"Decade" Players

Reading about some of the top Brewers' prospects recently, I noticed that their 2008 first-round pick, Canadian catcher Brett Lawrie, was born in 1990. I can't say for sure if he's the first person born in the 1990s to sign with a major league ballclub, but he's definitely the first one that I was aware of.

Having been born in 1980, there are two aspects of this that interest me: one, I'm starting to feel old - I've always thought of people born after, say, 1985 as really young, since that's when my little brother was born. Now that we're seeing ballplayers who were born in 1990, I don't know what to think. And, two, as someone born in a "decade year", I know how weird it can be for some people to start seeing the youngsters from the new decade start infiltrating their world. Now I'm experiencing that with professional ballplayers. Like I said, it can be a weird feeling.

Well, I started thinking about this, and I figured it might be interesting to take a look at these "decade players" of the past and see how soon they got to the majors and who turned out to be superstars . Of course, I realize the arbitrariness of this study. The accident of a player's birthday doesn't mean that much - is Wilson Alvarez really worth studying more than Ken Griffey, Jr., just because he was born in March 1970 instead of November 1969? - but that's okay. It's meant as a fun little exercise, and not as the justification for someone's Hall-of-Fame case. I truly believe that there's a point in every baseball fan's life when they notice that the rookie players are now from some decade that they always considered themselves to be much older than, and why isn't that worth looking at, if even for a few minutes?

As usual for an exercise like this, I decided to use Win Shares (for the simplicity). I've looked at every player born in one of the "decade years" since 1900, inclusive. I also calculated their age in days on the day they debuted. It's not perfect, since a player's "debut" may be months or even years before they start getting regular playing time, but it gets closest to what we're looking for (the point in time that a baseball fan started feeling "old" because some kid was now in the bigs).

Below are the best or most notable players born in each "decade year" since 1900, including their age in their major league debut. I've also included the youngest player to make his debut from each year.

1900
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
John Cavanaugh+......0........19 yrs, 1 mo, 2 days
Lefty Grove*........391.......24 yrs, 1 mo, 8 days
Goose Goslin*.......355.......20 yrs, 11 mo, 0 days
Gabby Hartnett*.....325.......21 yrs, 3 mo, 23 days
Ted Lyons*..........312.......22 yrs, 6 mo, 4 days
Hack Wilson*........224.......22 yrs, 5 mo, 3 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1910
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Joe Cicero+..........1........18 yrs, 10 mo, 2 days
Dixie Walker........278.......20 yrs, 7 mo, 4 days
Dizzy Dean*.........181.......20 yrs, 8 mo, 12 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1920
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Walt Masterson+......83.......
Stan Musial*........604.......20 yrs, 10 mo, 26 days
Early Wynn*.........309.......19 yrs, 8 mo, 7 days
Bob Lemon*..........232.......20 yrs, 11 mo, 17 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1930
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Johnny Antonelli+...146........18 yrs, 2 mo, 22 days
Dick Groat..........225........21 yrs, 7 mo, 15 days
Harvey Kuenn........223........21 yrs, 9 mo, 2 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1940
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Rod Miller+..........0.........17 yrs, 8 mo, 12 days
Willie Stargell*....370........22 yrs, 6 mo, 10 days
Ron Santo...........324........20 yrs, 4 mo, 1 day
Joe Torre...........315........20 yrs, 2 mo, 7 days
Luis Tiant..........256........23 yrs, 7 mo, 26 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1950
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Mike McQueen+........7.........19 yrs, 1 mo, 2 days
Brian Downing.......298........22 yrs, 7 mo, 22 days
Ken Griffey.........259........23 yrs, 4 mo, 15 days
Frank White.........211........22 yrs, 9 mo, 8 days
Doug DeCinces.......205........23 yrs, 0 mo, 10 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1960
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Tim Conroy+..........8.........18 yrs, 2 mo, 20 days
Cal Ripken, Jr*.....427........20 yrs, 11 mo, 16 days
Tony Gwynn*.........398........22 yrs, 2 mo, 10 days
Chili Davis.........285........21 yrs, 2 mo, 24 days
Kirby Puckett*......281........24 yrs, 1 mo, 25 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1970
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
Wilson Alvarez+.....105........19 yrs, 4 mo, 0 days
Jim Thome...........350........20 yrs, 0 mo, 7 days
Jim Edmonds.........301........23 yrs, 2 mo, 12 days
Javy Lopez..........195........21 yrs, 10 mo, 13 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

1980
Player............Career WS.......Age @ Debut.....
CC Sabathia+........126........20 yrs, 8 mo, 18 days
Albert Pujols.......286........21 yrs, 2 mo, 17 days
Mark Teixeira.......146........22 yrs, 11 mo, 20 days
Matt Holliday.......104........24 yrs, 3 mo, 1 days
* denotes HOF, + denotes youngest

Did we learn anything from this? Probably not. There do seem to be more, higher quality players being born in the more recent "decade years". Whether this is a legitimate product of the way kids are raised these days, or if it's just an accident of the calendar (or just because I recognize recent players' names better), I can't really say. It wasn't a terrible thing to be born in 1960, though. And I'm sure CC's and Pujols' and Teixeira's accountants are all quite grateful they were born in 1980 since it's such a more lucrative birthyear. But whether we're seeing anything substantial here, I can't really say. Is the tendency for the better players to begin at an older age a cause of their greater careers, or is it just coincidence?

It was a fun little exercise, though. It's nice to know that some guy who was born in 1950 once thought to himself "Man, this Cal Ripken kid was born in 1960... I must be getting old!" I wonder if, in 20 years time, someone will be looking back at Brett Lawrie in the same way.