the only players I’ve heard so far with age issues are from the Dominican Republic.

Off topic. Does anyone in this forum have any interest in the Caribbean Series?

MikeD

Reply to Luis Gomez

Jesus Montero is from Venezuela, and when the Yankees first signed him it was discovered he lied about his age. (His listed age of 22 is correct.) A couple years back about a half a dozen players from Venezuela were declared ineligible to sign MLB contacts because they had committed age and identity fraud.

It’s become more difficult to commit age fraud, and Venezuela has never been at the top of the list, but it has happened and it is still happening.

abarnold2

It seems like Jurrjens has been around forever. I’d swear I had him on fantasy teams in the ’90s.

Doug

There have been 82 such seasons (25 or younger, bWAR >= 2.5) in the past 4 years.
2008: 23, 2009: 19, 2010: 19, 2011: 21

This is the most in any 4-year period since 1977-80, which also had 82 seasons.
1977: 18, 1978: 21, 1979: 17, 1980: 26

Only other season since 1976 with 20 or more pitchers was 2000 with 20.

Another “canary in the coal mine” indicator of a new, low-offense period.

Author

John Autin

Reply to Doug

Doug, that’s an interesting angle on this topic. But what about expressing those figures in terms of the number of seasons per MLB team? The seasons referenced above: 2008-11, 2.73 seasons per MLB team 1977-80, 3.15 seasons per MLB team The high for the modern, dead-ball era: 1910-13, 3.56 seasons per MLB team The high for the live-ball, pre-expansion era: 1932-35, 2.75 seasons per MLB team The high for the expansion era: 1966-69, 3.43 seasons per MLB team (same for 1968-71) I would also suggest that these numbers are more the product of their offensive context than the cause of… Read more »

Reply to John Autin

I agree that having more young pitchers who pitch effectively is an indicator (i.e. the product, rather than the cause) of a low-offense environment. I would venture to say the cause of the current such period is the reduction in PEDS use, not that we suddenly have much better pitching.

Cory Atchason

good to see cahill and gio on here both with two seasons. too bad they won’t be doing more of that for my a’s.

Jeff Allen

Expect to see MadBum on here at least 3 of the next 4 years. Also, as a giants fan, I am genetically predisposed to hating LA. That said, Kershaw is my favorite non-SF young hurler in the game right now. He’s just superhuman.

Kenya Willi

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Dr. Remulak

Nova and Pineda both make the list. Bright future for the Yankees!